Rochester girls basketball preview: Lady Zs return all 5 starters, but TRC, sectional have formidable foes

Val T.

14 minutes ago

6 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Rochester girls basketball team was sitting at 8-10 last season going into a game at Taylor on Jan. 21.

Perhaps some inconsistencies were to be expected given that the team had no seniors and they were trying to make do without a senior core of Audrey Bolinger, Rylee Clevenger and Ella McCarter. What happened the rest of the season was another matter.

Starting with the Taylor game, Rochester went 5-2 in their last seven games to finish 13=12.

One of the losses was an overtime loss at Northfield, and the other was in the sectional final to eventual Class 2A state runner-up Oak Hill, and in that game, an Oak Hill team that averaged 50.1 points per game went scoreless in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, they beat Manchester, who also won 13 games, twice during that span and also avenged a regular season loss to Lewis Cass in the sectional semifinals on Hope Baugh’s 3-pointer in the final second of the second overtime.

They also held Western, another 13-win team, to a season-low 18 points in a win in their regular season finale.

With the starting five – point guard Aubrey Wilson, shooting guard Brailyn Hunter, wing Adalyn Gonzalez, power forward Jadyn Field and post Ali Field – all back, plus key reserves in sophomores Baugh and Lyla Bowers, there will be no lack of experience when the Lady Zs take the court against North Judson tonight.

They have tried to use their fast finish last season as a jumping-off point for the summer.

“This past year, we were kind of a year early, I think a lot of people thought,” coach Joel Burrus said. “Not a lot of people thought we were probably going to win a lot of games because of our youth. So we were playing our best basketball there in the sectional, which is what you want. We wanted to take that into the summer, and I think for the most part, I saw that. I know at times it can be a grind during the summer. You’ve got weights. You’ve got your other sports that you’re doing. Some of these girls work summer jobs. So you’re trying to see them play at a high level while also balancing their summer. And then, it’s their time off school, so they’re out of their routine and all those things. We played a lot. … We played some good teams. I’m hoping that helps us here in a few weeks.”

Rochester relied on balanced scoring last year as Wilson, Hunter and Jadyn Field all averaged between 8.5 and 8.8 points per game.

Wilson comes into the season healthier than she was a year ago at this time and will be looked to score more, according to Burrus.

“I talk to her all the time how hard it is as a point guard,” Burrus said. “You want to be a facilitator first. We expect a lot out of her in the top of our zone. She has to shoot it better this year. She’d be the first one to tell you that. Her 3-point percentage last year was probably her biggest struggle, but she also was dealing with some injury stuff. You’ve got to remember last year she rolled that ankle pretty bad in volleyball, and that hampered her at the start of the season. … She’s in better shape coming into the season.”

Hunter scored in double figures once in the first seven games last year but 10 times in the last 18 games. A 22-point game in which she hit six 3-pointers against Manchester in the sectional was a career highlight.

“Maturity, I think, is a big thing for her,” Burrus said. “She matured a lot last year from a mental standpoint. We’ve always really tried to hone her in on blowing through the ball. Getting through the wall. Working through adversity. If you’re not making shots, where’s the next shot? Kind of that neutral-thinking thought process. Being more in the moment and not OK, I missed my last two. We’re confident in her shooting the ball. I don’t care if she’s missed one or two in a row. If she’s open, she better shoot it again because we need her to get back going again.”

Jadyn Field improved from 4 points and 6 rebounds per game in an injury-shortened sophomore season to 8.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last year. That also marked her first year as high school teammates with younger sister Ali.

“She’s knock on wood but fully healthy,” Burrus said. “The knee, to get back from that and get herself back, and I know it was very hard for her that year where she had to sit basically half the season, and she never really was 100 percent that year. We knew that it would have to get into summer, and she would have to battle herself into getting to 100 percent for her junior year, which I felt like she was. Ali and Jadyn, I feel like they push each other a lot in practice. … It is a unique situation. I’ve seen my dad (Maconaquah boys basketball coach John Burrus) coach siblings before. I’ve seen him coach twins before. So to have two sisters on the team so close in age, it’s a unique situation. They are both extremely hard workers, and they want to be good.”

Burrus said he wants Gonzalez to score 6 to 8 points a game. She averaged 4.3 last year but also had five games in which she went scoreless.

“I think that she is still trying to find her knack from the standpoint of it’s OK to score,” Burrus said. “These other people on the team are OK with you shooting the ball. These other people on the team are OK with you going to the basket and attacking the rim. … The unique thing with her is the left hand.”

Burrus sees Ali Field scoring more frequently off offensive rebounds. She averaged 6.4 rebounds per game as a freshman.

“Ali’s very good at running the floor,” Burrus said. “If we can get out and go at times and get her to run rim to rim, we’re going to try to get her to the ball in the open floor, obviously around the basket. The other thing is we really need her to take a step up from the free throw line.”Lady Z notes

Rochester will host the Small School Classic this year on Jan. 2. Kouts, Clinton Prairie and North White are the other three schools. Kouts is the defending tournament champion. Rochester won it the previous two years.
Three years ago, Rochester had seven girls in the program. This year, they have 15. Burrus said the JV girls will help with the role of scout team in practice, something Burrus calls “normal.”
Rochester lost Burrus’ first four games as coach in November 2022. Since then, they have not had anything longer than a two-game losing streak.
Kyleigh Little and Alexandria Cortes-Gustafson round out the sophomore class. Freshmen in the program include Lillian Merideth, Ella Jenkins, Morgan Simpson, Morgan Fowler, Hailey Howell and Macie Widman.
Jo Clark will coach the eighth-graders, Rebecca Bolinger will coach the seventh-graders and Sydney Haughs and Delaney Barkman will co-coach the sixth-graders.