The Rochelle Lady Hub varsity basketball team gave Sycamore everything it could handle during the first half of Wednesday evening’s Interstate 8 Conference matchup.
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, below, or purchase a new subscription.
Please log in to continue |
ROCHELLE — The Rochelle Lady Hub varsity basketball team gave Sycamore everything it could handle during the first half of Wednesday evening’s Interstate 8 Conference matchup.
Despite past struggles against the Spartans, Rochelle tipped off the game with tremendous energy and confidence, with the Lady Hubs holding a 21-13 lead after the first quarter. With sophomore Jaydin Dickey spearheading the charge on defense, Rochelle held Sycamore standout and Northern Illinois University recruit Lexi Carlsen scoreless in the opening quarter.
An offensive boost from senior Alivia Henkel, who scored a team-high 23 points in the game, allowed Rochelle to maintain a 35-32 halftime lead as the Spartans leaned on senior guard Monroe McGhee, who finished with 19 points to lead Sycamore. But the Lady Hubs couldn’t hold off the Spartans in the second half, where a 17-1 run ignited Sycamore’s third-quarter comeback and enabled the Spartans to take home a 68-54 conference victory over Rochelle.
“Our intensity and energy was there right off the bat and our focus was there before the game,” head coach Jonathon Gehm said. “That was probably the most focused I’ve seen our girls in the locker room before a game and we showed that when we came out. Our execution was really good offensively and we took good shots against their man-to-man defense. We handled their full-court pressure early in the game and we were able to knock down shots from the outside.”
The Lady Hubs buried a trio of triples in the first quarter, as Dickey along with junior Kendyl Darby and senior Kara Martinez each converted 3-point shots to spark the Rochelle offense. Faced with an eight-point deficit entering the second quarter, Sycamore looked to its senior leaders McGhee and Carlsen, who combined for 16 points in the quarter to help the Spartans fight back into the game. McGhee drained two corner triples and hit three triples in the game.
Despite Sycamore’s resurgence on offense, Rochelle remained ahead at halftime due to a scoring burst from Henkel, who shredded the Spartan defense with her mid-range shooting and her offensive rebounding, which led to putbacks under the basket. Henkel converted four field goals in the second quarter and added two free throws to finish with 14 first-half points.
“We talked before the game about getting to her spots and just rising up,” Gehm said. “She’s so athletic and she can jump out of the gym. When she can get to her spots and rise up, she can shoot over defenders and she can create space just by jumping. She’s a special athlete and she’s ultra aggressive which is really great because we can sometimes get stagnant as a team.”
The Lady Hubs preserved their lead early in the third quarter, where senior Sydney Tabor drilled a 3-pointer from the elbow and Henkel scored on a baseline jumper to put Rochelle up 40-36. Sycamore quickly turned the game around, however, switching to a zone defense that stymied the Lady Hub offense and generated several deflections that led to turnovers and transition points. Most of those points were scored by Carlsen, who finished with 19 points in the game.
“Sycamore’s a really good team and [Lexi] Carlsen is a really good player,” Gehm said. “I thought Jaydin did a great job against her tonight, but she was still able to fill up the stat sheet and that’s what a Division I talent can do. I didn’t think we executed very well offensively and I thought we were very passive. We had driving lanes that we weren’t taking and we had shots that we were passing up. Sycamore was very aggressive and they knocked down shots.”
The 17-1 run in the third quarter enabled Sycamore to take a 53-41 lead after a Rochelle timeout. The Lady Hubs were unable to recover, as the Spartans held them to eight points in the third quarter and commanded a 13-point lead entering the fourth quarter, where a triple from Carlsen and a 5-for-6 showing from the free-throw line helped Sycamore clinch the victory. Dickey finished with 11 points and Martinez tallied six points for the Lady Hubs (10-13, 1-5 Interstate 8), who will travel for another conference matchup against Morris on Friday night.
