Takeaways as SHG beat Rochester to keep CS8 title hopes alive

Sacred Heart-Griffin's girls basketball team had its defense right from the beginning but a third-quarter offensive burst gave the Cyclones the separation needed to pull out a 35-22 Central State Eight Conference win over Rochester at Jim Belz Gymnasium on Friday night.

In doing so, SHG handed Rochester its first CS8 loss and kept open the possibility of a share of the conference title.

However, Rochester (23-7 overall, 16-1) was without all-state senior point guard Kaylen Reed, who was on the sideline in a walking boot.

“She got injured real late in practice (Thursday),” Rochester coach J.R. Boudouris said of Reed. “It was pretty obvious she wasn’t going to be able to go and I told her, as big of a game as this is, she heals up and we still have time to win (the CS8) outright on Tuesday and, more importantly, we want her healthy for the postseason.”

SHG coach Steve Klunick knew it would’ve been a more difficult task had Reed been healthy.

“She’s arguably the best player in the conference. She’s in a boot which hurt them and helped us,” he said.

SHG sophomore Izzy Hassebrock led the Cyclones (23-5, 14-2) with 11 points, thanks to six made free throws. Junior Maggie Fleischli had six of her eight points in the pivotal third quarter for SHG.

“J.R. and I just talked about this: any time we meet, it’s that way,” Klunick said of the tight game. “If he’s got the talent and we’ve got the talent, it just seems to be that close game that either team could win. It’s nice to see the way the girls compete.”

Rochester can win the conference title outright with a win at home over Southeast on Tuesday. SHG needs a Rochester loss but wins at Decatur MacArthur on Tuesday and at home against Normal U-High on Thursday.

Defense dominates early

Both teams traded defensive blows in the first half. SHG’s defense forced Rochester into 10 turnovers in the first 16 minutes and held the Rockets to a 6-for-20 (30%) shooting performance.

SHG turned the ball over nine times in the first half and shot 22.2% (4-for-18).

The teams were knotted 4-4 at the end of the first period and 13-13 at halftime.

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Rochester’s three easiest buckets came on an Emma Dixon layup midway through the first quarter set up on a nice assist from Alyse Day, a Kadence Farris putback basket early in the second and a Becca Ryan second-chance opportunity midway through the second.

Each team traded a 3-pointer in the opening half.

“The biggest difference was I felt in the first half, we did a nice job staying connected, we played really solid half-court defense,” Boudouris said. “We had some mistakes where I felt we should've finished and didn’t — but they could say the same thing.

“I felt we matched their effort and intensity as well as you can to not having your point guard out there.”

SHG’s third quarter

For the Cyclones’ offensive struggles in the first half, SHG was 6-for-8 from the field in the third quarter and added three free throws to outscore Rochester 15-5 in the period.

“We made some shots and when you make some shots, things look good,” Klunick said. “We had probably those same shots and they just didn’t go that first half. Maggie turned it up, Callie made some nice turnarounds.”

Fleischli gave the Cyclones a 19-13 lead as she drove in from the wing for a layup with 6 minutes, 21 seconds left in the third. After the teams traded three points for the next nearly four minutes, Fleischli stopped and made a jumper from just inside the free-throw line to spark a 6-0 SHG run to close out the third.

“In the second half, I felt they had some early buckets, we didn’t defend well, we chased cutters and we didn’t respond on the offensive end and get a good possession,” Boudouris said of SHG. “And once they got up six or eight, they’re like any solid team: once you start chasing, they can be more deliberate.

“The biggest difference was the first three or four minutes of the second half.”

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Not only did SHG make shots in the third but the Cyclones limited themselves to just three second-half turnovers.

“In the second half, we turned up our intensity — not only on defense but we definitely picked up our offense,” Hassebrock said. “We struggled a little bit with offense in the first half so moving around more helped out a lot.”

Free-throw discrepancy

SHG took advantage of 22 free throws. Hassebrock was 6-for-10 at the line while Sophie Murphy went 4 of 6. Murphy, Klunick said, is the team’s leading free-throw shooter while Hassebrock is Cyclones’ second-best at the line.

SHG outscored Rochester 12-1 at the line.

“Those two make them consistently and (six free throws) was not unexpected from Izzy,” Klunick said.

Hassebrock said her 10 free-throw attempts might be a career record.

Rochester beat SHG 41-34 on Dec. 13 with Reed in the lineup. She scored 11 points that night while Dixon had 15. But even without the Rockets’ point guard in the lineup to find Dixon — who finished with just four points on Friday — Boudouris said he can tell SHG’s defense has improved since the first meeting.

“They’ve gotten better. Steve’s gotten them better defensively,” Boudouris said. “They threw some wrinkles at us the way they defended us that they didn’t do the first time. I thought we did a nice job adjusting without Kaylen.”

'Dixon’s a ton': Seniors lead Rochester past SHG

While the team anticipates Reed’s injury doesn’t keep her out long, Boudouris said the rest of the team was able to take away something from her absence.

“We got something out of it. There may be times she tweaks (her injury) or she’s in foul trouble and the two halves were kind of juxtaposed tonight,” Boudouris said. “The first half, we did a nice job playing without her; the second half, we missed that floor general, we missed that mental toughness, we missed her communication.”

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Rochester struggles in second half without all-state guard Reed; SHG wins