‘We’re starting to really form a bond between each other:’ Wilson hits go-ahead jumper, Lady Zs get late stop to secure sectional win over Manchester

Hunter scores 22, J. Field adds 14 points, 14 rebounds

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Brailyn Hunter Aubrey WIlson

WABASH — The Class 2A, Sectional 38 girls basketball quarterfinal between Rochester and Manchester at Coolman Gymnasium Tuesday featured eight lead changes in the fourth quarter.

It might have been the night Rochester junior Brailyn Hunter became a star.

It might have capped a period where the Lady Zs bonded strongly as a team, according to junior Jadyn Field.

It might have been the night in which a seemingly innocent foul with 1.4 seconds left in the first quarter was a decisive play.

It was “Hoosier Hysteria,” according to Rochester coach Joel Burrus. 

In short, it was an instant classic.

Hunter hit six 3-pointers and scored a career-high 22 points, and Aubrey Wilson hit the go-ahead jumper with 8.7 seconds left as the Lady Zs pulled out a 56-55 win over the Lady Squires.

Rochester improved to 12-11 and will meet up with Lewis Cass, who received a bye, in the semifinals. Manchester finished 13-10.

Field went for 14 points and 14 rebounds, and Wilson had 10 for Rochester.

“When she’s on like that, you’ve got to get her the rock,” Burrus said of Hunter. “We were able to do that, and she hit some big ones there late. Field (had) a couple big baskets there late. That’s a deal where a month ago, we don’t win that game.”

Emma Walker and Hadley West had 12 points each, and Peyton Ream had 11 for Manchester.

The Lady Squires hit 10 3-pointers, but it was not enough.

“They had a good offensive night,” Manchester coach Allison Kauffman said. “Normally, they don’t hit that many 3s, and they knocked down the shots when they needed to. Our girls did a decent job defending (Hunter) most of the game. We had some lapses in that fourth quarter and just gave up too much in the lane the last part of the game.”

Rochester trailed 40-36 but started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run. Wilson’s two free throws with 6:02 left gave Rochester their first lead of the second half, and Field split a pair with 4:52 left.

Then, the shot making in the fourth quarter was dizzyingly accurate to the point that the scoreboard operator could not keep up momentarily.

Ava Sautter hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 43 with 4:09 left. Hunter hit a 3 at the 3:57 mark, but Ali Field was called for her fifth foul away from the ball on West a split second after the ball went through the net.

Manchester’s Olivia Stevens swished a 3 to tie it again. Hunter hit another 3 to put Rochester up 49-46.

Sautter then banked in a 3 with 3:11 to go to tie it again.

Hope Baugh penetrated to the foul line and threw a diagonal bounce pass back to Wilson, who made a 19-footer to put Rochester up 51-49.

A Field free throw with 1:08 left increased the lead to three, but the ball got worked in the left corner to Walker, who drilled a 3 as Baugh fouled her trying to recover. Walker made the free throw for a four-point play to give Manchester a 53-52 lead.

The craziness continued.

Wilson missed a driving bank, but Jadyn Field corralled the rebound on the weak side and banked in the putback. Rochester was back ahead.

West answered with a driving banker with 30 seconds left. Manchester was back ahead.

Jadyn Field dribbled down to the post and kicked out to Wilson. She pump faked around and West and swirled a 17-footer around the net and in to give Rochester a 56-55 lead.

“Wilson did a great job of attacking,” Burrus said. “When they got to four team fouls, we had a light bulb kick on. It was like, guys, we’re one away (from the bonus). And we talked about that in the Northfield game. That cost us. We did not attack when we got to four team fouls; tonight we did that.”

Manchester called their last timeout.

West advanced the ball and passed to Ream. Ream ran around a staggered screen at the elbows from West and Walker. Her runner from the right baseline missed. Sautter rebounded, but Jadyn Field knocked the ball away from her as time expired.

Hunter calmly handed the ball to an official as the other Rochester players celebrated in front of their bench.

“Very, very intense,” Jadyn Field said of the game. “Because I was not worried, but I knew we were going to pull it out, but there’s always that chance of us not.”

West committed the innocent foul that might not have been so innocent. Manchester was leading 7-6 late in the first quarter when West tried to reach in on Baugh 22 feet away from the basket and not even looking at the rim.

Rochester was in the bonus. Baugh split a pair of free throws to tie it in a game where, as it turned out, every point mattered.

Baugh’s free throw came in the middle of a 12-0 Rochester run that bled into the second quarter. Hunter hit two treys, and then Baugh drilled a 3 from the right wing, forcing Kauffman to call timeout with her team in the midst of a seven-and-a-half minute scoreless drought and her team down by nine.

But Stevens, Walker and West would all hit treys in the final 4:25 of the half, and Elin Betten added a 3-point play on a putback. A West free throw with 57.3 seconds left in the half gave Manchester a 22-21 lead.

The Lady Squires then opened the second half on a 9-3 run. Ream hit a runner in the lane, and West, a Providence softball recruit, hit two free throws. Adalyn Gonzalez drilled a 3 for Rochester, but Walker answered with a 3, and West hit a pullup jumper in transition.

Manchester had their largest lead at 31-24.

Ali Field picked up three fouls in a 26-second span in the third quarter, and for much of the rest of the game, only one of the Field sisters, but not both, was in the game.

Wilson scored her first four points in the third quarter. Hunter hit a left wing 3 and also hit a tough pullup in the lane. 

Lyla Bowers saw increased action in the second half at the top of the 2-3 zone.

Rochester had 18 turnovers in the first half but only six in the second half.

“Hunter really bailed us out in that first half, keeping us in it,” Burrus said. “But we got so much more dialed in that second half. We went to our stack in the middle of the floor, and that released the pressure enough for us to get it inbounds. Doubling Wilson when we were in our four-across (formation), that’s really hard for us when they double her. And then we had her take it out, well now, they flip it, and then they guard the inbounder. So it’s a cat-and-mouse game, but when we went to our smaller lineup when Ali got into foul trouble, that looked really good when we spaced the floor and went to our rotation offense. It spaced the floor for us more and gave big (Jadyn) Field room to operate down low when we were able to get her the ball when we were spaced.”

Field said she does not move as well after suffering an ACL injury in a summer league game in June 2024. She said she noticed trying to defend a Manchester team that seemingly always has five quick guards on the floor.

She was then asked how much better the team has gotten just in the last couple weeks. The Lady Zs are 4-1 in their last five games, and their only loss was to Northfield in overtime Thursday.

“We’ve gotten so much better because we’re starting to really form a bond between each other, and we’ve been working really hard in practice, and Burrus hasn’t really been letting us off easy recently, so that’s helped a lot,” Jadyn Field said.

Burrus later assessed the meaning of the victory. He said he could “feel the crowd” as the fourth quarter progressed.

“It just shows our improvement,” Burrus said. “I can’t wait to get back to practice with these guys tomorrow.”

Lewis Cass beat Rochester 34-30 in their regular season meeting at Rochester Jan. 17. The Lady Kings will carry an eight-game winning streak into the game.

Wabash 44, Eastern (Greentown) 41

Bryleigh Boggs scored 25 points, and Haylee Friend added 12 for Wabash in a 44-41 win over Eastern (Greentown) in a Class 2A, Sectional 38 quarterfinal at Wabash Tuesday.

Gianna Beechy, a 5-5 sophomore guard, scored 14 to lead Eastern. Kayden Steele added eight. Paige Wesner missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds, and Wabash’s Logan Wright preserved the lead later in the final minute with a blocked shot.

Wabash improved to 4-19 and will meet Oak Hill, who received a bye, in the semifinals at approximately 7:30 p.m. Friday. Eastern finished 4-18.

Quarterfinal: Rochester 56, Manchester 55

ROCHESTER (56) (12-11)

Aubrey Wilson 3 4-8 10, Brailyn Hunter 7 2-2 22, Adalyn Gonzalez 1 0-0 3, Jadyn Field 4 6-10 14, Ali Field 0 0-0 0, Lyla Bowers 0 0-0 0, Hope Baugh 1 4-6 7

TEAM: 16 16-26 56

MANCHESTER (55) (13-10)

Ava Sautter 2 0-0 6, Peyton Ream 5 0-0 11, Hadley West 4 3-4 12, Allie Egolf 1 0-0 2, Emma Walker 3 3-3 12, Olivia Stevens 2 0-0 6, Elin Betten 2 1-3 6

TEAM: 19 7-10 55

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 8 (Hunter 6, Gonzalez, Baugh),

Manchester 10 (Walker 3, Stevens 2, Sautter 2, West, Ream, Betten)

Total fouls: Rochester 17, Manchester 21

Fouled out: A. Field (RHS), 3:57, fourth

Turnovers: Rochester 24, Manchester 11

Score by quarters

Rochester 7 14 15 20 – 56

Manchester 7 15 18 15 – 55

Quarterfinal: Wabash 44, Eastern (Greentown) 41

EASTERN (GREENTOWN) (41) (4-18)

Kayden Steele 3 0-0 8, Leyton Downing 2 2-2 6, Gianna Beechy 6 2-6 14, Lainey Newlin 2 1-2 5, Elle Winger 1 1-4 3, Paige Wesner 1 0-0 3, Alannah Alexander 0 2-2 2

TEAM: 15 8-16 41

WABASH (44) (4-19)

Pasyn Schuler 1 0-2 3, Haylee Friend 4 2-4 12, Bryleigh Boggs 7 9-13 25, Logan Wright 0 0-0 0, Elli Hall 0 1-2 1, Avi Osborne 1 0-0 2, Jaycee Jones 0 0-0 0, Rya Morgan 0 1-2 1

TEAM: 13 13-23 44

Three-point field goals:

Eastern (Greentown) 3 (Steele 2, Wesner),

Wabash 5 (Boggs 2, Friend 2, Schuler)

Total fouls: Eastern (Greentown) 17, Wabash 17

Turnovers: Eastern (Greentown) 19, Wabash 13

Score by quarters

Eastern 4 14 14 9 – 41

Wabash 14 12 11 7 – 44