ROCHELLE — Balance and toughness on defense were keys for the Lady Hubs varsity basketball team on Thursday when the girls picked up their second victory of the season against the LaSalle-Peru Lady Cavaliers.

Senior Morgan Baker and junior Abby Lundquist each scored 15 points for Rochelle, and the Lady Hubs held LaSalle-Peru guard Kamryn Olson to 11 points in their 61-41 win over the Lady Cavs. Senior Cesca Vardman turned in one of her best games of the season, scoring 14 points and giving Rochelle an energy boost on both ends of the floor.

“Our senior girls have risen to the challenge,” head coach Tony Rowan said. “Cesca does a great job of hounding our opponents defensively and preventing them from getting open shots… Morgan was making shots for us tonight which is always a huge help.”

The Lady Hubs led LaSalle-Peru 17-13 after the first quarter before taking a 31-25 lead at halftime. Rochelle put the game out of LaSalle-Peru’s reach in the second half, however, as the girls stopped the Lady Cavs from driving the lane and hitting corner jump shots. In both the third and fourth quarters.

“The biggest thing for us to understand is that we play well when we play together,” Rowan said. “Nobody has to score 30 or 35 points per game. If everybody is chipping in 15 points, especially those top three girls, and if we’re hitting 60 points, we’re usually going to win most of our games. Defensively we forced them into bad situations which leads to good things for us.”

Senior Jacie Wyatt added eight points for the Lady Hubs, while junior Mya Latta stepped in for injured senior Allysa Harding, scoring four points and controlling the glass. Rochelle improves to 9-12 on the season with the win.

“Mya has a great heart and she’s catching up to the varsity speed for us,” Rowan said. “She’s done a great job for us over these last few games and she really earned her starting role.”