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Douglass leads Lady Comets with 8
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Caston girls basketball coach Josh Douglass had never lost to Rochester in five tries in his five years on the bench prior to Saturday.
That streak ended Saturday as the more experienced Lady Zs cruised to a 44-19 win at the RHS gym.
Aubrey Wilson scored 13 points, and the Lady Zs held Caston to just 23 percent shooting.
Rylee Clevenger, Brailyn Hunter and Audrey Bolinger added eight points each for Rochester, and Ella McCarter had seven.
Madi Douglass led Caston with eight points, and she also had six rebounds. No other Caston player had more than three points.
Rochester improved to 2-0. Caston dropped to 0-2.
Rochester’s 2-3 zone forced 23 turnovers and limited Caston to only one free throw attempt, which they missed. Meanwhile, Rochester went 13 for 14 from the line.
Rochester opened the game with a 20-2 run and never trailed.
“We asked them from last game (against West Central),” Douglass said. “We had 29 turnovers and 20 offensive boards given up. Tonight, (we had) 23, and I think we gave up 10 offensive boards. So you know that’s what we asked them. We asked them to improve, and they did. Effort is there. The mistakes we’re making are young mistakes. Everything is correctable. And that’s what we said. Keep listening to us. Keep buying in. You will get it.”
After Bolinger hit two free throws and Clevenger hit a 3-pointer, freshman post player Allison Craig scored for Caston.
Wilson then hit a runner in the lane, two free throws and a 15-footer to make it 11-2. Two more Bolinger free throws, a Bolinger putback and a tough-angle 15-foot banker from Clevenger with one second left in the quarter made it 17-2.
Hunter then knocked down a 3 off a McCarter assist to open the scoring in the second quarter.
Wilson outscored the entire Caston team 11-9 in the first half.
Diagnosing Caston’s 1-2-2 zone was a challenge for Rochester, according to coach Joel Burrus. He wants them to avoid “phone booth dribbling,” which he defined as not taking “purposeful” dribbles.
“It was kind of one of those grinders,” Rochester coach Joel Burrus said. “We knew it might be that way because we knew they were going to either come at us one of two ways – bring the kitchen sink at us and see if they could press us a little bit because they maybe they saw against North Judson some things that they thought. They decided to get back and pack it in.
“We took one dribble too many multiple times when we had the swing just to make the extra pass. We took the dribble. The defense was able to shift back. It felt like that second quarter… they know what they need to do; we’ve just got to speed this up a little bit in that process. We’re still in that frame-thinking stage still.”
Caston stayed within 25-9 at halftime and might have had an even better stretch in the third quarter after a runner in the lane from Douglass and a 3-pointer from freshman reserve Gigi Berry cut the margin to 30-17.
But the Lady Zs answered with a 14-0 run, holding Caston scoreless for 6:20.
Wilson hit two free throws, Hunter drilled a 3-pointer off a Wilson drive-and-kick, and McCarter hit a pullup from the left baseline at the third-quarter buzzer to make it 37-17.
A Hunter layup in transition, a Bolinger putback and a Clevenger 3-pointer from the top of the key capped the run.
Bolinger’s 10 rebounds were a career high. She fouled out of the win over North Judson two days earlier.
“I feel like this game, I had more confidence going in, and I knew everything was good,” Bolinger said. “We were at home, so I really wanted to show up. Burrus was pushing me. He was like, ‘Oh, you’ve got this. You got the rebounds. You got the points.’ And I guess against North Judson, I was just feeling my way in. We were just getting used to everything.”
Meanwhile, the defense stifled the Lady Comets.
“Our goal tonight was to hold them to 25 or lower,” Burrus said. “So we did that as well. And they want to be coached. I said, ‘Is this good enough for you?’ And for this group, I think that they expect to be better. And that’s what we’ve got to work to do.”
Rochester started three seniors – Bolinger, Clevenger and McCarter – while Caston started only one. Caston also started two freshmen, and three other ninth-graders came off the bench.
Shooting quickly and off-balance were signs of Caston’s youth, according to Douglass. He said his young players were “being thrown to the fire.”
“These girls can shoot the ball,” coach Douglass said. “The problem is right now the game is too fast. And I said that was going to be a problem to start with. It’s too fast right now, and they’ve got to slow the game down.”
Rochester 44, Caston 19
CASTON (19) (0-2)
Grace Colvin 1 0-0 3, Kylee Logan 1 0-0 3, Madi Douglass 4 0-1 8, Olivia Thomas 0 0-0 0, Allison Craig 1 0-0 2, Myli Rude 0 0-0 0, Ellie Zartman 0 0-0 0, Gigi Berry 1 0-0 3, Hadlie Coffing 0 0-0 0, Camila Hernandez-Rios 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 8 0-1 19
ROCHESTER (44) (2-0)
Aubrey Wilson 3 7-8 13, Rylee Clevenger 3 0-0 8, Brailyn Hunter 3 0-0 8, Ella McCarter 2 2-2 7, Audrey Bolinger 2 4-4 8, Emma Mathias 0 0-0 0, Constance Velez 0 0-0 0, Kyla Conley 0 0-0 0, Jayla Miller 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 13 13-14 44
Three-point field goals:
Caston 3 (Colvin, Logan, Berry),
Rochester 5 (Clevenger 2, Hunter 2, McCarter)
Total fouls: Caston 9, Rochester 10
Turnovers: Caston 23, Rochester 6
Score by quarters
Caston 2 7 8 2 – 19
Rochester 17 8 12 7 – 44
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