ROCHELLE — Lady Hub guards Zoey Tabor and Sofia Lenkaitis had been struggling to find their shooting rhythm through the early portion of the season. That wasn’t the same story Monday evening, as the girls combined for six 3-pointers and 24 points during Rochelle’s nonconference game against the Stillman Valley Cardinals.

Tabor led Rochelle with six points at halftime before Lenkaitis caught fire in the third quarter, making two 3-pointers and scoring a team-high seven points in the period. Both players finished with 12 points, but their offensive outbursts weren’t enough Monday, as the Cardinals held the Lady Hubs to four points in the final quarter of their 53-39 loss. Rochelle fell to 1-7 overall.

“Both of those kids were putting up shots that they weren’t able to make earlier in the season,” head coach Tony Rowan said. “Hopefully this game will help build their confidence. Sofia has done a great job taking over the starting point guard role and taking the pressure… Zoey plays with a lot of heart and I’m really happy to have that kid in our program.”

The Lady Hubs have faced full-court and three-quarter-court pressures for most of the season, and that remained the same Monday night, as the Cardinals forced Rochelle to run its press-breakers against tough two-player and three-player traps. While the Lady Hubs showed improved ball movement against the press, half-court traps led to multiple transition layups for Stillman Valley early in the contest.

“We handled their pressure pretty well,” Rowan said. “They were like amoebas out there in that they shifted well and played with a very high basketball IQ. They were trapping us high and low. We’re going to have some turnovers, but the big thing for us will be not making passes too far down the court, and I think the girls reacted well to each other tonight.”

Despite tough defense from Stillman Valley, Rochelle remained in the game with a stout first-half defensive effort of its own, holding Cardinal point guard Georgia Ballard scoreless until the start of the third quarter. The Lady Hubs closed the first half on a 5-0 run that included a Tabor 3-pointer and a layup from Josie Lundquist, who had six points in the game.

“We’ve always tried being a man-to-man team and we felt this was a team we could match up well against,” Rowan said. “Our kids did a great job shifting around. We got beat on the offensive boards and we gave up too many second and third shots. If we can clean up the boards, we can be more successful.”

Leading 22-19 after the first half, Stillman Valley stretched its lead by starting the third quarter on an 8-4 run behind Ballard and Payton Barger, who scored a game-high 16 points. Ballard used her jump-stops and running floaters in the paint to score 11 of her 13 points in the third quarter and help the Cardinals take a 41-35 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Stillman Valley went on an 8-0 run from there, and Rochelle didn’t score again until Lenkaitis converted a short layup under the basket with less than two minutes remaining in the game.

Guilford

The Lady Hubs battled Rockford Guilford on the road Saturday, losing 61-24. Zoey Tabor scored nine points for the Lady Hubs, while Sofia Lenkaitis added eight points and Josie Lundquist finished 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Afi Gati grabbed five rebounds.