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Wabash opens 2nd half on 13-1 run
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Aubrey Wilson scored 13 points, but the Wabash girls basketball team went on a 13-1 run to start the second half and seize control in a 52-43 win over Rochester at the RHS gym Saturday.
Rochester hit 10 3-pointers – five in each half – but they made only three of nine free throws. Meanwhile, Wabash went 13 for 21 from the line.
Rylee Clevenger had nine points, and Ella McCarter and Brailyn Hunter added eight points each for the Lady Zs, who had their four-game winning streak snapped and who dropped to 9-3 overall and 3-1 in the Three Rivers Conference.
Anna Daughtry scored a game-high 18 points for Wabash (8-2, 2-0). Brookelynn Buzzard had 14, including a 25-foot 3-pointer just before the third-quarter buzzer that gave the Lady Apaches an eight-point lead, and Bryleigh Boggs had 12.
“She’s the quickest guard in the conference I would say, bar none,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said of Daughtry, a senior who moved in from Affton High School in Affton, Mo. “She’s strong and fast and athletic as all get out. She’s just a really good player.”
Wabash opened the game on a 12-0 run, but the Lady Zs hit five 3-pointers in the second quarter and closed the half on a 13-0 run, taking their first lead on a 3-pointer in transition from Wilson with 51 seconds left in the half.
Rochester led 21-19 at halftime, but Boggs hit two free throws, and Daughtry drove for a layup to give Wabash the lead for good.
Rochester went over seven minutes without a field goal to start the second half before Jadyn Field scored in the post and Ella McCarter hit a 3 to make it 32-27.
But Buzzard, who scored 23 points in a win against Rochester last year when she played for Manchester, tossed in her long trey, and Rochester never got closer.
Wabash led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter.
Burrus later bemoaned a missed block out on a missed free throw from Wabash’s Janika Stumbo that Kaitlynn Honeycutt grabbed when Rochester was down 42-32 in the fourth. That led to two more Daughtry free throws.
“This is going to be a good film for us to watch,” Burrus said. “We’ve got to get back to the drawing board and see what we can come up with for Northwestern on Thursday. The TRC games become that much more precious because we’ve got a loss now.”
Wabash scored the first 12 points of the game and held the Lady Zs scoreless with their press and 1-3-1 halfcourt zone until McCarter’s driving bucket just before the first quarter buzzer.
Clevenger and Hunter hit 3s in the first three minutes of the second quarter, but a Daughtry steal and layup restored a 19-8 lead with 3:54 left in the half.
But Rochester responded. McCarter found Field for a basket and a foul, but Field missed the free throw. Wilson hit a 3-pointer and then two free throws. Hunter bombed in a 3 from the left corner to make it 19-18.
And after another stop, Wilson hit her 3 and Rochester had their first lead.
“I’ll be honest,” Burrus said. “I thought we got a lot of good looks. … We were really worried about their pressure. We talked about that with Daughtry out front. We handled their pressure pretty well. … They pressed us pretty much the whole game, which we knew they were going to do. You can’t come out and go 12-2. Against a team that good, you can’t do that. … Just a frustrating start.”
Lewis Cass (3-0), Whitko (3-0), and Wabash are the three remaining unbeaten teams in TRC play.
Wabash 52, Rochester 43
WABASH (52) (8-2, 2-0)
Kaitlynn Honeycutt 2 1-2 7, Janika Stumbo 0 1-4 1, Bryleigh Boggs 3 6-9 12, Samantha Walter 0 0-0 0, Anna Daughtry 7 4-4 18, Brookelynn Buzzard 5 1-2 14, Gretta France 0 0-0 0, Kenley McWhirt 0 0-0 0, Logan Wright 0 0-0 0, Olivia Braun 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 17 13-21 52
ROCHESTER (43) (9-3, 3-1)
Aubrey Wilson 4 2-2 13, Rylee Clevenger 3 0-0 9, Brailyn Hunter 3 0-2 8, Ella McCarter 3 0-0 8, Audrey Bolinger 0 1-4 1, Jadyn Field 2 0-1 4
TEAM: 15 3-9 43
Three-point field goals:
Wabash 5 (Buzzard 3, Honeycutt 2),
Rochester 10 (Wilson 3, Clevenger 3, McCarter 2, Hunter 2)
Total fouls: Wabash 11, Rochester 18
Fouled out: Field (RHS), :31.6, fourth
Turnovers: Wabash 10, Rochester 17
Score by quarters
Wabash 12 7 16 17 – 52
Rochester 2 19 6 16 – 43
