Lady Squires Get Past Rochester

It was a rough shooting night for the Manchester lady Squires, but a solid defensive performance led the Squires to a 38-29 opening round sectional win over Rochester Friday.

It took nearly five minutes for the first points to be out on the board when Rochester hit a three. The Squires would answer with two Jirni Cripe free throws to make it 3-2. Down 5-2 Cripe would hit, followed by Kennidy Lauer and Eva Bazzoni at the buzzer to give Manchester an 8-5 lead after one.

Again it would be a slow start in the second as the first bucket came with 4:35 left. Bazzoni would connect for two that started a 9-0 run to give the Squires a 17-5 lead. Emma West would add a bucket while Bazzoni scored 7 points. The Manchester defense did not allow a bucket in the quarter with Rochester hitting a free throw with 22 seconds left. Manchester led 17-6 at the half.

Lauer would match free throws with the Zebras to start the third quarter before Rochester cut the Manchester lead to 19-11.Up 20-13 Kennedy Fierstos would hit a running three pointer and follow it up with a duece to increase the Manchester lead to 25-13 after three.

Manchester would hit just three times in the fourth quarter with free throw shooting being the key. Being down Rochester would need to foul with the Squires hitting 7 times from the charity stripe to seal the 38-29 win.

With the win Manchester will play Lewis Cass Saturday in the semi finals.

Kennedy Fierstos- 10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists
Eva Bazzoni- 10 points, 4 steals, 3 rebounds
Emma West- 6 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals
Kennidy Lauer- 6 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 assist
Jirni Cripe- 4 points, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block
Kiera Hatfield- 1 point, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 assist
Mackenzie Day- 1 point

CLICK HERE for photos from the game