Lady Hubs basketball team boxed out by Eastland

Rochelle falls to Lady Cougars 54-42 in Forreston tourney opener

Russell Hodges
Posted 11/15/17

Rebounds were tough to come by for the Lady Hubs varsity basketball team on Thursday, and the Eastland Lady Cougars heavily utilized their advantage on the glass against Rochelle in the opening round of the Forreston Thanksgiving Tournament.

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Lady Hubs basketball team boxed out by Eastland

Rochelle falls to Lady Cougars 54-42 in Forreston tourney opener

Posted

FORRESTON — Rebounds were tough to come by for the Lady Hubs varsity basketball team on Thursday, and the Eastland Lady Cougars heavily utilized their advantage on the glass against Rochelle in the opening round of the Forreston Thanksgiving Tournament.

Despite a team-high six rebounds from senior Jacie Wyatt and four rebounds by junior Mya Latta, the Lady Hubs surrendered too many second and third-chance opportunities to Eastland on Thursday, and the Lady Cougars defeated Rochelle 54-42 to drop the purple and white to 0-1 overall.

“One of the things we teach is not just jumping up, but jumping up and backwards,” head coach Tony Rowan said. “Everybody was looking for over-the-back calls, but if we’re not making contact with them, then it’s not a foul.”

Senior Morgan Baker hit a pair of jump shots to spark the Rochelle offense early in Thursday’s game, but several Eastland players managed to leak through the Lady Hub defense throughout the first and second quarters. The Lady Cougars led 15-9 after the first quarter, with Baker scoring four points, junior Abby Lundquist adding three points and senior Allysa Harding making two free throws.

“It’s about understanding who needs to be back guarding,” Rowan said. “A lot of our kids are looking to attack the boards as hard as they can which is good, but if they don’t get that board then the other team can leak out for passes… We definitely need to clean that up and understand who needs to get back.”

Rochelle’s most productive offensive stretch came in the second quarter, when six different Lady Hubs combined for 14 points to help Rochelle trail 30-23 at halftime. Baker added four more points to her game total, while Wyatt, Lundquist, Latta, senior Britney Salinas and senior Cesca Vardman each chipped in two points.

Rochelle’s ability to screen Eastland defenders gave the Lady Hubs more open looks in the second quarter.

“We pointed out to our bench that the reason we were able to score more points was because we were hitting bodies and our girls were getting open jump shots,” Rowan said. “We had to mix up our lineup more in the second half, but we need to make sure that we’re making body-on-body screens as opposed to hitting the air.”

Baker led the Lady Hubs in scoring with 10 points after three quarters, but with her team down 42-32 with one quarter remaining, Lundquist found her offensive rhythm, scoring nine of her team-high 16 points in the period including two jumpers, a layup and a 3-point play when she finished a shot under the Eastland basket through contact.

Despite shooting just 27.1 percent from the field, the scrappy Rochelle defense recorded 13 steals behind a team-high six steals from Vardman. The Lady Hubs will continue tournament action this weekend against Stockton and Forreston.

“We’re going to say that the first three quarters were a tune-up for Abby,” Rowan said. “We’re going to expect more of what she did in the fourth quarter throughout the rest of the season.”