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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
NORTH MANCHESTER — Aubrey Wilson scored 12 points, and Rylee Clevenger hit a pair of 3-pointers and added eight, but the Rochester girls basketball team lost to host Manchester 40-31 Saturday.
Audrey Bolinger had six points and seven rebounds, and Ella McCarter added five points.
McCarter’s pullup jumper with 6:48 left gave the Lady Zs a 29-27 lead, but that turned out to be their final field goal.
Manchester closed with a 13-2 run as Rochester could only score on a pair of Wilson free throws.
Rochester dropped to 14-6 overall and 5-3 in the Three Rivers Conference. Rochester and Manchester have split their last 10 meetings.
Peyton Ream scored six of her game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter, and Hadley West hit three 3-pointers and added 11 for Manchester, who improved to 9-11, 2-6. West had scored in double figures only twice all season prior to Saturday, and her three triples tied a career high.
Her third trey was the biggest, a go-ahead shot from the right wing with 4:37 left that put Manchester ahead for good at 32-29.
Manchester led 27-22 after three quarters, but Rochester scored seven unanswered points in a 1:12 span to start the fourth quarter.
Clevenger hit a running banker after a back door cut and then hit a game-tying 3-pointer from the top of the key. Then came McCarter’s basket.
Rochester coach Joel Burrus was so discouraged afterwards that he said he was hoping administrators would allow him to hold a practice Monday. Rochester also has a home game against Taylor at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
The regular season finale is a home game against Northfield at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“I’m not a happy camper right now,” Burrus said. “If they tell me I can practice on Monday before we play, there’s a good chance we’re going to be in the gym practicing. That’s where I’m at right now. … We’re going to have to use Monday to help us for Thursday and get some confidence back.”
After shredding Lewis Cass’ zone defense for nine 3-pointers in its previous game, Rochester made only four treys against Manchester.
Ballhandling was also an issue. Rochester had seven turnovers against Lewis Cass but 14 against Manchester’s man-to-man.
As a result, Rochester had to get more aggressive defensively to try to get the ball back.
“That’s too many,” Burrus said of the turnovers. “We had to chase them the whole game pretty much because we couldn’t score. We went to our halfcourt trap fairly early. They were very comfortable with being patient. I thought the first quarter, that was the deal. You could tell that they were going to come out and they were going to try to break us down by being patient. So we had to start getting after them. And we had good runs of that, but I felt like when we weren’t in pressure, we couldn’t score.”
Manchester went on a 9-2 run covering the first and second quarters to take a 14-7 lead. West had two free throws, and Emma Walker hit a 3 from the deep left corner to start the run. Wilson hit two free throws, but Ream scored on a runner in transition, and Ava Sautter hit a hook in the lane.
But the Lady Zs came back with an 8-0 run. Wilson scored on a driving layup, Clevenger hit a 3 from the left side, and Wilson took a steal and converted it into a 3-point play at the other end with 44.4 seconds left in the half. That gave Rochester their first lead at 15-14, which they took into halftime.
McCarter’s dribble penetration led to an assist to Bolinger on the first possession of the second half. Wilson followed with a 3, and the Lady Zs had their biggest lead at 20-14.
But Schanepp hit a 19-footer, and Ream buried a 3. Bolinger hit two free throws with 3:49 left in the quarter to make it 22-19, but Manchester closed on an 8-0 run.
Sautter’s triple gave Manchester a 24-22 lead, and West’s trey on a third chance pushed the lead to five going into the fourth.
Clevenger swished a 30-foot prayer as time expired, but officials ruled it came after the buzzer.
Manchester 40, Rochester 31
ROCHESTER (31) (14-6, 5-3)
Aubrey Wilson 3 5-7 12, Rylee Clevenger 3 0-0 8, Brailyn Hunter 0 0-0 0, Ella McCarter 2 0-0 5, Audrey Bolinger 2 2-2 6, Jadyn Field 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 10 7-9 31
MANCHESTER (40) (9-11, 2-6)
Peyton Ream 5 2-4 13, Hadley West 3 2-4 11, Ava Sautter 2 0-0 5, Molly Schanepp 3 0-0 6, Hanna Stout 0 0-0 0, Olivia Stevens 0 0-0 0, Allie Egolf 0 0-0 0, Emma Walker 1 2-2 5
TEAM: 14 6-10 40
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 4 (Clevenger 2, Wilson, McCarter),
Manchester 6 (West 3, Ream, Sautter, Walker)
Total fouls: Rochester 14, Manchester 12
Turnovers: Rochester 14, Manchester 17
Score by quarters
Rochester 5 10 7 9 – 31
Manchester 7 7 13 13 – 40
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