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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
BREMEN — Katie Moyer scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Bremen girls basketball team to a 34-21 win over Rochester in a Class 3A, Sectional 18 quarterfinal at Bremen Tuesday.
Kila Foster added eight points, and Mikayla Shively had six for the Lady Lions, who improved to 8-14.
Rily Holloway scored eight points for Rochester, who finished 11-13. Holloway was the only Rochester player who had more than one field goal.
Bremen will play Tippecanoe Valley, who received a bye, in a semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Holloway and Rylee Clevenger sandwiched 3-pointers on consecutive possessions around a Bremen turnover to cut what had been an 11-point deficit down to 24-19.
Rochester set up a press and forced a turnover, but Emma Howdeshell was stripped in the post, and Shively took a 3-pointer from one step inside the volleyball line that died on the flange of the rim and fell in.
That got the lead back to eight, and Bremen finished on a 10-2 run.
“It didn’t go the way we wanted to,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “I don’t know how many 3s that we missed. We got a couple there. We cut it to 24-19. … That was one of those deals where (it was) just a back breaker. What are you going to do in that situation?
“We relied on our defense all year. We gave up 34 points tonight. Our goal was to hold them under 30 and hope that would be enough.”
Bremen scored the first five points and never trailed.
Playing a man-to-man, Bremen put the 5-11 Moyer on 5-5 Sydney Haughs, the 5-7 Eliana Grubbs on 5-4 Emma Howdeshell, the 5-9 Mikayla Shively on the 5-5 Holloway and the 5-9 Chloe Miller on the 5-2 Clevenger to limit open looks.
Howdeshell’s foul trouble complicated matters further. She picked up her second and third fouls in a 22-second span in the second quarter and her fourth with 5:10 left in the third quarter. She eventually fouled out with 3:25 left.
Over a 17-minute span between the first minute of the second quarter and the six-minute mark in the game, Rochester had just two field goals – a nifty scoop banker off the dribble by Sydney Haughs that led to a 3-point play and a Holloway trey off a Kallie Watson assist.
There was also the Moyer problem. Held to two points in the first half, she scored Bremen’s first six points of the second half on a putback and two post layups that got the lead to 20-10, and she added six more in the fourth quarter, including a pair of free throws with 3:25 left after Howdeshell fouled out and a layup after a Bremen timeout with 2:23 left.
“We knew she was a really good player,” Burrus said. “She averages 10 rebounds a game, so, I mean, we just didn’t block her out very well. And we knew that if we didn’t block her out, it was probably going to be a long night. … She’s very active. She’s not overly skilled, but she works extremely hard.”
The loss ends Burrus’ first season as coach. With Holloway, Watson, Howdeshell, Haughs, Maddie Heinzmann and Elizabeth Weaver all graduating, Burrus sees an important offseason ahead. The Lady Zs likely will have no seniors in 2023-24.
He said he is “excited” about the current group of eighth-graders.
“Now it’s going to be to the grind of getting these younger kids better,” Burrus said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do this summer. Year one, I wanted it to go a little bit better, but we won 11 games, we went 5-3 in the conference.
“We’ve got a good foundation going here. We’re getting the young kids. We’ve got a K-through-2 program that we’ve just gotten started. Along with the boys, that’s going to be a good thing for us. That’s something we haven’t had in Rochester for awhile. We’ve got to build it. We have to build it and get these younger kids excited about it. That’s going to take some time.”
Bremen 34, Rochester 21
BREMEN (34) (8-14)
Kila Foster 2 2-2 8, Eliana Grubbs 1 0-2 2, Mikayla Shively 2 1-3 6, Chloe Miller 1 0-0 2, Katie Moyer 6 2-2 14, Emma Lawmaster 0 0-0 0, Emma Kincaid 1 0-0 2, Naomi Moyer 0 0-0 0, Paige Kertai 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 13 5-9 34
ROCHESTER (21) (11-13)
Rily Holloway 3 0-0 8, Rylee Clevenger 1 0-0 3, Kallie Watson 0 2-3 2, Emma Howdeshell 1 1-4 3, Sydney Haughs 1 1-3 3, Maddie Heinzmann 0 0-0 0, Mia Howdeshell 0 0-0 0, Darah Strasser 1 0-0 2, Ella McCarter 0 0-0 0, Elizabeth Weaver 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 7 4-10 21
Three-point field goals:
Bremen 3 (Foster, Shively),
Rochester 3 (Holloway 2, Clevenger)
Total fouls: Bremen 14, Rochester 17
Fouled out: E. Howdeshell (RHS), 3:25, fourth
Turnovers: Rochester 21, Bremen 21
Score by quarters
Bremen 7 7 8 12 – 34
Rochester 2 5 6 8 – 21
Rochester senior guard-forward Emma Howdeshell drives past a Bremen defender during the Lady Zs’ 34-21 loss in a Class 3A, Sectional 18 quarterfinal Tuesday. Howdeshell scored three points in her final prep game. Bremen will play Tippecanoe Valley at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.
John Glenn 35, Culver Academy 27
Kennedy Hayden scored a game-high 12 points to lead John Glenn past Culver Academy in Tuesday’s first quarterfinal.
Addison Reese added six points, all on free throws. Lucy Hayden had five points, all in the fourth quarter, including the go-ahead bucket that broke a 20-20 tie.
John Glenn went 11 for 14 from the foul line in the fourth quarter.
Dionna Craig scored eight points, all in the second half, to lead Culver Academy.
John Glenn improved to 9-14 and earned a semifinal matchup with Knox at 6 p.m. Friday. Culver Academy finished 13-11.
JOHN GLENN (35) (9-14)
Alivia Turnage 0 0-0 0, Kennedy Hayden 4 4-6 12, Sophia Romer 1 2-4 4, Addison Reese 0 6-6 6, Keelyn Bradley 1 2-2 4, Danielle Divine 1 0-0 3, Daelynn Nance 0 1-2 1, Lucy Hayden 2 1-2 5
TEAM: 9 16-22 35
CULVER ACADEMY (27) (13-11)
Dionna Craig 2 4-7 8, Reid Seddelmeyer 1 0-0 3, Valencia Miller 2 1-1 5, Piper Brumm 1 0-0 3, Lena Spiller 2 2-2 6, Brighton Bird 1 0-0 2, Jenavieve Kerr 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 9 7-10 27
Three-point field goals:
John Glenn 1 (Divine),
Culver Academy 2 (Brumm, Seddelmeyer)
Total fouls: John Glenn 9, Culver Academy 17
Fouled out: Miller (CGA), :24.3, fourth
Turnovers: John Glenn 10, Culver Academy 20
Score by quarters
John Glenn 6 8 6 15 – 35
Culver Academy 2 11 7 7 – 27
