BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Millie Scorsone came off the bench to score a team-high 10 points, but the Rochester girls basketball team lost to host Lafayette Central Catholic 57-33 Saturday.
Lexy Thomas added nine points, and Kennedy Jackson scored six for the Lady Zs, who fell
to 6-4.
Kaitlin Rogers and Emily Hughes, who combined for 25 points in a win over North Miami two days earlier, were held to two points combined on Saturday.
Caitlin Dineen and Tori Thompson each scored 18 to lead Class 2A, No. 6 Central Catholic, who improved to 6-1.
Dineen and Thompson combined to make 11 of Central Catholic’s 12 3-pointers.
Thompson hit three 3-pointers in the second quarter and two more in the third. Dineen also was a mad bomber, hitting six three 3-pointers for the game and outscoring the entire RHS team 9-7 in the third quarter.
RHS started in a 1-3-1 zone. Rogers was on top of the zone, Emma Howdeshell was in the middle of the second line, and Thomas played the back. The purpose was to deny Central Catholic junior Karsyn Cherry from facilitating the offense from the high post, which is what happened when Central Catholic beat the Lady Zs 47-38 in last season’s regional semifinal at Frankton on Feb. 15.
“We took Cherry out of it the first half,” RHS coach Brian Jennings said in a phone interview with RTC. “She got one basket in transition early, and that was the only two points she had in the first half. But you know, we said we were going to dare them to shoot the 3, and they did a heck of a job shooting the 3 today. They were something like 12 of 17 from the 3-point line. The damage came from Thompson and Dineen. … So when they hit 11 3s between the two of them, that pretty much seals your fate right there.”
Central Catholic led 29-12 at halftime and extended the lead to 48-19 after three quarters.
The Lady Knights rely on a five-guard lineup that plays in-your-face, man-to-man defense. Jennings said it was a style of defense that RHS was unused to facing.
“They play defense up in our bubble, and it makes us uncomfortable,” Jennings said. “They’re not a foot or two off us. They are up in our bubble, and what they do extremely well is they play that close defense, and they do that without fouling. So they’re not getting the reaches. They are letting the opponents make the mistakes, and we made the mistakes today.”
Rochester notes
This was one of two additions to the schedule after the Lady Zs had to drop Winamac and Culver from their schedule. RHS also lost to Oregon-Davis 67-56 back on Dec. 8.
Rochester made more free throws (8) than Central Catholic attempted (7).
Only once in their last 39 games has RHS scored fewer points in a game. They scored only 26 in a loss at Northwestern on Nov. 11.
Maconaquah, who has beaten RHS each of the last two years, is up next for the Lady Zs. Game time is 6 p.m. Tuesday (varsity only) at the RHS gym.
Lafayette Central Catholic 57, Rochester 33
ROCHESTER (33) (6-4)
Emma Howdeshell 0 2-2 2, Sydney Haughs 0 0-0 0, Kaitlin Rogers 0 1-2 1, Lexy Thomas 4 1-3 9, Emily Hughes 0 1-2 1, Kami Burkett 0 1-2 1, Kallie Watson 0 0-0 0, Kim Batten 1 0-0 3, Mercedes Brown 0 0-0 0, Kennedy Jackson 2 2-2 6, Millie Scorsone 5 0-1 10
TEAM: 12 8-14 33
LAFAYETTE CENTRAL CATHOLIC (57) (6-1)
Caroline Lutz 0 0-0 0, Kendal Rider 3 2-4 8, Tori Thompson 6 1-1 18, Karsyn Cherry 2 2-2 6, Caitlin Dineen 6 0-0 18, Lizzie Cochran 3 0-0 7, Kaitlin Riley 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 20 5-7 57
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 1 (Batten),
Lafayette Central Catholic 12 (Dineen 6, Thompson 5, Cochran)
Total fouls: Rochester 5, Lafayette Central Catholic 14
Score by quarters
Rochester 4 8 7 14 – 33
LCC 11 18 19 9 – 57
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