.png)
Eaton hits 6 3-pointers, scores career-high 19 in win over Logansport
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Rochester girls basketball team went 1-2 and finished in seventh place in the eight-team Twin Lakes Invitational last week.
Rochester lost to eventual tournament champion Twin Lakes 57-34 on Tuesday in the quarterfinals. In the consolation round on Wednesday, the Lady Zs lost to Kankakee
Valley 60-53 before coming back to beat Logansport 65-50.
Rochester is 10-6 going into their home game against Plymouth this Wednesday. Their next conference game is a road game against Whitko at 1 p.m./2:30 p.m. (JV/Varsity) Saturday.
Twin Lakes 57, Rochester 34 (Tuesday)
Kallie Watson hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter and led Rochester with 10 points. Kennedy Jackson added eight points, and Sydney Haughs had seven, all in the first half.
Addison Bowsman scored 10 of her game-high 15 for Twin Lakes in the fourth quarter. Addi Ward added 13, and Olivia Nickerson had 12.
Rochester led 15-10 after one quarter thanks to Watson’s long-range shooting, but Twin Lakes came back to lead 27-21 at halftime.
Already leading 39-30, Twin Lakes put the game away by outsourcing Rochester 18-4 in the fourth quarter.
Elizabeth Weaver had a team-high six rebounds off the bench for Rochester. Lexy Thomas and Jackson were in foul trouble, and Millie Scorsone missed the tournament due to illness. That led to extra playing time for Weaver.
“We got off to a really good start and shot the ball well,” Rochester coach Brian Jennings said. “I think the big thing was our post players got into a little foul trouble. And when we had to have Lex and Kennedy both out of the game, it really shut down our offense a little bit. We didn’t have near the inside play. Syd and Elizabeth Weaver did a great job, but it’s just not the scoring punch that Kennedy, Lex and Millie would have been. … It really hurt the inside-outside game.”
Kankakee Valley 60, Rochester 53 (Wednesday)
Kennedy Jackson scored eight of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter, and she also grabbed 10 rebounds, but the Lady Zs lost to the Lady Kougars in the consolation bracket in Rochester’s first game on Wednesday.
Jackson averaged 11 points and seven rebounds per game for the tournament. She spent much of her time in the post with Scorsone out but also helped out with her ballhandling, according to Jennings.
In fact, Jennings said Jackson “was about all we could do” against Kankakee Valley, according to Jennings.
Lexy Thomas, who was held scoreless against Twin Lakes, came back to score 11. Kami Burkett and Rily Holloway added eight apiece.
The teams combined to attempt 38 free throws for the game, including 26 in the fourth quarter. Burkett fouled out in the fourth quarter.
Taylor Schoonveld had 17 points, and Lilly Toppen hit three 3-pointers and added 13 for Kankakee Valley, a reigning Class 3A sectional champion. Kate Thomas scored seven of her 12 in the fourth quarter.
Kankakee Valley provided a unique dimension with their length on defense, according to Jennings.
“Kankakee Valley is a big nightmare for us when another team has length with athletic ability,” Jennings said. “Kankakee Valley had a five-foot-five guard that might have been one of the fastest guards we’ve played against this year, and then everybody else was 5-10, 5-11 and extremely athletic. And then they had probably a 6-2 post player that was a sophomore that really wasn’t that athletic. When we started out, that little guard for them was giving us fits. We couldn’t go anywhere. She stripped us a couple times, and it didn’t matter if it was Kallie or Kami bringing the ball up, she was picking up the ball.
“And so what we started doing is when we got to halfcourt, we would reverse the ball over to Kennedy, and Kennedy was being guarded by the slower 6-2 person, and she would just attack from that point. And she did a nice job of getting to the rim and kicking it back out for shots.”
Kankakee Valley first-year coach Brandon Bradley was the Whitko coach from 2011-17.
Rochester 65, Logansport 50 (Wednesday)
Lillith Eaton nailed six treys and scored a career-high 19 points for the Lady Zs against Logansport in the seventh-place game. Thomas added 18, including 16 in the second half.
Eaton became the second Rochester girl to make six 3s in a game this season. Rily Holloway also hit six treys against Winamac on Nov. 27.
“I think in the first half, they were collapsing more on Lex, and it wasn’t an inside-out pass for Eaton,” Jennings said. “It was just basically good ball reversal, and she was just ready to shoot on the other side. In the second half, they made an adjustment and stayed out, and Lex just had a heyday in the second half.”
Gabby Richie hit three 3-pointers and scored 17 points for the Lady Berries (4-13). Kendra Sutton added 13.
Logansport first-year coach Chris Keisling was the Rochester principal from 2014-21. Keisling is best known for utilizing a 2-3 zone defense, but Jennings said they had to prepare for a more aggressive 1-2-2 defense designed to pressure ballhandlers.
“We kind of prepared to go against this trapping 1-2-2 real quick, and then he came out real quick and sat in a 2-3 zone,” Jennings said. “So that surprised us a little bit. I was happy he did. We were pretty tired, and I don’t think we could have kept our concentration for the entire game against the pressure he was putting on in the earlier games. So he pretty much sat in the 2-3. Eaton got hot, and he still stayed in the 2-3. It might have been maybe a couple minutes to go, and he came out and switched to a man-to-man, but it was a 12,13-point game at that point, and when he went to man, we pulled it out and just killed the clock.”
The teams will meet again in their regularly scheduled meeting at the Berry Bowl on Jan. 12.
Twin Lakes beat North White 62-47 and Mount Vernon (Fortville) 49-36 on Wednesday to win the tournament title for the first time in 14 years.
Quarterfinals: Twin Lakes 57, Rochester 34
ROCHESTER (34) (9-5)
Kami Burkett 0 1-2 1, Rily Holloway 2 0-0 5, Kallie Watson 3 1-4 10, Sydney Haughs 2 2-4 7, Lexy Thomas 0 0-0 0, Lilith Eaton 1 0-0 3, Savanah Eccles 0 0-0 0, Kennedy Jackson 3 2-3 8, Elizabeth Weaver 0 0-2 0
TEAM: 11 6-15 34
TWIN LAKES (57) (11-3)
Bowsman 5 5-7 15, Hodgen 4 0-0 9, Nickerson 3 4-4 12, Ward 4 3-5 13, Pass 1 0-0 2, Need 1 2-4 4, Kaufmann 1 0-1 2, Robertson 0 0-0 0, West 0 0-0 0, Wert 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 19 14-21 57
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 6 (Watson 3, Holloway, Haughs, Eaton),
Twin Lakes 5 (Nickerson 2, Ward 2, Hodgen)
Total fouls: Rochester 21, Twin Lakes 21
Fouled out: Burkett (RHS), Jackson (RHS), Bowsman (TL)
Score by quarters
Rochester 15 6 9 4 – 34
Twin Lakes 10 17 12 18 – 57
Consolation bracket: Kankakee Valley 60, Rochester 53
KANKAKEE VALLEY (60) (11-5)
Toppen 5 0-0 13, Thomas 2 8-11 12, Schoonveld 6 5-7 17, Capellari 4 0-0 9, Hayes 1 0-0 2, Plummer 0 0-0 0, Howard 1 1-2 4, Mauger 0 1-2 1, Starr 0 2-3 2
TEAM: 19 17-25 60
ROCHESTER (53) (9-6)
Kami Burkett 3 2-4 8, Rily Holloway 3 0-0 8, Kallie Watson 1 0-0 3, Sydney Haughs 2 0-0 6, Lexy Thomas 5 1-3 11, Lilith Eaton 0 0-0 0, Kennedy Jackson 6 5-6 17, Elizabeth Weaver 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 20 8-13 53
Three-point field goals:
Kankakee Valley 5 (Toppen 3, Howard, Capellari),
Rochester 5 (Holloway 2, Haughs 2, Watson)
Total fouls: Kankakee Valley 11, Rochester 19
Fouled out: Burkett (RHS)
Score by quarters
Kankakee Valley 12 13 15 20 – 60
Rochester 10 11 13 19 – 53
Seventh-place game: Rochester 65, Logansport 50
LOGANSPORT (50) (4-13)
Richie 5 4-6 17, Cripe 2 0-0 5, Pearson 2 1-2 5, Goad 2 0-0 4, Crook 2 0-0 5, Spradling 0 0-0 0, Sutton 6 1-2 13, Jones 0 1-2 1
TEAM: 19 7-12 50
ROCHESTER (65) (10-6)
Kami Burkett 2 0-2 6, Rily Holloway 1 0-0 3, Kallie Watson 1 0-0 2, Kennedy Jackson 2 4-7 8, Lexy Thomas 8 2-5 18, Sydney Haughs 3 1-2 9, Lilith Eaton 6 1-2 19, Elizabeth Weaver 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 23 8-16 65
Three-point field goals:
Logansport 5 (Richie 3, Cripe, Crook),
Rochester 11 (Eaton 6, Burkett 2, Haughs 2, Holloway)
Total fouls: Logansport 17, Rochester 13
Score by quarters
Logansport 9 15 14 12 – 50
Rochester8222015–65
Comments