Girls Basketball: Lundquist leads Rochelle over Oregon

Senior guard scores 34 points as Lady Hubs win opener 49-31

Russell Hodges
Posted 11/11/18

An offensive outburst from Abby Lundquist was all the Rochelle varsity girls basketball team needed to take down the Oregon Hawks in its season-opener on Monday.

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Girls Basketball: Lundquist leads Rochelle over Oregon

Senior guard scores 34 points as Lady Hubs win opener 49-31

Posted

ROCHELLE — An offensive outburst from Abby Lundquist was all the Rochelle varsity girls basketball team needed to take down the Oregon Hawks in its season-opener on Monday.

Lundquist let the ball fly early and often for the Lady Hubs, scoring 15 points in the first quarter and finishing with a game-high 34 points to lead Rochelle over Oregon by a final score of 49-31. The senior guard nailed three 3-pointers in the opening quarter to ignite the Lady Hub offense.

“My teammates were setting a lot of screens for me,” Lundquist said. “We’ve been going really hard in practice and I think our intensity is really good right now. We’re really focusing on pushing the ball.”

Sophomore Afi Gati added one point on a free throw in the first quarter, and the Lady Hub defense prevented Oregon from finding any decent looks away from the basket. Rochelle led the Hawks 16-10 after one quarter, and Lundquist added nine more points in the second quarter to help the Lady Hubs lead 27-14 at halftime. Head coach Tony Rowan was pleasantly surprised with Rochelle’s stout defensive effort on Monday.

“I’m very happy with how well we communicated on defense,” Rowan said. “We were flowing with the basketball and we were doing the right thing… Abby is much more relaxed now. I think she’s put a little too much pressure on herself over the last few years but I think she’s letting the game come to her as opposed to forcing things.”

Oregon was able to contain Lundquist for most of the second half, but Rochelle’s young players stepped up with quality shots to keep the Lady Hubs ahead. Seniors Emilee Dueringer and Makenna Ferrari each made mid-range shots to get on the scoreboard, and freshman Lucy Bunger added another 2-pointer as Rochelle ended the third quarter leading 40-22.

“We played really good defense,” Lundquist said. “We talk a lot which really helps… I’m so proud of my teammates. They go really hard in practice and they’ve made a lot of improvements so I’m really proud of them.”

Freshmen Zoey Tabor and Josie Lundquist combined for five points in the second half to give the Lady Hubs an offensive boost, and sophomore Sofia Lenkaitis added three points in the fourth quarter to maintain the team’s lead. Rochelle (1-0) will have some momentum entering their five-game stretch at the Forreston Thanksgiving Tournament, which begins at Forreston High School on Thursday against Eastland.

“We drill open shots every day in practice,” Rowan said. “Making those shots during games will boost the confidence of every single kid on our team. I don’t think we’ve started off our season with a win over the last few years so we’ll have some confidence going into the Forreston tournament. We’ve seen a lot of these teams in the past.”