Rock star leads Steamers: Senior helps knock off AFC
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| Fulton’s Sabrina Rock shoots against Ashton-Franklin Center’s Lexie James on Monday at the Class 1A Erie Regional. (Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@svnmail.com) |
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ERIE – The Fulton Steamers, seeded sixth in the six-team Class 1A Erie Regional, didn’t play like the lowest seed in Monday’s first round.
Led by senior forward Sabrina Rock’s 18 points, Fulton downed third-seeded Ashton-Franklin Center 48-36.
“Our plan was to play hard and take whatever they gave us,” Rock said. “We played an inside-out game. I didn’t want this to be my last game. I was so happy we stepped it up like we did.”
The Steamers (9-18) led from the final moments of the first quarter on, gradually building to an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Fulton advances to a semifinal against regional host and No. 2 seed Erie at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
AFC (11-13) scored the game’s first four points. But, the Raiders’ last lead was 10-8 late in the opening quarter.
The Steamers led 11-10 after one period. The gap stayed between two and six throughout the second quarter, and Fulton led 20-16 at the half.
Fulton took its first double-digit lead at 28-18 with 6:07 left in the third quarter after a 6-0 flurry that included two buckets from Rock and a putback from Kim Rogis, who scored nine of her 10 points in the second half.
The Steamers put the game away with a 14-3 blitz that spanned the final minute of the third quarter and the first 5-plus minutes of the fourth.
“After scouting them I told the girls we had to get the ball inside,” Fulton coach Amanda Abbott said. “We needed to drive and attack. We wanted to use our height to our advantage. The girls came out and played hard, and for being the No. 6 seed we made a pretty good showing.”
Six-foot senior Lindsey Renkes contributed 10 points for Fulton. Senior Audra Lundquist paced AFC with 15 points, 12 coming in the first and third quarters. Junior teammate Grace Kennay tossed in 12 points, eight in the fourth quarter.
Star of the game: Sabrina Rock, Fulton, 18 points, 8-11 FTs
Key performers: Audra Lundquist, AFC, 15 points, 12 in 1st/3rd quarters; Kim Rogis, Fulton, 10 points, 9 in 2nd half; Grace Kennay, AFC, 12 points, 8 in 4th quarter
Up next: Regional semifinal, Fulton at Erie, 8 p.m. Wednesday
