McCune scores 15, Berndt adds 13 as Culver tops turnover-prone Rochester

Field sisters combine for 25 in loss

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Ava McCune Ali Field

CULVER — Playing Rochester is a meaningful game for Culver sophomore shooting guard Ashlynn Berndt.

Her mother Andrea was a star player at Rochester who graduated in 2000 and later played collegiately at St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer. Her parents got married in Rochester.

And Culver struggled in a 45-27 loss at Rochester last year on a court where her mom had so much success.

The rematch at Culver’s John R. Nelson Gymnasium Wednesday was different.

Berndt hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 5:50 left, and Ava McCune hit four free throws without a miss in the final 2:30 to help Culver win 42-36.

McCune scored a game-high 15 points, and Berndt scored 11 of her 13 in the second half.

Brooke Davis added six points, all in the second quarter, as the Lady Cavaliers picked apart a Rochester halfcourt trap.

Brianna Schlemmer scored four points, all in the fourth quarter, and Eliana Andrzejewski also scored four.

Jadyn Field led Rochester with 13 points, and she added six rebounds before fouling out with 2:31 left. Ali Field had 12 points and nine rebounds. The Field sisters combined to score 13 of Rochester’s 15 second-half points.

Aubrey Wilson scored six points, all on free throws in the first half.

But Rochester committed 29 turnovers against Culver’s zone press that swarmed ballhandlers as soon as the ball was inbounded.

Rochester has committed 27 or more turnovers in three straight games. Coach Joel Burrus called the turnover issues “the most frustrating thing as a coach.”

“You hand the other team the ball, and you’re not going to win,” Burrus said. “It’s getting to the point where it’s what’s your accountability in what you’re doing with the ball. It’s kind of the baseball-softball analogy: You’ve got the ball in your hands. Why are you making these passes? Why can’t you take care of the ball?”

Culver won their third straight game and improved to 7-2. This marked the second time the Class 1A Lady Cavaliers beat a team in a higher class; they also won at Class 2A Winamac Nov. 18.

Rochester fell to 3-4.

Culver beat Rochester for the first time since a 65-55 win on Nov. 30, 2010. That Culver team went on to win the only regional title in school history. Culver has not won so much as a sectional since.

Jadyn Field’s 3-point play with 5:50 left off a Wilson post entry pass tied it at 32.

Berndt drained a 3 behind a Davis screen at the right wing to put Culver back ahead, but then neither team scored for three-and-a-half minutes.

McCune hit two free throws to break the drought.

“I thought that was the icing on the cake there,” Culver coach A.J. Neace said of 3-pointers from Schlemmer and Berndt in the fourth quarter. “I think we … spread it out to five, and if you ask coach Burrus over there, a five-point game against a 2-3 zone defense is tough to come back from.”

A Wilson backcourt steal led to a Lyla Bowers layup that cut the lead to 37-34 with 1:41 left.

Davis missed a layup, and Berndt fouled Ali Field going for the rebound. But Andrzejewski stole the inbounds pass and tipped it to Berndt, and McCune would hit two more free throws.

Adalyn Gonzalez found Ali Field for a short banker. Andrzejewski fouled Ali Field, but Ali Field’s free throw was disallowed on a lane violation.

Schlemmer split a pair of free throws with 35.4 seconds left. Andrzejewski would seal the game with a steal and layup at the buzzer.

“It means a lot,” Berndt said. “We fought through this game. We were expected not to really win, and my parents are also from Rochester.”

Rochester jumped out to a 6-0 lead on an Ali Field transition layup, an Ali Field post layup and two Wilson free throws.

Culver followed with an 11-2 run that included seven points from McCune. She went coast to coast with a rebound for two, and she also scored on a driving transition layup.

Baskets from Ali Field and Jadyn Field would help Rochester regain a 12-11 advantage after one quarter.

Neither team led by more than three points over the next two-and-a-half quarters. Rochester led 21-19 on an Adalyn Gonzalez 3 with 1:42 left in the half and took that lead to the break.

Berndt outscored the entire Rochester team 8-6 in the third quarter, but Jadyn Field had two putback baskets, and Ali Field rebounded a Brailyn Hunter shot that Davis deflected and laid it in to tie the game at 27.

McCune stole Adalyn Gonzalez’s inbounds pass with 4.5 seconds left in the backcourt and laid it in just before the buzzer to give Culver a 29-27 lead.

But Gonzalez found Jadyn Field for the first bucket of the fourth quarter to tie the game again.

“We would have liked to have gotten them the ball more,” Burrus said of the Field sisters. “But when you’re turning the ball over in the full court every other possession, you can’t get the ball inside.”

Neace said he was “worried” about how effective the defense might be. Culver was coming off a 50-18 win over Argos in its previous game but had not played in eight days.

“I gave them three or four days off during Thanksgiving to reset their minds and stuff, and I’m like, OK, how is this going to pan out giving them a break?” Neace said. “And it seemed like our defense was nasty as it always is.”

Culver’s defensive scoring average ranked No. 11 in the state last year at 31.9 under previous coach Adam Neace. It is 33.0 this year under A.J. Neace, Adam’s younger brother.

“We do seven-on-five drills in practice all the time, sometimes eight-on-five,” Berndt said of her team’s defensive drills.

In a JV game that lasted two quarters, Rochester handled Culver 31-7.

Culver 42, Rochester 36

ROCHESTER (36) (3-4)

Aubrey Wilson 0 6-6 6, Brailyn Hunter 0 0-0 0, Adalyn Gonzalez 1 0-0 3, Jadyn Field 6 1-1 13, Ali Field 6 0-1 12, Lyla Bowers 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 14 7-8 36

CULVER (42) (7-2)

Ava McCune 4 7-10 15, Ashlynn Berndt 4 2-2 13, Eliana Andrzejewski 2 0-0 4, Brianna Schlemmer 1 1-2 4, Brooke Davis 2 2-2 6, Haylie Parker 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 13 12-16 42

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 1 (Gonzalez),

Culver 4 (Berndt 3, Schlemmer)

Total fouls: Rochester 13, Culver 9

Fouled out: J. Field (RHS), 2:31, fourth

Turnovers: Rochester 29, Culver 25

Score by quarters

Rochester 12 9 6 9 – 36

Culver 11 8 10 13 – 42

JV: Rochester 31, Culver 7