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Lady Zs hit 13 treys in winning 3rd straight without Thomas
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rily Holloway hit six 3-pointers and scored a career-high 24 points, and Kallie Watson and Millie Scorsone added 10 each to lead the Rochester girls basketball team to a 62-36 win over visiting Winamac at the RHS gym on Nov. 27.
Lilith Eaton added eight points, including a 3-pointer that beat the halftime buzzer.
Rochester made 13 3-pointers, which came nine days after a loss to Peru in which they went 0 for 19 from beyond the arc.
In addition to Holloway, Watson, Eaton and Kami Burkett hit two 3-pointers each, and Sydney Haughs hit one.
Kaya Campbell scored 12 points, and Kingsley Kroft added 10 for Winamac (3-5).
Playing without all-Three Rivers Conference forward Lexy Thomas for the third straight game, Rochester improved to 5-3. They are 3-0 without Thomas, who is dealing with an injury to her midsection.
Rochester averaged 39.8 points per game in five games with a healthy Thomas. They are averaging 51.3 points per game without Thomas.
“I’m just guessing at this, but these girls work extremely hard in the weight room, and I’m wondering if just enough of that, and I appreciate them working that weight room, but I’m wondering if just enough of it is throwing the shot off a little bit because they’ve been out of school here for about a week, and I think it bounced back pretty quick,” Jennings said. “So hopefully, what we can do is just kind of maintain and keep that shooting touch. I think the confidence is there now, so we mix in that lifting with constant shooting, and I think we’re going to be good to go from here on out.”
Rochester scored the first seven points of the game and never trailed. They built the lead to 16-5 after one quarter and got the lead up to 22-10 in the second quarter.
That’s when Winamac made their rally. Junior reserve Hailey Attinger started the second quarter and had five points and six rebounds in the quarter alone.
Winamac would go on a 10-3 run and get within 25-20 on a driving layup by Campbell with 19 seconds left in the half.
Rochester would work the ball to the corner, where Haughs would find Eaton just to the right of the top of the key. Her shot swished through the net as time expired.
“I think that’s just going out in my driveway and just practicing those what-if shots,” Eaton said. “And my shots weren’t falling at all for the past couple games. I was really bad. So I watched videos on shooters and I shot about 200 shots a day in my driveway, and I just think it paid off, the repetition.”
Eaton said she watched videos of shooters like Steph Curry and good shooters in college games. She said that when teammates keep giving chances that it improved her own confidence.
She also said she was thrilled for Holloway, who had her best game since moving in from Tippecanoe Valley.
“We knew Rily was going to be our shooter, and Rily and I get along well, and I know it can be rough probably transferring between teams,” Eaton said. “I mean, there’s definitely growing pains, so I’m really glad that she got out there and showed everyone that she’s Rily Holloway. I’m so happy for her and everyone else that scored.”
Rochester then scored the first 10 points of the second half to increase the lead to 38-20. Holloway and Haughs each hit 3-pointers, and Watson scored on a steal and transition drive to the basket. Watson then fed Scorsone in the post to complete the run.
Winamac never got closer than 12 after that. Watson has assumed more of the point guard role after Emma Howdesgell suffered a season-ending knee injury against Caston on Nov. 6.
Jennings has nicknamed Watson “The Gnat” for her pesky defense on opposing point guards.
“It’s just the same day in and day out,” Jennings said. “I don’t think to date we’ve played our best defense tonight. We’ve changed a few things on our 2-3 zone because I felt like we had to get out on their shooters more, and they kind of slipped in behind and really took more advantage of us inside than we thought.”
Rochester also won the JV game 40-23. Ella McCarter hit three 3-pointers and scored 15 points for the Lady Zs. Rylee Clevenger added eight, Audrey Bolinger and Darah Strasser had six each, Savanah Eccles and Elizabeth Weaver had two each, and Mia Howdeshell had one.
Chloe Rausch scored eight points for the Winamac JV. Lily Bennett had seven, Mershai Loehmer had six, and Mara Holehan and Kaelyn O’Conner had one each.
Rochester 62, Winamac 36
WINAMAC (36) (3-5)
Maggie Smith 1 0-0 2, Kingsley Kroft 3 1-2 10, Kaya Campbell 5 0-0 12, Piper Link 2 0-0 4, Ella Gearhart 0 3-6 3, Hailey Attinger 2 1-2 5
TEAM: 13 5-10 36
ROCHESTER (62) (5-3)
Rily Holloway 7 4-6 24, Kallie Watson 4 0-0 10, Sydney Haughs 1 0-0 3, Kennedy Jackson 0 1-2 1, Millie Scorsone 4 2-4 10, Darah Strasser 0 0-0 0, Ella McCarter 0 0-0 0, Rylee Clevenger 0 0-0 0, Audrey Bolinger 0 0-0 0, Kami Burkett 2 0-0 6, Lilith Eaton 3 0-0 8
TEAM: 21 7-12 62
Three-point field goals:
Winamac 5 (Kroft 3, Campbell 2),
Rochester 13 (Holloway 6, Watson 2, Eaton 2, Burkett 2, Haughs)
Total fouls: Winamac 10, Rochester 12
Turnovers: Winamac 21, Rochester 17
Score by quarters
Winamac 5 15 10 6 – 36
Rochester 16 12 18 16 – 62
JV: Rochester 40, Winamac 23
