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Sports

Experience, Age Contribute to Duchesne's Turnaround

Win over St. Charles West is a milestone for Duchesne.

junior forward Alex Rohlfing was well aware of the significance of the Pioneers' hard-fought 57-53 win over rival on Tuesday night.   

The triumph was the eighth of the year for the once downtrodden Pioneers equaling their entire win total from last season when the team compiled a dismal 8-17 mark.   

Now, a year later, the roles are reversed. The once 98-pound weakling is kicking a little sand in the other direction for a change.    

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"Last season, we were pretty bad," admitted Rohlfing, a starter on the team that lost its first seven games and never recovered. "It was rough. We made up our minds right then that we never wanted to go through something like that again."    

The Pioneers have done an about-face, thanks in part to Rohlfing, who scored a team-high 17 points against West in the Gateway Athletic Conference North Division contest at Duchesne.    

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Junior Melissa Eisenbath added 16 points. Senior Jenna Friedel, junior forward Abby Schroeder and freshman Brigitte Reilly added key points in a fourth-period spurt that allowed the Pioneers to steal the game away.   

Duchesne, which improved to 8-7 overall and 2-0 in conference action, played well down the stretch against West, which fell to 8-8 and 0-1.   

"We relaxed a little bit," said Duchesne coach Pat Steagall. "And did the things we are capable of doing."   

Steagall says the difference in this year's team is experience. He lost only one starter from last winter when the team struggled with three sophomores in the lineup.   

All of a sudden, those sophomores are juniors and things are beginning to click.   

"There's a lot of good chemistry here," Rohlfing said.

Rohlfing, Eisenbath and Schroeder worked hard in the off-season to improve their play and it shows on the court.   

"Experience, more than anything else," said Steagall. "That's made a big difference."    

West senior guard Blake French, one of the top players in the conference, poured in a game-high 24 points including 10 in the final 6:53. But the Pioneers shut down the rest of the team in the closing minutes.   

Duchesne used an 8-0 run midway through the final quarter to turn a one-point deficit into a 53-46 lead. Rohlfing's traditional 3-point play broke a tie and put the Pioneers in front to stay 49-46 with 5:34 remaining.   

Reilly added a layup off a Rohlfing steal just 19 seconds later to push the advantage to 51-46. Eisenbath followed with a pair of foul shots to compete the blitz.   

West battled back to within 53-52 behind two free throws from Daley Soderberg and back-to-back baskets by French including a 3-point play. But Rohlfing hit two foul shots with 40 seconds left. Point guard Lauren Meyer then sealed the victory with a free throw.   

Duchesne also reeled off eight successive points at the start of the game to go up 10-2. West battled back to take a 30-28 lead into the break. The teams see-sawed back-and-forth in the tightly-played second half, which saw seven lead changes.    

"They were the better team tonight," West coach Ellen Parker said of the Pioneers. "They played very physical, hard defense."   

Duchesne, which has won seven of its last 11 games since a 1-3 start, will play host to St. Charles on Thursday. St. Charles West travels to Washington on Thursday.

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