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Kroft scores 15, Iverson adds 12 for Lady Warriors
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
WINAMAC — Rochester girls basketball player Ella McCarter was driving to the basket with her team leading host Winamac in the fourth quarter Saturday when as she approached the rim, the ball slipped out of her hands and floated into the basket.
When it is your night, it is your night.
McCarter scored 15 points, and Rylee Clevenger and Aubrey Wilson scored 10, and the Lady Zs utilized pressure defense to go on a 17-2 run to start the second quarter in a 46-39 win.
Brailyn Hunter hit a pair of first-half 3-pointers and had six.
Kandace Kroft hit five 3-pointers and scored 15 points to lead Winamac. Marissa Iverson added 12 points and eight rebounds.
Both teams are 6-2.
Rochester led by as many as 14 in the fourth quarter. Winamac got as close as seven on a Kroft 3-pointer with eight seconds left before Rochester dribbled out the clock.
This marked the third straight year that the road team won this game, which has been played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving every year since 2007.
Winamac closed out the first quarter with a 9-0 salvo in response to a Hunter corner 3. At that point, Rochester coach Joel Burrus switched from his trademark 2-3 zone to a halfcourt zone press.
“Our big thing was that if we weren’t getting offense tonight, we knew that we were going to go to the press, and that’s a different press than we’ve ran all year,” Burrus said. “We had that ready. We were going to run that against Maconaquah (a 35-28 Rochester win on Nov. 23), but we really didn’t want to show it if we didn’t have to. That’s what I would say 90% of the 24 points came from in the second quarter, just the tempo. We were forcing the turnovers, and I think we went on a 9-0 run without them getting the ball over halfcourt. … We’re hard to beat if you’ve got three people in double digits, I think. … I’m really proud of the way they responded after that first quarter.”
McCarter scored on a putback of a Hunter air ball, and Clevenger hit two free throws. Then Rochester went to a fullcourt press, and Clevenger stole a pass in the backcourt and swished a 3-pointer to put Rochester ahead for good at 10-9.
And another backcourt steal from McCarter led to a Wilson layup.
Iverson hit a short banker to convert a press breaker, but Wilson drained a 3-pointer on an inbounds play and then added two free throws. And in their first possession after the timeout, McCarter drained a trey from the left of the key off a Wilson assist.
Burrus said he had been “desperate” for McCarter to score more. She was held to one point in her previous game, a home loss to Tippecanoe Valley.
“I think we just played a lot faster pace in the second quarter," McCarter said. “The first quarter, we were kind of just getting the feel for it and playing slow. But once we started pushing the ball and getting our open looks and hitting those looks, we started to score more naturally. … We have an easier time scoring when we’re playing better defense. It reflects on both ends.”
After a six-minute scoreless drought to close the first quarter, the Lady Zs had scored 17 points in less than two minutes.
“That’s probably the senior experience,” Winamac coach Tony Stesiak said. “We have three seniors, but their seniors have played a lot more than ours. Also, and this is a thing we have to walk that fine line all year, Popejoy got in foul trouble, and when she’s not in the game… it’s not our best ballhandling lineup, and they took advantage of it. And that was ultimately the game. They got enough of a gap, and it was kind of even throughout.
“We made some runs, but their veteran experience… we had some breakdowns on defense, and it seemed like they made us pay. … We played pretty well, but every mistake we made, their senior trio, it felt like, made a big play. I thought Ella McCarter played fantastic. I’m so impressed with her.”
Winamac would get within 29-22 on a Sadie Popejoy 3-pointer, but Rochester held Winamac scoreless over the final 5:21 of the third quarter, and McCarter and Clevenger would bury 3s to get the lead back to 13 going into the fourth quarter.
McCarter would penetrate and drop a pass off to Audrey Bolinger for a layup that made it 37-23 with 6:52 left.
Iverson and Popejoy would score on post-ups, but Clevenger would find reserve Jayla Miller for a bucket, and McCarter would follow with her aforementioned drive to the hoop.
Game notes
Winamac assistant coaches Keaton Stesiak and Ali (Larkin) Kiser are both 2016 Rochester grads. They were teammates on the Lady Z team that won a Class 3A regional title in 2015 and followed with a Class 2A sectional crown in 2016. Tony Stesiak was the Rochester girls coach from 2000-17.
Start time for Rochester’s road game against Southwood has been moved up from 7:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. this Saturday, varsity only.
Rochester 46, Winamac 39
ROCHESTER (46) (6-2)
Aubrey Wilson 2 5-6 10, Rylee Clevenger 3 2-4 10, Brailyn Hunter 2 0-0 6, Ella McCarter 5 3-4 15, Audrey Bolinger 1 0-1 2, Jayla Miller 1 1-2 3
TEAM: 14 11-17 46
WINAMAC (39) (6-2)
Kandace Kroft 5 0-0 15, Sadie Popejoy 3 0-0 7, Kaelyn O’Connor 1 0-0 2, Mershai Loehmer 1 0-0 3, Marissa Iverson 5 2-4 12, Cyaira Wolford 0 0-0 0, Maggie Keller 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 15 2-4 39
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 7 (McCarter 2, Clevenger 2, Hunter 2, Wilson),
Winamac 7 (Kroft 5, Popejoy, Loehmer)
Total fouls: Rochester 11, Winamac 14
Fouled out: Popejoy (WIN), :25.1, fourth
Turnovers: Rochester 8, Winamac 13
Score by quarters
Rochester 3 24 8 11 – 46
Winamac 9 10 3 17 – 39
