Girls Baskeball: DeKalb beats the press to top Rochelle

Barbs work around full-court pressure to win 69-48 over Lady Hubs

Russell Hodges
Posted 1/3/19

Head coach Tony Rowan worked with his lineup rotation to get more fresh legs onto the floor when the Rochelle varsity girls basketball team faced DeKalb on the road Friday evening.

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Girls Baskeball: DeKalb beats the press to top Rochelle

Barbs work around full-court pressure to win 69-48 over Lady Hubs

Posted

DEKALB — Head coach Tony Rowan worked with his lineup rotation to get more fresh legs onto the floor when the Rochelle varsity girls basketball team faced DeKalb on the road Friday evening.

The added energy helped Rochelle disrupt the DeKalb offense early in the first half, as the Lady Hubs utilized their full-court press to force errant passes and turnovers out of bounds by the Barbs. DeKalb managed to work its way around the press, though, and the Lady Hubs were unable to adjust as the Barbs cruised over Rochelle 69-48 to drop the girls to 5-15 overall.

“More girls on the floor means fresh legs for us,” Rowan said. “We need to be in sprinting shape and we’re going to continue working ourselves into shape over the next couple of weeks. As we watch ourselves on film, we’ll get better and better.”

Behind senior Abby Lundquist who scored a team-high 20 points, the Lady Hubs put DeKalb into foul trouble early in the game. The Barbs went into the bonus after one quarter before committing their 10th team foul almost immediately in the second quarter. But turnovers and poor ball movement prevented Rochelle from finding any driving lanes toward the basket.

“We need to be able to attack the basket,” Rowan said. “We rely on Abby a lot but I want the girls to start coming into their own so they can see the ball going through the net. The girls need to understand that they’re on the varsity floor for a reason, and they need to start putting the ball through the net.”

DeKalb held a slim 17-15 lead after the first quarter before ballooning its lead to 41-31 by halftime. Rochelle once again pushed DeKalb into foul trouble in the second half, with the Barbs going into the double bonus for the second time, but the Lady Hubs couldn’t corral enough rebounds to keep DeKalb away from their basket. The Barbs also continued scoring on its press-breaker by sending players long and successfully executing passes over the half-court line.

“The effort was there but we need to lock into where we’re sprinting into our positions,” Rowan said. “This was the first time we ran this press and we tried to prep our kids as much as we could. We’re going to watch film and do the best assessment we can. I liked the effort from the kids but we need to be more crisp in where we’re going.”

DeKalb opened the fourth quarter leading 51-38 before outscoring the Lady Hubs 18-10 the remainder of the way. Freshman Sylvia Hasz totaled six points for Rochelle, while junior Gabrielle Harding and freshman Josie Lundquist each added five points. Seniors Emilee Dueinger, Makenna Ferrari and Cheyene Watson all chipped in two points, with freshmen Lucy Bunger and Zoey Tabor both recording two points as well.