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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The standard for the Rochester girls basketball team defensively is set high enough that they could hold their opponents’ top two scorers to barely half of their combined average and still feel like they need to get better.
They settled for a 4-1 overall record and a 1-0 Three Rivers Conference following a 44-33 win over visiting Peru at the RHS gym Thursday.
Ella McCarter scored 13 points to lead the Lady Zs, and Audrey Bolinger had 11 points to go with her eight rebounds.
Jacey Boswell, who came in averaging 5.5 ppg, hit three 3-pointers and scored 15 for Peru, who lost their fourth straight and fell to 2-5 overall and 0-2 in the TRC.
Addison Robbins and Maddie Gatliff, each of whom came in averaging 11 ppg, were held to seven and five, respectively.
Rochester beat Peru for the third straight year. They are 9-1 against Peru since the schools became conference rivals in 2015.
“Our defense tonight in that second half just wasn’t what we wanted it to be,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “Let some balls squirt out of our hands. We knew that that ball-screen action was going to happen. We just got our other top (player in the 2-3 zone) overloaded a little too much, and it kind of put Ella in a little bit of a bind at times because they had one buried down in the corner. So we’re going to have to look at that. … Obviously, it’s nice to win, but we got a lot to clean up. … We’re 4-1, but, and they’ll tell you this, we haven’t put together a 32-minute game yet.”
Rochester hit five 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes of the game, including three treys from Rylee Clevenger, but none thereafter. When McCarter hit from the right elbow on an inbounds play to complete a 13-0 run, the lead was up to 26-7 with 5:38 left in the half.
“With Rochester, you know you can’t get down,” Peru coach Jenna Hayes said. “You know they’re going to take the air out of the ball, and I told them coming we have to have a good start. We didn’t, and that’s what buried us.”
Having said that, those would be the Lady Zs’ final points of the half. Burrus admitted that he was not happy at halftime after Peru scored the final five points of the half.
“R.J. got going a little bit there in the second quarter,” Burrus said. “Bolinger was great tonight. … And she stayed out of foul trouble tonight too. Isn’t that amazing what happens when you stay out of foul trouble what you can do in a full game? I thought she did a great job. And then obviously Ella had a good second half on the offensive end.”
Peru rallied and would get within six on three different occasions in the fourth quarter, the last time at 39-33 on a Lucy Sensel layup off a Robbins assist with 3:44 left, but Peru would not score again.
Meanwhile, McCarter hit a pullup 12-footer with 2:01 left, Wilson would split a pair of free throws with 1:17 left, and McCarter would complete the scoring with two free throws with 1:02 left.
“I always try to create for my teammates,” McCarter said. “Having Audrey in the post this year is really nice. She’s a better post player than most matchups. … But her and we have three great shooters – Aubrey Wilson, Brailyn (Hunter) and Rylee, all of them can shoot the 3 – so if I can get in the paint and draw the help, it’s really easy to kick out to one of them for some easy points.”
Neither team scored in the first three-and-a-half minutes before McCarter landed a 3-pointer. Clevenger drilled a 3 on the next possession, and Hunter buried a 3 to get the lead to 13-4.
Meanwhile, Gatliff picked up her second foul with 2:13 left in the quarter. Robbins picked up her second foul with 3:43 left in the half and her third with 23.3 seconds left.
“Huge,” Hayes said of Gatliff and Robbins’ foul issues. “Maddie is a big focal point of everything we do – no secret. Every game that she’s been in foul trouble, it’s been tough. She knows that.”
Boswell hit a 3 from the left corner, but Rochester went on another run, holding Peru scoreless for over six minutes. Wilson started the run with a 3-point play, and Clevenger hit 3s on consecutive possessions in the first two minutes of the second quarter.
A Robbins basket in transition would trim the lead to 26-12 at halftime. A Gatliff 3-point play and two Robbins free throws in the final 1:35 of the third quarter got the lead down to 33-22.
Boswell hit a 3 from the left corner and a runner from the left baseline on back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter to make it 35-27, and when Sensel caught a bullet pass from Robbins and laid it in, the lead was down to 35-29.
Wilson drove on Robbins to the rim and scored to stop the rally, but Robbins answered with a runner. Clevenger and Bolinger worked a pick-and-roll with Bolinger finishing through contact with 3:55 left. She missed the free throw, but the lead was eight.
Rochester 44, Peru 33
PERU (33) (2-5, 0-2)
Addie Butt 1 0-0 2, Addison Robbins 2 3-4 7, Jacey Boswell 6 0-0 15, Ky Correll 0 0-0 0, Maddie Gatliff 2 1-1 5, Lucy Sensel 2 0-0 4, Sydney Azbell 0 0-0 0, Alivia Ross 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 13 4-5 33
ROCHESTER (44) (4-1, 1-0)
Aubrey Wilson 3 2-5 8, Rylee Clevenger 3 0-0 9, Brailyn Hunter 1 0-0 3, Ella McCarter 5 2-2 13, Audrey Bolinger 3 5-7 11, Jayla Miller 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 15 9-14 44
Three-point field goals:
Peru 3 (Boswell 3),
Rochester 5 (Clevenger 3, McCarter, Hunter)
Total fouls: Peru 11, Rochester 8
Turnovers: Peru 15, Rochester 9
Score by quarters
Peru 7 5 10 11 – 33
Rochester 18 8 7 11 – 44
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