Rochester commits 29 turnovers in loss to No. 2 Whitko

Gonzalez leads with 8, J. Field, Hunter add 7 each

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Brailyn Hunter

SOUTH WHITLEY — Adalyn Gonzalez scored eight points, and Jadyn Field and Brailyn Hunter added seven each for the visiting Rochester girls basketball team in a 51-29 loss to Class 2A, No. 2 Whitko Saturday.

Rochester trailed 24-20 at halftime but managed only three field goals in the second half. Meanwhile, Whitko forced 29 Rochester turnovers with their pressure defense. Rochester’s only lead was 2-0 on Gonzalez’s driving layup 15 seconds into the game.

Only three times this season has Whitko been held to fewer than 51 points.

Ally Brown, a 6-2 junior post player, scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Whitko, who improved to 14-1 while winning their 13th consecutive game and their 19th consecutive Three Rivers Conference game.

They have not lost a conference game since dropping a 49-48 decision to Lewis Cass Dec. 16, 2023.

The streak might not be ending anytime soon: Whitko has only one senior.

As for the Lady Zs, they dropped to 7-9 overall and 2-4 in the TRC.

Rochester was trying to bounce back from a 40-36 loss to Plymouth Wednesday in which they could not hold onto a nine-point halftime lead.

“We didn’t feel good after that Plymouth game,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “We wanted to win that. We were right there. I thought we had a good practice (Friday). I said that. I saw that in the first half today.

“It’s really hard to put a plan together for Whitko because everything that they’ve got and then you’ve got Brown down low. … It’s easy to throw the ball up to her. With her arms, she’s about seven feet with the wingspan. So just throw it up to her, you’re throwing it right at the bottom of the backboard, and she’s going to go up and get it. … They’re a pain to deal with. They’re just natural basketball players. You can tell by watching them they’re gym rats. They’re really good.”

Whitko opened the second half on a 9-1 run to increase their lead to 12. Hazel Leffers scored in transition, and Brown dropped in a layup.

Aubrey Wilson split a pair of free throws for Rochester to make it 28-21, but Reese Stonebraker answered with a pair of free throws and then scored again on a cutting banker. Ally Brown split a pair of free throws to complete the run.

“This year, our third quarters have been really pivotal for us coming out of halftime,” Whitko coach Justin Jordan said. “I thought we just did a good job of staying active with our hands and keeping them in front.”

Wilson found Hunter for a 3-pointer, but Kyra Lowe scored on a driving layup. Ali Field scored off another Wilson assist as the Lady Zs kept the deficit at single digits at 35-26, but Whitko went on another 11-0 run that also covered the first four minutes of the fourth quarter.

A Jadyn Field 3-pointer with 3:40 left accounted for the Lady Zs’ only points of the fourth quarter.

Burrus said afterwards that Whitko has a “legitimate shot” to win the Class 2A state title. They won their first sectional and regional titles in school history last year before losing in the semistate semifinals to Eastside last year.

“When you’ve got Brown down low to basket-protect, you can get out and basically play cat and mouse and trap and fly around because you have her back there,” Burrus said. “For anything that you don’t get covered, she’s at the basket to swat it or to at least change the trajectory of what you want to do with the ball. They’re hard to score on still just because of that factor.”

After Gonzalez started the scoring by outracing the Whitko defense to the basket, Jayma Stonebraker scored on a Eurostep move for Whitko. A Reese Stonebraker layup and two Brown free throws made it 6-2.

Field hit two free throws, but a Brown free throw and a Reese Stonebraker triple made it 10-4.

A Field spin move that she finished off the backboard, a Hunter free throw and a Hunter 3-pointer helped keep Rochester within 15-10 after one quarter, and Wilson’s pullup 12-footer with 7:14 left in the half cut the margin to 15-12.

A Hazel Leffers runner in the lane and a Jules Leffers up-and-under move helped stretch the lead to 21-13, but Gonzalez scored six of Rochester’s seven points. That included two putback buckets, the second of which came when she redirected an airball with one second left in the half.

The lead was down to four.

“They haven’t had very many teams in the game with them at halftime,” Burrus said. “I mean, no moral victories, but we went in at halftime and felt pretty good about where we were at. I thought the girls did a really good job. I thought they responded well.”

Meanwhile, Whitko had trouble clicking offensively against Rochester’s perpetual 2-3 zone.

“Joel does a really good job with them,” Jordan said. “I thought how they stagger the top two girls threw us off at the beginning. They always play hard. They’re well-coached, and they always get after it. … They play super hard, and you’ve got to match their intensity.”

Rochester travels to Logansport Wednesday before resuming TRC play next Saturday afternoon at home against defending sectional champion Lewis Cass.

“We’re going to stick with it,” Burrus said. “We go to Logan to the Berry Bowl on Wednesday, and we need to find a win and get back on the winning track. Then, we’ve got to get ourselves right, and Lewis Cass is playing really well.”

In the JV game, Rochester closed on a 10-0 run to pull out a 40-32 win. Lyla Bowers led Rochester with 12 points, Kyleigh Little had 11, Hope Baugh had nine, Kyla Conley had five, Jayla Miller had two, and Bailey Smith had one.

Whitko 51, Rochester 29

ROCHESTER (29) (7-9, 2-4)

Aubrey Wilson 1 3-8 5, Brailyn Hunter 2 1-2 7, Adalyn Gonzalez 3 2-2 8, Jadyn Field 2 2-4 7, Ali Field 1 0-0 2, Lyla Bowers 0 0-0 0, Hope Baugh 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 9 8-16 29

WHITKO (51) (14-1, 5-0)

Jayma Stonebraker 3 0-0 8, Kyra Lowe 3 0-2 7, Reese Stonebraker 3 2-2 9, Hazel Leffers 2 0-0 4, Ally Brown 4 8-12 16, Jules Leffers 2 0-0 4, Jocelyn Luecke 1 0-0 3, Ady Luecke 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 18 10-16 51

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 3 (Hunter 2, J. Field),

Whitko 5 (J. Stonebraker 2, R. Stonebraker, Lowe, J. Luecke)

Total fouls: Rochester 17, Whitko 16

Fouled out: J. Field (RHS), 1:33, fourth

Turnovers: Rochester 29, Whitko 8

Score by quarters

Rochester 10 10 6 3 – 29

Whitko 15 9 16 11 – 51

JV: Rochester 40, Whitko 32