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… but Lady Zs eliminated from TRC title hunt
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester girls basketball coach Joel Burrus said he thought it took forever for the clock to run out against visiting Lewis Cass at the RHS gym Wednesday.
It was worth the wait as the Lady Zs earned perhaps their most impressive win with a wire-to-wire 31-23 triumph over the Class 2A, No. 10 Lady Kings.
Aubrey Wilson scored seven of her team-high eight points in the fourth quarter, and Rylee Clevenger and Ella McCarter had seven each for Rochester, who improved to 11-10 overall and 6-2 in the Three Rivers Conference.
Audrey Bolinger contributed a team-high eight rebounds to go with her three points.
Rochester made more free throws (15)
than Lewis Cass attempted (13). Rochester’s last 11 points came from the foul line.
Heta Kosunen and Aftin Griffin had eight points each for Lewis Cass, who fell to 18-3, 7-1.
“I’m really proud of the girls for hanging in there,” Burrus said. “We had a couple blunders there at first, but I tell you, our posts did a good job of being available. … And we hit free throws when we needed them.”
Lewis Cass’ loss combined with Whitko’s 55-47 win over Southwood means that Whitko has clinched a share of the conference title. Lewis Cass can share it if they win at Maconaquah Friday.
Whitko’s win eliminates Rochester and Manchester from conference title contention. Manchester went 7-2 in league play, including a 55-47 win at Rochester on Saturday. Rochester plays their conference finale at Northfield today.
McCarter fouled out after committing an offensive foul with 4:18 left, and Lewis Cass embarked on a 7-1 run, which Griffin capped with a corner 3-pointer to make it 24-20 with 1:47 left.
Wilson hit two free throws to increase the lead to six. Griffin then missed two from the line.
Wilson split a pair at the 1:05 mark.
Anna Hedrick hit two with 49.6 seconds left to make it 27-22.
But Rochester played keep-away, breaking Lewis Cass’ fullcourt press and draining 29 seconds off the clock despite McCarter being unavailable. Hedrick eventually fouled Clevenger, who sunk two free throws to make it a three-possession game with 20.6 seconds left.
Hedrick split a pair of free throws to make it 29-23 with 14.6 seconds left, but Clevenger completed the scoring with two more free throws with 11.2 seconds left.
“And my God, that clock would not move,” Burrus said. “That just would not move. I was like, this last three minutes was an eternity.”
Each side engaged in long, probing possessions against the other’s 2-3 zone.
Kosunen hit two free throws with 7:51 left to make it 17-13.
After an exchange of misses, Bolinger took a feed in the right block and kicked a diagonal pass to McCarter in the high post, who then found Wilson on the left wing for a 3-pointer to make it 20-13.
“Pretty good,” Wilson said of her 3-pointer. “Because I missed the first two in the first half and didn’t score that much, but I’m looking for my teammates to hit those for assists too.”
Said Burrus of Wilson: “She’s a gamer.”
McCarter’s two free throws made it 22-13, and Wilson split a pair from the line with 4:27 left got the lead to double figures for the first time.
Two Kosunen baskets – one on a putback, the other on a roll from the high post – made it 23-17 before Bolinger made a free throw with 2:35 left.
“Those last three minutes were crazy,” Burrus said. “I’ll tell you though – we locked in against a really good team. They’ve had games where they’ve scored a lot of points.”
Rochester built an 8-1 lead after one quarter thanks to a 3-pointer from McCarter, a pass from McCarter in the high post to Bolinger for a layup and a 3-pointer from Clevenger.
Lewis Cass cut the lead to 8-7 before a Mia Howdeshell trey over a slow Lady King close-out ended a 6:40 scoreless drought and got the lead back to four.
Griffin answered with a 3, but a Field free throw with 57.5 seconds left made it 12-10 at halftime.
Rochester had only two possessions in the first 2:30 of the second half, but on the second, McCarter found Field in the post, and Field scored over Mylie Sipe to make it 14-10.
It turned out to be the only field goal of the quarter for either team.
“My role was keeping the high post, so they couldn’t push it down low or out to the shooters,” Wilson said. “And I think we all just worked together really well … to keep them down to 23 altogether, so we all did our part in that.”
Griffin, who came in averaging 13 points per game, was held to five points through the first three quarters.
“And 5 (Griffin), she’s one of the quicker guards,” Burrus said. “But you know, I told them … here’s one thing that we have an advantage of, and you could kind of see with Wilson and R.J. (Clevenger) out front, they pressured her in a way because they felt like they had an advantage strength-wise. Now Wilson, she’s a lot stronger with her. Now she’s a quick little burger, but we were able to contain her with our strength, and I felt like we used our chests and played good chest defense.”
Game notes
Rochester beat Lewis Cass for the 11th consecutive time, though this was their first meeting as conference rivals. Lewis Cass has not beaten Rochester since November 2011, and they have not beaten Rochester on the road since November 2006.
The loss also snapped Lewis Cass’ seven-game winning streak, which was their longest winning streak since the 2002-03 season.
Rochester is 7-3 following a loss this season. They have not had a winning streak or losing streak longer than two games.
Rochester 31, Lewis Cass 23
LEWIS CASS (23) (18-3, 7-1)
Anna Hedrick 0 5-8 5, Aftin Griffin 3 0-2 8, Heta Kosunen 3 2-3 8, Mylie Sipe 0 0-0 0, Kinsey Mennen 1 0-0 2, Ava Hubner 0 0-0 0, Kylie Logan 0 0-0 0, Faith Helvie 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 7 7-13 23
ROCHESTER (31) (11-10, 6-2)
Aubrey Wilson 1 5-8 8, Rylee Clevenger 1 4-4 7, Ella McCarter 1 4-4 7, Jadyn Field 1 1-2 3, Audrey Bolinger 1 1-2 3, Brailyn Hunter 0 0-0 0, Mia Howdeshell 1 0-0 3
TEAM: 6 15-20 31
Three-point field goals:
Lewis Cass 2 (Griffin 2),
Rochester 4 (Howdeshell, McCarter, Clevenger, Wilson)
Total fouls: Lewis Cass 20, Rochester 13
Fouled out: McCarter (RHS), 4:18, fourth
Turnovers: Lewis Cass 9, Rochester 16
Score by quarters
Lewis Cass 1 9 1 12 – 23
Rochester 8 4 5 14 – 31
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