Lady Zs give up 15 offensive boards in loss to North Judson

Howdeshell leads with 13, Holloway adds 11

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

NORTH JUDSON — Emma Howdeshell scored 13 points, and Rily Holloway added 11, but the Rochester girls basketball team lost to host North Judson 34-32 in their season opener Thursday.

Sophia Frasure scored a game-high 18 points and added eight rebounds for the Lady Jays (1-0).

Raegan Hensley scored the go-ahead basket on a steal at the top of the key and spin move to the hoop with 2:08 left. It was her only field goal of the game.

Rochester committed only one turnover in the second half and made all seven of their free throws. But they also did not score in the final 4:40 after Howdeshell’s driving layup gave them a 32-30 lead.

Rochester first-year coach Joel Burrus used a full timeout with 16.1 seconds left, and after nothing materialized, both 30-second timeouts with 4.2 seconds left before Holloway missed a contested a 15-footer from the foul line as time expired.

Burrus cited rebounding as the difference. He said before the season he wanted to limit the opponent to no more than five offensive rebounds in a game.

“We shouldn’t have been in that situation anyways,” Burrus said when asked about the strategy for the last possession. “We gave up 15 offensive rebounds, and we held that team to 34 points and gave up 15 offensive rebounds. We just walked in there and just told them that’s the ballgame. That’s it. … If you hold a team to 34 on the road and get beat, there’s got to be one glaring stat in there.”

Rochester trailed by as many as eight points in the third quarter, but they went on a 12-2 run covering the third and fourth quarters.

Ella McCarter hit a 3-pointer to kick off the run. Frasure scored on a driving banker, but Holloway drained three free throws after being fouled behind the arc with 42.5 seconds left in the third quarter.

That cut the deficit to 26-22.

A Howdeshell 3-pointer after Holloway drove the right baseline, broke down the defense and kicked it out to Howdeshell on the left wing and a Holloway trey from the right wing gave the Lady Zs their first lead at 28-26 with 6:46 left.

But Morgan Hensley and Frasure had putback buckets sandwiched around two Holloway free throws to keep the Lady Jays in it before Howdeshell’s bucket put Rochester ahead again.

Rochester played six players. Only senior Maddie Heinzmann was used off the bench. Sophomores McCarter and Rylee Clevenger each made their first career varsity starts. Senior guard Kallie Watson missed the game with an ankle injury.

Rochester played a unique 2-3 zone defense that Burrus utilized in previous coaching stops at Lakeland Christian (boys), Caston (girls) and Trinity Greenlawn (boys). Trinity Greenlawn’s boys led the state in fewest points allowed the last four years.

Olivia Burkett, who was North Judson’s second leading returning scorer from last year, was held scoreless.

“You saw them fight through some adversity tonight and stay locked in, but we got to get better on the boards,” Burrus said. “We got to get it figured out.”

North Judson 34, Rochester 32

ROCHESTER (32) (0-1)

Rily Holloway 2 5-5 11, Rylee Clevenger 1 0-0 3, Emma Howdeshell 4 3-4 13, Ella McCarter 1 0-1 3, Sydney Haughs 0 0-0 0, Maddie Heinzmann 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 9 8-10 32

NORTH JUDSON (34) (1-0)

Kyleigh Lehiy 3 0-0 6, Olivia Burkett 0 0-0 0, Raegan Hensley 1 2-2 4, Sophia Frasure 6 5-8 18, Morgan Hensley 3 0-0 6, Anna Garbison 0 0-0 0, Kaia Burkett 0 0-0 0, Molly Madsen 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 13 7-10 34

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 6 (Howdeshell 2, Holloway 2, Clevenger, McCarter),

North Judson 1 (Frasure)

Total fouls: Rochester 13, North Judson 14

Turnovers: Rochester 8, North Judson 12

Score by quarters

Rochester 6 6 10 10 – 32

North Judson 12 2 12 8 – 34