ELMA — Rochester hung around with Elma for the first half here Wednesday night, but late foul trouble and a poor performance at the free throw line helped the Eagles run off with a 73-58 SWW 1A League Evergreen Division boys basketball win.
“We did a good job of spreading the ball around, and did a good job of denying inside,” Rochester coach Andrew Kernutt said of the first half, after which his team by just 4 points. “Then we started to soften up inside, and we had a six-man rotation, and two guys got into foul trouble.”
The result? Elma hammered the ball inside in the fourth quarter and converted its opportunities, shooting 8 for 8 from the line in the fourth quarter. Rochester, meanwhile, was just 3-10 in the final frame.
“That just really hurt us,” Kernutt said. “But, our guys played hard, and I was happy with the effort. We just didn’t get there tonight.”
Tyler McLemore had a big game for Rochester, scoring 23 points with seven rebounds, five assists and five steals. Brandon Canales added 15 points for the Warriors, and Nick Schultz had a team-high nine rebounds.
Rochester (1-16, 0-11 league) hosts Onalaska on Friday and Tenino on Saturday.
