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Rochester holds Maconaquah scoreless for over 6 minutes
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Brailyn Hunter, Aubrey Wilson and Ella McCarter had led the Rochester girls basketball team in scoring this season.
Against visiting Maconaquah Saturday, it was Rylee Clevenger’s turn.
Clevenger hit two 3-pointers and scored 10 points, and the Lady Z defense held the Lady Braves scoreless for a 6:26 span covering the second and third quarters in earning a 35-28 win at the RHS gym.
Audrey Bolinger battled illness and scored eight points and hauled down eight rebounds while playing nearly the entire game. Ella McCarter had seven, and Brailyn Hunter and Aubrey Wilson had five each.
Addie Maiben hit five 3-pointers and scored 15 to lead Maconaquah. The Lady Braves hit eight 3-pointers as a team, but they missed all six of their free throws.
Rochester made as many free throws as Maconaquah attempted.
Rochester improved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Three Rivers Conference. Maconaquah fell to 3-1, 1-1.
Rochester beat Maconaquah for the fifth straight year.
Clevenger hit a 3-pointer in transition after a Wilson steal and assist with 5:26 left in the first quarter to give Rochester a 5-3 lead. They would never trail again.
Clevenger would hit a right baseline pullup off the dribble just before the first quarter buzzer to make it 11-6.
A Bolinger cutting layup and a Hunter layup after McCarter drew a double team at the elbow helped bump the lead to 15-8.
Ireland Kile, who came in averaging 20 points per game but was held to five, hit a right baseline runner to cut the lead to five with 3:09 left in the half.
At that point, scoring became an issue for Maconaquah.
A McCarter 15-footer, a Hunter free throw, a Wilson pullup 17-footer and two Wilson free throws got the halftime lead to 22-10.
“Our lack of shooting from outside,” Maconaquah coach Ray Davis said when asked to explain the scoring droughts. “It wasn’t really anything their defense did. We knew what they were going to give us. We just didn’t hit shots the first half.”
On the first possession of the second half, Rochester worked a minute off the clock before Bolinger kicked out from the post to Clevenger for another 3 to make it 25-10.
“We’ve cleaned up our turnovers a lot since last year,” Clevenger said. “Because, you know, we’ve come back with all of our players except Jadyn (Field) for now, but I really think we’ve done a good job cleaning up passing. He always tells us to use the fakes, Burrus does. I just think that now we’re at a point where we’re so comfortable with our bonds with everybody and each other that it’s a lot easier to control. Ballhandling, we’re under way more control. We’re way more patient. We know when we should be making bounce passes versus chest passes. And I think that really plays into it, so we can get good shots.”
A four-point possession that included a Hunter layup, a missed free throw trying to complete a 3-point play and a Bolinger stick back got the lead to its apex at 29-13.
Maiben broke that drought with a 3, but Maconaquah didn’t score again for another five minutes, and McCarter drilled a 3 behind a screen to make it 32-16 with 5:55 left.
Maconaquah would not whittle the deficit to single digits until there were 34 seconds left.
“They’re happy that they won,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “I’m not happy with how we played. That tonight was frustrating for me. It was major frustration.”
Burrus said Bolinger texted him earlier Saturday telling him that she was sick. Then Clevenger picked up two fouls in the first six minutes, making Burrus’ job of managing minutes a tightrope act.
“She gutted it out,” Burrus said of Bolinger. “Her face was red as a beet out there. She did a great job of gutting through it. I was really worried, but she did, and that was big.”
Said Clevenger: “She was pretty sick tonight. I mean, she was hacking it up at halftime, and her face was all flushed out. But she played a really good first half and so that pushed us up front.”
Burrus said missing open shots was another source of frustration.
“The other thing is too, more open looks that we didn’t capitalize on,” Burrus said. “And I felt like when we did get post touches tonight, I felt like good things happened for the most part. We got good kickouts. … The two 3s that R.J. (Clevenger) were off kickouts, I believe.”
Maiben had scored seven points all season before getting loose from behind the arc.
“Not what I would have drawn up,” Burrus said. “Maybe that’s why we won, I guess.”
Maconaquah’s Aubrey Stoll missed the game due to illness, and Davis said he had to “tweak” some defensive schemes they had otherwise planned to use.
“It came down to Clevenger and McCarter, them handling the ball and them having three years of varsity experience being starters is what it came down to,” Davis added.
Meanwhile, Field has not played this season as she recovers from ACL surgery in August.
“I think we’re just scratching the surface to be honest,” Clevenger said. “I mean, last year, it was a struggle, and at the end of the year, I feel like we really picked it up. This summer went really well for us, and going into this year without Jadyn has been rough, but when we get her back, I think it will put us in a really good position, especially for conference play.”
Rochester 35, Maconaquah 28
MACONAQUAH (28) (3-1, 1-1)
Averie Maiben 0 0-0 0, Addie Maiben 5 0-0 15, Delaney Betzner 2 0-0 6, Aubrey Kaiser 0 0-2 0, Ireland Kile 2 0-2 5, Kasey Murry 1 0-2 2, Gabrielle Griffis 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 10 0-6 28
ROCHESTER (35) (5-1, 2-0)
Aubrey Wilson 1 3-4 5, Rylee Clevenger 3 2-2 10, Brailyn Hunter 2 1-3 5, Ella McCarter 3 0-2 7, Audrey Bolinger 4 0-4 8, Jayla Miller 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 13 6-15 35
Three-point field goals:
Maconaquah 8 (Addie Maiben 5, Betzner 2, Kile),
Rochester 3 (Clevenger 2, McCarter)
Total fouls: Maconaquah 14, Rochester 7
Turnovers: Maconaquah 14, Rochester 8
Score by quarters
Maconaquah 6 4 6 12 – 28
Rochester 11 11 7 6 – 35
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