Next up: vs. Valley, 7:30 p.m. Friday in the semifinals
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC

Aubrey Wilson scored nine of her 17 points in the fourth quarter, and Rylee Clevenger hit four 3-pointers and also scored 17 to lead the Rochester girls basketball team to a 48-35 win over Knox in a Class 3A, Sectional 18 quarterfinal at the RHS Gym Thursday.
Ella McCarter added eight points and 10 points for Rochester, who improved to 12-11 and earned a semifinal meeting with Tippecanoe Valley.
Valley (18-3), who received a bye, watched the game en masse behind the Knox bench. Valley defeated Rochester 42-16 on Nov. 21 in their previous meeting. This will be the first postseason meeting between Valley and Rochester since the 2015 Class 3A

semistate game at Warsaw, which Valley won 60-45.
Ellah Fairchild scored 10 points for Knox, who lost their third straight game and finished 7-17. Rose Webb had eight.
Knox cut the Rochester lead to 33-31 on a Portland Minix free throw with 6:01 left, but Rochester responded with a 15-0 run, holding Knox scoreless for nearly five minutes.
Jadyn Field had only one field goal, but it was timely. She drove by her defender on a press breaker and powered in a layup to make it a four-point game.
McCarter hit Wilson with a skip pass for a trey from the right wing that made it 38-31. Two Wilson free throws at the 4:18 mark increased the lead to nine.
“That was probably her best game of the year,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said of Wilson, his freshman point guard.
At this point, Knox had pushed the back row of its 2-3 zone away from the baseline in an attempt to swallow up Rochester’s high post.
Much of the offense relied on Wilson attacking the baseline from the wing.
And finally, the Lady Zs stayed determined, and the high post opened up, and McCarter found an open Audrey Bolinger, who dropped in a layup as part of a 3-point play. The lead was now 12.
Wilson and Clevenger combined to make five of eight free throws as the lead reached a 17-point apex at 48-31 with 1:27 left.
“Her driving baseline and going against 21 (Webb), who had three and then four, she just kept racking up fouls, and Aubrey just kept taking it to her, so that was great,” Clevenger said of Wilson. “So even if she missed it, then she would get free throws, and then we ended up getting in the bonus, and they would foul.”
Meanwhile, Rochester’s 2-3 zone held Knox to one field goal over a 10-and-a-half minute span of the second half.
The game started as a battle of dueling fullcourt presses, but Rochester abandoned their press after Knox sneaked a player behind the last defender for early buckets.
Clevenger hit a pair of treys to help Rochester establish a 10-6 lead before a Riley Taylor layup on a press breaker and a Webb bucket tied the game.
But McCarter hit a 3 from the left wing, Clevenger made two free throws, and McCarter scored on a driving layup to give Rochester a 17-10 lead after one quarter.
Knox faced deficits of 20-10 and 23-13 in the second quarter but got within 23-17 at halftime after Wilson fouled Fairchild at the buzzer trying to impede a fast break, and Fairchild hit one of two free throws.
Knox then started the second half on a 7-1 run, eventually tying the game on a Kadence Qualls steal and layup at the 5:02 mark.
Wilson hit a driving runner, but Webb answered to make it 26-all.
Clevenger hit the go-ahead 3-pointer to give Rochester a 29-26 lead with 3:51 left in the third quarter. Clevenger said open 3-point looks became more plentiful when Knox was pressing.
“I would say at times it’s easier because when we just swing it, they’re all in a scramble mode, and when nobody’s back and there’s me running up the floor or maybe another guard and our posts, we have multiple options when it’s maybe a three-on-two situation or a two-on-one,” Clevenger said.
Wilson’s two free throws with 3:21 left in the third quarter restored a 31-27 lead.
A Wilson pullup jumper from the left baseline with 6:46 left made it a six-point game. With Knox’s back wall pushing up, Wilson took the shot that coaches had been wanting her to take.
“We saw the game start to turn when Wilson started to get aggressive and go baseline,” Burrus said. “And out of that alignment, that’s what we’re trying to get. They (the officials) were letting some things go. They were letting us play. But when she got aggressive and went to the basket, I thought that started to open things up for us.”
But Fairchild mustered enough strength to get a scoop layup to fall as she was fouled. She completed the 3-point play with 6:36 left to make it 33-30.
Minix split a pair from the line to get Knox even closer.
Rochester 48, Knox 35
ROCHESTER (48) (12-11)
Aubrey Wilson 5 6-8 17, Rylee Clevenger 4 5-6 17, Ella McCarter 3 1-2 8, Jadyn Field 1 1-4 3, Audrey Bolinger 1 1-3 3, Brailyn Hunter 0 0-0 0, Mia Howdeshell 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 14 14-23 48
KNOX (35) (7-17)
Kadence Qualls 3 0-0 6, Portland Minix 0 1-2 1, Ellah Fairchild 3 2-3 10, Rylan Jordan 2 0-0 4, Rose Webb 3 2-4 8, Presley Messer 0 0-0 0, Riley Taylor 2 2-4 6, Elise Wolff 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 13 7-13 35
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 6 (Clevenger 4, Wilson, McCarter),
Knox 2 (Fairchild 2)
Total fouls: Rochester 11, Knox 18
Fouled out: Webb (KNOX), 2:41, fourth
Turnovers: Rochester 13, Knox 11
Score by quarters
Rochester 17 6 8 17 – 48
Knox 10 7 10 8 – 35
Bremen 53, John Glenn 35
Kila Foster hit five 3-pointers and scored 21 points, and Emma Kincaid and Eliana Grubbs added 15 apiece as Bremen avenged a regular season loss to John Glenn and claimed a 53-35 win in a Class 3A, Sectional 18 quarterfinal at the RHS gym Tuesday.
Bremen won their fourth straight game and improved to 12-11. They will face Culver Academy, who received a bye, in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday.
Andreia Weddington scored 10 points to lead John Glenn, who finished 12-11.
John Glenn beat Bremen 47-43 in their regular season meeting in Walkerton on Nov. 21, but two early Foster 3-pointers led to John Glenn falling behind 13-3 after one quarter, and another 12-3 Lady Lion run to start the second quarter that Grubbs capped with a steal and a layup made it 25-6.
Bremen 53, John Glenn 35
JOHN GLENN (35) (12-11)
Danielle Divine 0 1-2 1, Addison Reese 2 0-0 6, Sophia Romer 2 0-2 4, Rylee Johnson 0 2-2 2, Andreia Weddington 4 0-0 10, Daelynn Nance 2 3-4 7, Arianna Stanley 0 0-0 0, Keelyn Bradley 2 0-1 4, Brylie Wagers 0 1-2 1
TEAM: 12 7-13 35
BREMEN (53) (12-11)
Kila Foster 8 0-0 21, Mikayla Shively 0 2-2 2, Emma Kincaid 6 1-2 15, Eliana Grubbs 6 3-6 15, Naomi Moyer 0 0-0 0, Emma Lawmaster 0 0-0 0, Alyssia Lopez 0 0-0 0, Brooke Bellman 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 20 6-10 53
Three-point field goals:
John Glenn 4 (Weddington 2, Reese 2),
Bremen 7 (Foster 5, Kincaid 2)
Total fouls: John Glenn 13, Bremen 12
Turnovers: John Glenn 16, Bremen 11
Score by quarters
John Glenn 3 14 9 9 – 35
Bremen 13 19 8 13 – 53
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