Rochester’s rally falls short against North Farmington
ON THE POINT: Rochester's Aubrey Konal brings the ball upcourt against North Farmington's Hallee Kansman during Friday's OAA Red Division game.
BY JAY KUNDE
STUDENT INTERN
ROCHESTER HILLS — It was only a couple of years ago when Rochester and North Farmington were amongst the best teams in the state in the Class A girls basketball circles.
Apparently, the Raiders have not dropped as far as the Falcons.
North Farmington, behind the play of Jasmine Harris, built a 13-5 lead after the first quarter and never allowed the host Falcons to get any closer than five points the rest of the way for a 38-26 OAA Red Division victory.
Harris finished with 22 of her team’s 38 points and added eight rebounds for North Farmington. The Raiders (2-1, 1-0) only shot 33 percent from the floor (11-for-33) but had enough in the tank to ground the Falcons (0-2, 0-2).
Raiders coach Tim Carruthers was worried about the contest, being that it was exam week at North Farmington and it was his team’s third game in the opening week of the season.
“This wasn’t beautiful, but we found a way to win,” said Carruthers.
“This such a tough place to play. We kind of missed those free throws that would have put us up 14 instead of 11 (at the end of the third quarter),” continued Carruthers. “They got some momentum off that. I thought our kids let down a little bit. But we picked it back up again.”
Harris scored 20 of her 22 points through the first three quarters, when the Raiders built a 31-18 lead.
“She’s been on fire lately. She is very skilled player,” said Carruthers of Harris. “The focus for her is she has to do more for us (this season) as opposed to last season. She’s really handing that well.”
Rochester used a full-court press to ignite an 8-0 run to close to within 31-26 with 5:15 to play on a three-pointer by Teqwazha Terry. Rochester missed four shots in the next minute and never recovered. The Falcons couldn’t convert on their final 11 shot attempts.
North Farmington closed with a 7-0 to put the Falcons to bed.
Catherine Steffens finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds in the paint for Rochester. But the Falcons shot 22 percent (11-for-50) from the floor.
Rochester coach Adam Shelton said his team improved leaps and bounds since his team’s 48-31 loss to Clarkston on Tuesday. But the team’s glaring weakness is still staring the Falcons dead in the eye.
“I thought we did a much better job than against Clarkston with rebounding and playing defense. We were better in two of the three (categories),” said Sheldon. “We still need to shoot the ball better. That’s something obviously we need to work on.”
Rochester tried to slow Harris and did so for a long stretch in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t convert on the offensive end to pull an upset.
“We talked beforehand that we didn’t want to have (Harris) beat us. She’s a good player,” said Sheldon. “I think we did a pretty good job with at. Slowing her down (in the fourth quarter). When you don’t score, it’s hard to come back.”
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Category: Prep Wraps, Rochester
