Hopewell attack too powerful for Slippery Rock in 70-36 loss
SHARON — With time running out on a game, a season and a career, Slippery Rock HighSchool senior Jence Rhoads left the floor amid a thunderous ovation.
Replacing her on the Sharon HighSchool court was freshman sister Karly — a symbolic passing of the torch.
The game had long since been decided. Hopewell, the WPIAL Class AAA and defending state champion, had taken control early with dominant guard play and routed the Rockets in a 70-36 PIAA quarterfinal girls basketball playoff romp Saturday afternoon.
All that was left for Slippery Rock was coming to grips with the defeat and the future.
"I kind of realized it," Jence Rhoads said, seeing the symbolism in her exit from the court late in the fourth quarter. "I hope I can pass everythingI have learned on to (Karly) and that she can carry the team next year and the next three years."
It was not a good day for the Rockets from the start. Hopewell (29-2) led 16-8 after one quarter, 34-13 at the half and were getting close to triggering the mercy rule before time expired.
Jence Rhoads scored 20 points to bring her final career total to 2,168 — a Butler County and school record.
When the senior left the floor, there were no tears. The only outward signs of emotion were coming from her teammates.
"I think she understands we went really far for her, and that we couldn't have done it without her," said senior forward Emma Walter.
The Rockets were the Cinderella story of the playoffs. They had won 12 straight games after a start that put their very playoff hopes in jeopardy and knocked off teams like Sharon, Mars and Lewistown on the way to a showdown with Hopewell.
But SlipperyRock (20-10) proved to be no match for the playoff moxie of the Vikings.
Senior guard Jordan Zuppe scored eight of her 19 points in the first quarter to kick start Hopewell, and one half of its twin tower attack, Joyce Novacek, was 9-of-10 from the field for 20 points.
Twin sister Becky Novacek added 12 points.
Sarah Haluska added 14 more in the Vikings' balanced attack.
"I hope the girls don't take shame out of this loss," said first-year Slippery Rock coach Adrienne Orris. "Hopewell played their best. This is as good as I've seen them play in a while."
Sarah Cessar added eight points and 11 rebounds for Slippery Rock, which actually contained the Novacek twins for the most part in the game.Cessar's 11 boards were four more than the Novaceks collected combined."Sarah is a great player," Orris said. "She has so much heart, so much desire, so much passion for the game. More than anything she wants her teammates to succeed. She was all over the floor tonight, going after every loose ball."When the final buzzer sounded on the 34-point loss, Cessar was on the floor, wrestling for possession of a loose ball.There weren't many stay basketballs to get.The Vikings were 30-of-48 from the field. Meanwhile,Slippery Rock had an off shooting afternoon, hitting just 27.6 percent of its shots.The Rockets' twins — Karly and Kourtney Rhoads — combined for just one point on 0-of-11 shooting.Jence Rhoads said one of the best parts about this season was getting the chance to play with her twin sisters."We've been looking forward to it," she said. "Now that it's over, it's sad, but we can look back on it. It was fun."Slippery Rock's run was the farthest the Rockets have advanced in the state tournament in 10 years.Orris is hoping after the sting of this loss wears off, her team will come to realize all it has accomplished."Basically, no one ever picked us to win this game," Orris said. "No one picked us to get this far. These girls have been overachievers. We accomplished much more than anyone would have expected this year."<B>SLIPPERY ROCK 36</b>Jence Rhoads 9-24 2-5 10, Emma Walter 2-4 0-0 4, Karly Rhoads 0-5 1-2 1, Sarah Cessar 4-15 0-0 8, KourtneyRhoads 0-6 0-0 0, Ali Doyle 1-3 0-0 3, Jenna Rinker 0 0-0 0, Adele Campbell 0-1 0-0 0, Danielle Drake 0-0 0-0 0. <B>Totals: 16-58 3-7 36HOPEWELL 70</b>Jordan Zuppe 8-17 0-1 19, Joyce Novacek 9-10 2-2 20, Sarah Haluska 6-9 0-0 14, Becky Novacek 5-8 2-2 12, Hannah Hunter 1-2 1-1 3, Sara Jo Fetchin 1-1 0-0 2, Elise Farris 0-0 0-0 0, Paige Alviani 0-1 0-0 0, Nicole DeNardis 0-0 0-0 0, Madison Sepp 0-0 0-0 0.<B> Totals: 30-48 5-6 70</b><B>Slippery Rock 8 5 15 8—36Hopewell 16 18 17 19—703-point goals:</B> Slippery Rock (Doyle); Hopewell 5 (Zuppe 3, Haluska 2)
