MENDOTA — Upsetting the No. 1 seed in any regional basketball bracket is no easy task, but the Rochelle varsity girls basketball team was looking to pull off the upset when the Lady Hubs faced Sterling in the IHSA Class 3A Regional Semifinals at Mendota on Wednesday.

Foul trouble hurt the top-seeded Golden Warriors early, and the ninth-seeded Lady Hubs got an outstanding offensive performance from senior Abby Lundquist, who led all scorers with 32 points in the game. However, Sterling’s combination of size and athleticism was too much for Rochelle, as the Golden Warriors terrorized the Lady Hubs in transition and on the glass to take down Rochelle 68-42. The Lady Hubs finished the night with an overall record of 7-24.

“We’re building,” head coach Tony Rowan said. “I think we’ve done a great job of building our team up from November through February since I’ve been here. The spot where we’re lacking is our work over the offseason. If we can take steps forward over the offseason, we hopefully won’t be missing a beat.”

Rochelle took advantage of Sterling’s lack of discipline in the first quarter, as the Golden Warriors committed eight fouls, including one technical foul on Brooklyn Borum, in less than four minutes. Sterling pushed the pace from the jump, however, scoring several transition buckets courtesy of Bree Borum and Gretchen Gould, who combined for 44 points. The Lady Hubs trailed 16-8 after one quarter.

“Our kids weren’t panicking under pressure,” Rowan said. “We’ve been playing an attacking style of defense and I think that helped us have the mentality of knowing what it’s like to be on the other side of the basketball. We did a great job of maintaining contact and going through pressure instead of panicking.”

As Sterling stretched its lead in the second quarter, Lundquist did her best to keep Rochelle in the game, scoring 13 of her points and finishing with 17 of the team’s 23 points by halftime. The Golden Warriors held a 35-23 advantage entering the third quarter.

“She was able to catch the ball, rise and release,” Rowan said. “Sterling has a lot of length, so whenever she puts the ball down, their players can recover differently than others can. A lot of her shots were either catch-and-shoot plays or pull-up plays, and she did a fantastic job of releasing the ball.”

Transition buckets and offensive rebounds keyed Sterling’s third-quarter surge, as the Lady Hubs struggled to box out the taller and bouncier Golden Warrior players. Even when Rochelle made shots on one end, Sterling seemed faster down the floor, leading to wide open looks at the rim. The Golden Warriors ballooned their lead to 54-30 after three quarters before outscoring Rochelle 14-12 the rest of the way.

“They have multiple great athletes on the floor who attack the glass hard and it’s hard for us to mimic guarding 5-foot-11 or 6-foot girls with 30-inch verticals,” Rowan said. “Our kids did great when trying to get their bodies on them, but we didn’t do great on drawing push-in-the-back calls. It’s something the girls can learn from.”

Freshman Zoey Tabor totaled seven points for Rochelle, while sophomore Sofia Lenkaitis and freshman Sylvia Hasz combined for three first-quarter points.