Lady Braves hit 10 treys, but Lady Zs win after building 10-point lead
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
BUNKER HILL — Rochester girls basketball coach Joel Burrus said freshman point guard Aubrey Wilson said something in the huddle during the team’s game with Maconaquah Saturday that he loved to hear.
“Let’s get it done,” she said to her teammates.
Wilson then went about doing her part, scoring a career-high 15 points and getting help from Rylee Clevenger’s 11 as the Lady Zs beat the Lady Braves 41-40.
“She’s growing up out there,” Burrus said of Wilson. “And she’s feisty. … If you’ve got leadership qualities coming from a freshman like that, that’s going to be really helpful for you down the road.”
Audrey Bolinger added a career-high nine points, including the putback basket that put Rochester ahead for good in the second quarter and the free throw with six seconds left that gave
the Lady Zs a two-possession lead with six seconds left.
Rochester improved to 3-3 overall and 2-0 in the Three Rivers Conference. Maconaquah fell to 1-3, 0-2.
Bolinger rebounded a Miranda Stoll missed free throw as Stoll was trying to complete a 3-point play and was fouled and split a pair of free throws to make it 41-37.
Maconaquah called their final timeout with 3.9 seconds left. Stoll, who scored a game-high 20 points, swished a 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left, but Rochester held the ball out of bounds as time expired.
“We found a way,” Burrus said. “Free throw-wise, we hit just enough.”
Bailey Carson added 10 for Maconaquah. She and Stoll combined to make nine 3-pointers.
Bolinger’s second-quarter putback put Rochester ahead for good at 23-22 and
triggered an 11-0 run covering the second and third quarters.
The run included a left baseline jumper from Wilson, a Clevenger drive and 3-point play, a drop-step move in the post from Jadyn Field and a Wilson driving layup that made it 32-22.
Wilson has been working on playing “off two feet” as Burrus has termed it. She has developed a midrange game to go with her 3-point shooting.
“I like to float around with one foot and take shots off one foot, so he wants me off two shooting, so it’s easier for me to get shots and make then and get fouled,” Wilson said.
Maconaquah coach Ray Davis said he did not want Wilson shooting 3-pointers, and Carson, who had the assignment on Wilson, kept her from making only one trey.
“We didn’t help on our help-side defense like we were supposed to,” Maconaquah coach Ray Davis said. “We wanted to pressure her. We didn’t want her to shoot 3s tonight. She just didn’t get help on the back side of our defense, and that’s something we have to clean up.”
Maconaquah fought back to within 34-33 in the fourth quarter thanks to three Stoll 3s before Rochester caught something of a lucky bounce.
Carson shot a long fading 3 that missed off the front of the rim and bounced long to Clevenger, who was suddenly ahead of the defense and dribbled the rest of the way for an uncontested layup.
A Wilson steal and layup got the lead back to five.
A Shaelyn Powell layup after Carson stole an inbounds pass cut the lead to 38-35, and Mia Howdeshell missed two free throws for Rochester.
But Maconaquah committed one of their seven fourth-quarter turnovers, and Ella McCarter drained two free throws with 29.4 seconds left to make it 40-35.
Rochester made seven fewer treys than Maconaquah but made more free throws (eight) than Maconaquah attempted (seven).
Rochester beat Maconaquah for the fourth straight year. The 40 points were the most Rochester has allowed in a win since Burrus has been the coach.
Then again, they forced 20 turnovers and kept Maconaquah from getting touches in the paint.
“R.J. (Clevenger), when the ball was coming up, she was playing some lockdown defense right there, and it helped that we were working together and talking screens and everything, and it just led to some bad passes that we could take and go get a layup,” Wilson said.
Said Davis of Rochester’s defense: “When we saw them on film, we noticed that their baseline was open or the corner was open, and they did a really good job of taking that away tonight.”
Burrus praised Maconaquah’s 3-point shooting but also said that his team needs to improve their rebounding.
“They caught fire,” Burrus said. “We had some possessions where we didn’t handle their pressure real well, but we squeaked it out. We hit the free throws we needed down the stretch. We got the ball to the people that we needed down the stretch. We’ve got to work on the rebounding still. When you’re facing teams that are going to chuck it from 22 to 25 feet, there are going to be long rebounds. There are some things that we’ve got to still shore up.”
Two Wilson buckets and four Bolinger free throws led to an 8-5 Rochester lead after one quarter.
The teams combined for eight 3-pointers in the second quarter. After nifty Bolinger footwork in the post led to a bucket and 19-13 Rochester lead, Carson hit two treys from the right wing to tie the game.
Maconaquah won a JV game against Caston 36-26 prior to the varsity game.
Rochester 41, Maconaquah 40
ROCHESTER (41) (3-3, 2-0)
Aubrey Wilson 7 0-0 15, Rylee Clevenger 4 1-1 11, Ella McCarter 1 2-2 4, Jadyn Field 1 0-4 2, Audrey Bolinger 2 5-6 9, Brailyn Hunter 0 0-0 0, Mia Howdeshell 0 0-2 0
TEAM: 15 8-15 41
MACONAQUAH (40) (1-3, 0-2)
Hallie Maiben 0 0-0 0, Bailey Carson 3 1-2 10, Shaelyn Powell 1 1-2 3, Miranda Stoll 7 0-1 20, Sydney Barnes 1 2-2 4, Addie Maiben 1 0-0 3, Averie Maiben 0 0-0 0, Aubrey Stoll 0 0-0 0, Aubrey Kaiser 0 0-0 0, Ireland Kile 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 13 4-7 40
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 3 (Clevenger 2, Wilson),
Maconaquah 10 (M. Stoll 6, Carson 3, Addie Maiben)
Total fouls: Rochester 18, Maconaquah 12
Fouled out: Field (RHS), 2:49, fourth
Turnovers: Rochester 18, Maconaquah 20
Score by quarters
Rochester 8 17 7 9 – 41
Maconaquah 5 17 8 10 – 40
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