Wilson hits 6 treys, leads Lady Zs past Clinton Prairie in Small School Classic consolation game

First round: 33 turnovers doom Rochester in loss to Kouts

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Aubrey Wilson

Consolation: Rochester 41, Clinton Prairie 14

FRANKFORT — Some extra shooting work that Rochester girls basketball player Aubrey Wilson did with assistant coach Colt Meadows paid off in the consolation game of the Small School Classic at Clinton Prairie High School Friday.

Wilson hit six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 22 points as the Lady Zs rolled to a 41-14 win over the host Lady Gophers.

Jadyn Field added seven points, all in the first quarter, for Rochester, who improved to 7-7.

Freshman Emersyn Kaser led Clinton Prairie (0-12) with five points.

This marked the third time in three weeks that Rochester has held an opponent under 20 points.

“It was a get-right game,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “That’s what we talked about. We knew we didn’t play real well in that second quarter, especially against Kouts (a 54-33 loss in the first round). … We talked about the turnovers and then the rebounding. We felt like we gave up too many rebounds against Kouts. So we talked about this game, we need to come out, we need to rebound well, and we need to take care of the ball. That was the big thing. I thought we did a much better job of taking care of the ball. If you’re taking care of the ball, you’re getting more shots. And that’s a big thing. We got more shots, and it was nice to see Wilson put the ball in the basket and have a good game. We needed her to have a breakout game.”

Rochester jumped out to a 15-2 lead and never trailed. In addition to Field’s seven points, Wilson also hit two 3-pointers.

Rochester held Clinton Prairie to no field goals in a 15-and-a-half minute span lasting from the middle of the first quarter through Kaser’s steal and layup with 4:20 to go in the third quarter. That included a 8-0 second quarter blanking. Meanwhile, Adalyn Gonzalez hit a jumper with her foot on the line, and Wilson and Lyla Bowers both hit 3-pointers.

By the time Clinton Prairie’s scoreless drought was over, Rochester led 30-5.

After Kaser broke the drought, Wilson made her second 3-pointer of the quarter from the right wing after a kickout pass from Field.

Hunter followed with a 13-footer.

Wilson’s final 3-pointer came 20 seconds into the fourth quarter, and it came three feet beyond the arc off a Hunter assist. She later added a pullup 15-footer.

“Right before the game, he was actually working with me on it,” Wilson said of Meadows and her shooting. “He was telling me not to lean back when I’m going into my shot, and I definitely felt it even with free throws too. We worked on that before and a little bit of finishes at the rim, so that was definitely helpful.”

Burrus said he purposely wanted Meadows to work with Wilson. He said she needed to “hear another voice.”

“We’ve been working a lot with her about getting her follow-through up higher,” Burrus said. “She’s been flat all year, and we’ve talked and talked and talked about it.”

Burrus spoke of continued improvement. Rochester hosts Plymouth Wednesday. Their next conference game is at Class 2A, No. 6 Whitko Jan. 10.

Rochester will also be keeping an eye on Tuesday’s Oak Hill-Lewis Cass matchup. Those two teams are both in Rochester’s sectional, and they have a combined record of 23-4. Lewis Cass beat Oak Hill in the sectional final last year.

“We’re going to play a lot of basketball here in these next four weeks, and are we in a spot to where we can go to Wabash for that sectional and give Oak Hill a run?” Burrus said. “I was interested to see what that second game (against Clinton Prairie) looked like. Because I thought if we come out and we play really bad, this could be an eight-to-10-point game, and it looks like we’re pulling teeth or whatever. For us to come out and pound them, that showed a good mental thought process. We needed to do that. We did what we needed to do. … This team, the youth and the juniors, we’ve got to do a good job of continuing to grow. That’s been the big thing that I’ve been talking about. We can’t get complacent. And like I said, are we playing our best at the end of this month?”

Wilson was asked if the team was getting better.

“I think we are, honestly,” Wilson said. “We’re trying to advance as much throughout the season. Like Burrus says, where are we sitting when we go into sectionals? Because a lot of teams are either advancing here from their season until sectionals, or they’re not getting better, and they’re like, they just want to get through the season. So I think we’re definitely at the point in our season where we’re advancing the most, and that’s what’s most important to us because we have a very hard schedule the second half.”

In the championship game, Kouts prevailed over North White 56-34.

Consolation: Rochester 41, Clinton Prairie 14

ROCHESTER (41) (7-7)

Aubrey Wilson 7 2-2 22, Brailyn Hunter 1 0-0 2, Adalyn Gonzalez 1 1-2 3, Jadyn Field 3 1-1 7, Ali Field 1 0-0 2, Lyla Bowers 1 2-2 5, Hope Baugh 0 0-0 0, Kyla Conley 0 0-0 0, Kyleigh Little 0 0-0 0, Alexandria Cortes-Gustafson 0 0-0 0, Bailey Smith 0 0-0 0, Jayla Miller 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 14 6-7 41

CLINTON PRAIRIE (14) (0-12)

Lily Coleman 1 1-3 3, Emma Grant 0 1-2 1, Emersyn Kaser 2 1-2 5, Clara Coleman 0 0-0 0, Alexis Perez 0 2-2 2, Aria Greene 0 1-2 1, Kenley Cummins 1 0-1 2, Addyson Martin 0 0-0 0, Adele Stephon 0 0-0 0, Lilly Thomas 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 4 6-12 14

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 7 (Wilson 6, Bowers),

Clinton Prairie 0

Total fouls: Rochester 16, Clinton Prairie 10

Turnovers: Rochester 14, Clinton Prairie 21

Score by quarters

Rochester 17 8 10 6 – 41

Clinton Prairie 4 0 5 5 – 14

First round: Kouts 54, Rochester 33

Freshman Avery Elijah scored 19 points, Bella Birky had 11, and Ellie Nemeth scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Kouts girls in a 54-33 win over turnover-prone Rochester in the first round of the Small School Classic at Clinton Prairie High School Friday.

Jadyn Field led Rochester with nine points and 12 rebounds before fouling out with 6:13 left on a moving screen. Younger sister Ali Field also fouled out with 3:49 left.

Kouts improved to 11-3. Rochester, playing for the first time in 10 days, fell to 6-7.

Rochester started the game on an 11-2 run, and they still led 18-12 in the second quarter when Kouts utilized a 1-3-1 halfcourt trap to go on a 19-0 run and take control. Elijah scored the first six points of the run. The run also included Peyton Wilson banking in a 3-pointer that put Kouts ahead for good at 21-18. Birky scored in transition. Nemeth scored in transition. Alyssa Twedt drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing.

Rochester had 16 turnovers against the ballhawking Fillies in the quarter and 33 for the game.

“They pose a lot of problems,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “(Elijah) out front with her length. They’ve got length all over the floor. And you can tell that’s the defense they’re really confident in.”

Kouts led 31-21 at halftime despite making just 3 of 12 foul shots. 

Rochester hung within 34-29 on an Aubrey Wilson free throw with 3:20 left in the third quarter, but Rochester went on another 7:14 scoring drought against Kouts’ harassing pressure.

Kouts led by as many as 23 points in the fourth quarter.

Kouts coach Tim Schwartz praised Rochester for their style of play. The 1-3-1 halfcourt trap was designed to make them uncomfortable.

“Rochester’s so well-disciplined,” Schwartz said. “They move the ball really well, and they handle the ball really well. I was surprised at what the 1-3-1 did as far as the turnovers and just getting them in a good trap and having trouble with it. We rode that all second quarter and ended up getting a pretty good lead off some transition baskets.”

The game started at Rochester’s pace. Jadyn Field hit a 15-footer after an offensive rebound and then scored on a spin dribble. Adalyn Gonzalez hit two free throws to make it 6-0. A Brailyn Hunter triple from the top of the key and a Wilson steal and layup made it 11-2, and Schwartz called timeout in response.

Elijah single-handedly went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 11-10.

“They came out and manned us,” Burrus said. “We were a little surprised by that. We’re pretty good against man. I thought we did a good job against their man. Well, then, they went in there in the second quarter, and it was like, ‘OK, we’re going to bring the heat,’ and they did, and we coughed it up quite a few times, but I thought we learned from some things in that game. I thought we hustled well, and I thought we got to a lot of balls, but we just handed them the ball too much.”

Gonzalez hit two free throws with 1:47 left in the quarter. Elijah found Elizabeth Van Kley for a layup to make it 13-12. An Aubrey Wilson free throw with 24.5 seconds left in the quarter made it 14-12.

A Lyla Bowers pullup banker and a Jadyn Field putback increased the lead to six.

Burrus called Elijah a future Division I player and said she will be a potential Indiana All-Star in 2029. Elijah often played in the high post against Rochester’s 2-3 zone.

“They started to run her down in that dunker area a little bit, and then they would snap her in there to the high post,” Burrus said. “And we had worked all week. We had said, ‘I guarantee you they’re going to put her in there over one of those bigs.’ Because when she turns and faces, there’s so many things she can do with the ball. She’s so advanced for her age where’s she’s at as a freshman. … You’d like to see a kid like that’s a generational player at a school like that. That’s the girl that you’re going to get one of those every 25 years or whatever, and she’s that one.”

In the other first round game, North White beat winless Clinton Prairie 35-26 to improve to 2-9 on the season.

Rochester will host the Small School Classic next season.

First round: Kouts 54, Rochester 33

ROCHESTER (33) (6-7)

Aubrey Wilson 1 3-6 5, Brailyn Hunter 1 0-0 3, Adalyn Gonzalez 1 4-4 6, Jadyn Field 4 1-4 9, Ali Field 1 0-2 2, Lyla Bowers 2 0-0 5, Hope Baugh 0 1-2 1, Kyleigh Little 1 0-0 2, Kyla Conley 0 0-0 0, Jayla Miller 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 11 9-18 33

KOUTS (54) (11-3)

Avery Elijah 9 1-6 19, Bella Birky 4 2-2 11, Peyton Wilson 1 0-2 3, Ellah Young 1 0-0 2, Ellie Nemeth 1 8-14 10, Alyssa Twedt 2 0-0 5, Anna Overholt 0 0-0 0, Elizabeth VanKley 2 0-0 4, Kailynn Nemeth 0 0-0 0, Morgan Croff 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 20 11-24 54

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 2 (Bowers, Hunter),

Kouts 3 (P. Wilson, Twedt, Birky)

Total fouls: Rochester 20, Kouts 17

Fouled out: J. Field (RHS), 6:13, fourth; A. Field (RHS), 3:49, fourth

Turnovers: Rochester 33, Kouts 16

Score by quarters

Rochester 14 7 8 4 – 33

Kouts 12 19 11 12 – 54