‘It takes years off my life:’ J. Field records double-double, but late turnovers doom Lady Zs in loss to Plymouth

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Jadyn Field

The Rochester girls basketball team built a nine-point halftime lead against visiting Plymouth at the RHS gym Wednesday.

Plymouth came back to tie it.

Rochester built another six-point lead, but the relentless Lady Pilgrims came back again behind seven combined 3-pointers from Olivia Warner and Chloe Horton to beat the Lady Zs 40-36.

Warner hit four 3-pointers – one in each quarter – and scored a game-high 13 points. Horton added 12, all in the second half.

Plymouth made just 4 of 11 free throws in the fourth quarter, but Lydia Wray sunk the clinching free throw with 3.7 seconds left to make it a two-possession game.

Jadyn Field had a double-double for Rochester – 11 points, 11 rebounds. She scored five of Rochester’s seven points in the fourth quarter.

Rochester had two field goals as compared to eight turnovers in the fourth quarter against Plymouth’s packline man-to-man defense.

Plymouth improved to 8-7 and beat Rochester for the third straight year. Rochester dropped to 7-8.

Rochester coach Joel Burrus said afterwards that Warner was not prominently mentioned in the scouting report for her shooting ability.

“We got flat-footed,” Burrus said of the second-half defense. “We tried to pack our zone in more because we didn’t want that to happen. If you’re more packed in and we were heels to the 3-point line, they shouldn’t get paint touches. I don’t know. I’m going to have to look at the tape. We knew it was going to be a tough game, a tight game. We wanted to come out on top. … I hate to lose, and these young kids, they’re going to find a way to adopt that real quick. Because games like this, it takes years off my life.”

Rochester led 29-23 after two Aubrey Wilson free throws with 47.9 seconds left in the third quarter. They did not score again for another 5:49 as Plymouth went on a 12-0 run that carried into the first five minutes of the fourth quarter.

Hayden Shipley split a pair of free throws, and then Lydia Wray hit a pair from the line.

The fourth quarter started with Rochester’s Ali Field being called for a moving screen foul. A Brooklyn Scruggs offensive rebound and kickout pass to Warner for a 3 from the left wing tied it.

Brailyn Hunter dribbled to the middle of the floor against Plymouth’s press, but Wray stripped her and made a lunging pass up ahead to Scruggs for a layup as Wilson fouled her with 7:21 left.

Scruggs missed the ensuing free throw, but Plymouth was ahead for good at 31-29, and a Horton 3-pointer and a Horton free throw with 3:17 left pushed the lead to six.

Two Jadyn Field baskets – one off a Hope Baugh offensive rebound and assist and the other power layup off another Baugh setup – got Rochester back within 35-33.

Burrus called timeout to set up a press. Jadyn Field stole a pass at midcourt, but as Jadyn Field was trying to set up for inside position, Lyla Bowers was called for traveling before she could make a post entry pass.

And then on their next possession, Plymouth broke the press with Wray finding Scruggs for a layup to get the lead back to four.

Baugh then traveled with 1:22 left, but Baugh atoned when she blocked Ella Davis’ shot and grabbed a putback rebound and was fouled with 51.7 seconds left.

Jadyn Field split a pair of free throws with 40.0 seconds left. Wray split a pair with 36.0 seconds left to make it 38-34.

Wilson shot an air ball 3-point attempt from the volleyball line that sailed out of bounds with 26 seconds left. Plymouth melted 11 seconds off the clock before Warner split a pair from the line.

Another nine seconds went off the clock before Hunter made two free throws with 6.1 seconds left.

Wray then made her clinching free throw.

“So I just encouraged them in terms of numbers, you guys can win this game if you just stick with it,” Plymouth coach Micaela Schalliol said. “I think we got better shots, better looks at the rim. In the second half, we were more patient, and we got to the free throw line. … It could have been easy to shut down only scoring three points in the first quarter, but our girls stuck with it.”

Warner hit a 3-pointer on the game’s opening possession, but Rochester responded with a 12-0 run that bled into the second quarter. Adalyn Gonzalez had a steal and a layup and a 3-pointer during the run, and fellow freshman Ali Field also had two buckets during the run; neither Gonzalez nor Ali Field had another field goal over the final three quarters.

Plymouth would get back within 14-10 in the second quarter when Wray hit a baby hook putting back her own miss.

But Wilson found Jadyn Field for a layup, and Wilson hit a 3 to get the lead to nine at halftime.

It took Plymouth just over four minutes of the second half to equal their first-half point total, and Horton tied it at 20 with a 3 with 3:53 left in the third.

Hunter responded with a pullup jumper, and a Gonzalez free throw and a Jadyn Field post layup off a Hunter assist got the lead back to five.

Warner hit a 3, but Jadyn Field put back her own miss, and when Wilson added her two free throws, the lead was six again.

“Our attention to detail in the third quarter, it looks like I should have just kept them out here, and we should have just got shots up,” Burrus said. “I don’t know. … And we started chucking it around. … We had three travels with nobody even around us. You know, I know we’ve got young kids out there, but at this point in the season, if you’re in there in crunch time, you’re in there. We’ve got to have it, and I’ve got to coach that. At this point in the season, I’m not going to put up with that. We have to have it. I don’t know what you want  me to do for you. Attack, hold your pivot foot, get the ball passed, or hit a shot, or at least get a shot. I’m over these wasted possessions where we travel with nobody around us.”

Plymouth also won the JV game 27-20. Kyleigh Little led Rochester with eight points, and Kyla Conley added four.

Plymouth 40, Rochester 36

PLYMOUTH (40) (8-7)

Hayden Shipley 0 1-2 1, Lydia Wray 1 4-6 6, Brooklyn Scruggs 3 2-3 8, Chloe Horton 4 1-4 12, Olivia Warner 4 1-2 13, Paige Frank 0 0-0 0, Peyton Ellinger 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 12 9-17 40

ROCHESTER (36) (7-8)

Aubrey Wilson 2 4-4 9, Brailyn Hunter 1 2-2 4, Adalyn Gonzalez 2 1-2 6, Jadyn Field 5 1-4 11, Ali Field 2 2-4 6, Lyla Bowers 0 0-0 0, Hope Baugh 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 12 10-16 36

Three-point field goals:

Plymouth 7 (Warner 4, Horton 3),

Rochester 2 (Wilson, Gonzalez)

Total fouls: Plymouth 15, Rochester 19

Fouled out: Gonzalez (RHS), :36.0, fourth

Turnovers: Plymouth 16, Rochester 19

Score by quarters

Plymouth 3 7 16 14 – 40

Rochester 11 8 10 7 – 36

JV: Plymouth 27, Rochester 20