Lady Zs hit 9 treys, win in biggest rout of Burrus era

Wilson leads with 19, Hunter adds 10

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Aubrey Wilson Brailyn Hunter

KOKOMO — The Taylor girls basketball team scored the first basket against visiting Rochester Wednesday.

Don’t call what happened next a comeback.

The Lady Zs bombed away after that 2-0 deficit, hitting nine 3-pointers as part of a 43-1 run as they routed the Lady Titans 54-16 on their senior night.

Aubrey Wilson hit five 3s and scored a game-high 19 points, and Brailyn Hunter added 10. Jadyn Field and Adalyn Gonzalez each hit a 3-pointer and scored nine.

Destiny Skinner had seven points and 13 rebounds. Dakota Spray added six. They were the two Taylor seniors honored in pregame ceremonies.

Rochester improved to 9-10. Taylor fell to 3-19.

This marked the fourth time this season that Rochester has held an opponent under 20 points. They forced 27 turnovers while allowing only six field goals.

The 38-point margin of victory was the largest in the Joel Burrus era as coach and the largest for Rochester since an 81-26 win over Whitko in January 2021.

“I think it’s hard sometimes to play in those games,” Burrus said. “Not that you’re playing down or anything like that, but when you’re playing a team that struggles, sometimes it’s a little different.”

The entire second half was played with a running clock, per the IHSAA Mercy Rule, and JV players Kyleigh Little, Kyla Conley, Bailey Smith, Alexandria Cortes-Gustafson and Jayla Miller all got varsity minutes in the fourth quarter.

Skinner got the first basket on a layin on a press breaker, and Taylor held Rochester scoreless for the first three minutes.

Rochester’s first seven points came after offensive rebounds.

Wilson hit a 3 from the left of the key after an offensive rebound, and Rochester was ahead for good. A Jadyn Field putback and an Ali Field putback made it 7-2. Akayla Flynn missed two free throws for Taylor, and Hunter hit a pullup jumper.

Wilson hit a 3 from the right wing. Jadyn Field hit a 3 from the left corner. Hunter hit a pullup. Then Wilson buried a 3 just before the buzzer to make it 20-2.

A Hope Baugh trey started the second quarter.

Skinner split a pair of free throws, but Wilson started to sizzle again, hitting a 3 from the left corner and one from the top of the key to make it 29-3.

Wilson’s hot shooting came despite being hobbled after taking an inadvertent knee to the thigh from teammate Gonzalez in the first quarter.

Rochester’s final three regular season opponents – Manchester, Western and Northfield – all have winning records, and sectionals begin Feb. 3.

“I’m going to have to get that figured out real fast,” Wilson said.

She said trying to get the post players involved was more a part of the game plan.

“I definitely don’t think it was,” Wilson said when asked if taking a lot of 3-pointers was part of the pregame plan. “After the last game with Lewis Cass (a 34-30 loss Saturday), we are trying to get the ball into the post now, especially with a team like this. It’s more just preparing to get better for the game on Saturday against Manchester obviously. So I don’t think that was the plan, but if it’s there, we’re going to take it.”

Two layups from Gonzalez – one in transition and one on a backdoor cut against Taylor’s man defense – made it 33-3.

A Hunter pullup jumper and a Hunter 3-pointer, a Jadyn Field layin and a Gonzalez trey from the right corner completed the scoring for the half.

Rochester scored more points in the first half (43) than they average for a game (40), and they did it while Taylor switched between man-to-man and 2-3 zone defenses.

“We watched their Madison-Grant game (a 48-33 loss on Jan. 12),” Burrus said. “That was a game that they played a formidable opponent and did a solid job. So we wanted to watch that. In that game, they played their packline switching man pretty much the whole game. Of course tonight, they come out and want to sit in a 2-3 there for awhile. I thought we did a good job against that. The man, I thought, you’ve got to make some of those layups to start, and that opens everything up. It doesn’t matter who you play. If you finish around the rim, it opens up everything else because that’s the toughest place to get to against any defense – getting to the basket. If we’re getting to the basket and we finish those, that’s going to open up everything else for us.”

Rochester 54, Taylor 16

ROCHESTER (54) (9-10)

Aubrey Wilson 6 2-2 19, Brailyn Hunter 4 1-2 10, Adalyn Gonzalez 3 2-4 9, Jadyn Field 4 0-0 9, Ali Field 2 0-4 4, Lyla Bowers 0 0-0 0, Hope Baugh 1 0-0 3, Kyleigh Little 0 0-0 0, Kyla Conley 0 0-0 0, Bailey Smith 0 0-0 0, Alexandria Cortes-Gustafson 0 0-0 0, Jayla Miller 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 20 5-12 54

TAYLOR (16) (3-19)

McKenzie Hazel 0 0-0 0, Kiera Phelps 0 0-0 0, Akayla Flynn 1 0-2 2, Dakota Spray 2 0-0 6, Destiny Skinner 3 1-2 7, Jozlynn Torres 0 0-0 0, Chloe Mills 0 1-2 1, Rowan Rudd 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 6 2-6 16

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 9 (Wilson 5, Baugh, Gonzalez, J. Field, Hunter),

Taylor 2 (Spray 2)

Total fouls: Rochester 6, Taylor 10

Turnovers: Rochester 11, Taylor 27

Score by quarters

Rochester 20 23 9 2 – 54

Taylor 2 1 5 8 – 16