Youth and inexperience led to some growing pains for the Rochelle varsity girls basketball team this season. However, with the team’s senior class paving the way for several freshman and sophomore players, head coach Tony Rowan has confidence the Lady Hubs will continue to develop their skills moving forward.
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ROCHELLE — Youth and inexperience led to some growing pains for the Rochelle varsity girls basketball team this season. However, with the team’s senior class paving the way for several freshman and sophomore players, head coach Tony Rowan has confidence the Lady Hubs will continue to develop their skills moving forward.
Rochelle finished 7-24 overall, earning one regional victory against Genoa-Kingston before being bounced by Sterling in the semifinal round. The Lady Hubs earned all of their wins over nondivisional opponents this season, defeating teams like Morrison, Indian Creek, Oregon, Stillman Valley, Genoa-Kingston (twice) and Morris.
The Lady Hubs went 0-8 against Northern Illinois Big 12 West opponents this winter (including the postseason), but the girls will now prepare to see some new teams as members of the Interstate Eight Conference next year.
“I had a feeling our inexperience would show, but our goal was for that inexperience to not show for too long,” Rowan said. “We went through a lull around Christmas time, but I think that was because a lot of our kids weren’t used to playing a full four-month schedule verses a two-month schedule. I really felt like we came together at the end of the season.”
The Lady Hubs will graduate five seniors including Emilee Dueringer, Cheyene Watson, Makenna Ferrari, Grace Garcia and Abby Lundquist, who finished her Rochelle career as the program’s all-time leading scorer (1,909 points) and single-season scorer (763 points). Lundquist (24.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game) accounted for over 55 percent of the team’s total points per game this winter (44.6).
“When you lose your all-time leading scorer, you’ll need points to come from all different positions,” Rowan said. “I think that will benefit a lot of our kids, though… We have a lot of kids who are hungry to take over bits and pieces of that throne.”
Some of those kids include freshmen Zoey Tabor (4.5 points and 2.1 rebounds), Sylvia Hasz (4.7 points and 5.5 rebounds), Josie Lundquist (2.1 points and 1.7 rebounds) and Lucy Bunger (2.0 points and 2.4 rebounds). Sophomores Sofia Lenkaitis (2.1 points and 1.2 steals), Afi Gati (3.6 rebounds) and Bella Lodico (missed all but one game from injury) will also see increased roles moving forward.
“Zoey’s excited to have a bigger role and Josie will be excited as well,” Rowan said. “Sofia did a great job coming on near the end of our season… We’ve been blessed with an athletic team, and it’s on us to keep on improving. Sylvia’s one of the truest post players we’ve had over the past few years, and Lucy’s another kid who loves the game and always wants to improve.”
