Lady Hubs basketball team knocks off Genoa-Kingston

Lundquist makes history as Rochelle tops Cogs 50-37

Russell Hodges
Posted 12/17/17

Decades before Lady Hub junior Abby Lundquist began her high school basketball career at Rochelle Township High School, her mother Tracy Ohlinger Lundquist was shooting her way up the varsity girls basketball program’s all-time scoring list. But when Rochelle hosted Genoa-Kingston this past Saturday afternoon, the scoring mantle was officially passed down from mother to daughter.

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Lady Hubs basketball team knocks off Genoa-Kingston

Lundquist makes history as Rochelle tops Cogs 50-37

Posted

ROCHELLE — Decades before Lady Hub junior Abby Lundquist began her high school basketball career at Rochelle Township High School, her mother Tracy Ohlinger Lundquist was shooting her way up the varsity girls basketball program’s all-time scoring list. But when Rochelle hosted Genoa-Kingston this past Saturday afternoon, the scoring mantle was officially passed down from mother to daughter.

Lundquist and the Lady Hubs defeated Genoa-Kingston by a final score of 50-37 to improve to 5-6 overall. The junior scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the victory, and in doing so, she moved one point ahead of her mother Tracy on Rochelle’s all-time scoring list.

“I knew about it, but it was in the back of my mind,” Lundquist said. “I didn’t want to think much of it… She said she was proud of me and she gave me a hard time about it. I always looked up to my mom for basically everything she does and it just felt really good.”

Rochelle entered Saturday’s game looking to carry its positive momentum over from a 57-56 win over LaSalle-Peru earlier in the week. The Lady Hubs led 27-23 at halftime behind senior Morgan Baker, who scored a team-high 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the victory. Senior Jacie Wyatt also stepped up for Rochelle, turning in an efficient performance that included 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting, five rebounds, two steals and one assist.

“We’ve been starting to have a lot more fun together and our team chemistry has really improved,” Wyatt said. “I think we’re all playing relaxed and we’re having fun. We wanted to limit them getting the ball to their big girl so we applied a lot of ball pressure, and our guards did a really good job of that.”

The Lady Hubs outscored the Cogs 11-7 in the third quarter to take a 38-30 lead before embarking on a 12-7 run throughout the fourth quarter to seal the nonconference victory. Rochelle’s pace and energy on the defensive end allowed the girls to hold Genoa-Kingston to just 14 points in the second half.

“I think we’re starting to realize that we’re a lot faster than other teams,” said senior Cesca Vardman, who totaled four points and a team-leading four steals on Saturday. “Our transition play and our fast breaks are really helping a lot. We made sure they stopped doing lob passes since they had a really big girl down on the block.”

Rochelle has won three of its last four games, and the purple and white will attempt to even their record with a victory at Rockford Guilford on Thursday. The Lady Vikings edged the Lady Hubs at RTHS last season, but with confidence slowly building, the Rochelle girls are looking to keep their recent success going.

“We’re really getting after teams defensively,” Lundquist said. “We’re being really scrappy. Our defense has been really good lately and I want us to keep that up throughout the remainder of the season.”

Tip-off for Thursday’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Rockford Guilford. The Lady Hubs will then begin the 2017 KSB Dixon Girls Basketball Holiday Tournament on Wednesday, Dec. 27.

“We’re a good team and we can beat other good teams,” Vardman said. “We’re much more capable of winning than we think.”