By James Costello Sports Editor
ROCHESTER — The Lady Trojans have shown flashes of potential this year, but they've also been prone to some costly lapses.
One such lapse spanned the entire third quarter Wednesday, as Rochester outscored visiting Triton 23-9, and although the Trojans fought back valiantly in the final frame, bringing the game to within six with 10 seconds remaining, the discrepancy proved too much to come back from in a 56-48 loss at Rochester.
"The third quarter was frustrating," said Triton head coach Adam Heckaman. "That was something we talked about afterwards that that's our lapse right now. We just find a time somewhere that we have a mental lapse or we don't go quite as hard as we can, and that's where teams build that lead against us, and we just dig too big a hole to come out of."
Triton trailed 25-19 at the half but that deficit swelled to 20 points in the third frame as the Trojans coughed up 13 of their 29 total turnovers for 11 points off the miscues by the Zebras. Rochester also benefitted from eight offensive rebounds for six second-chance points in the quarter, finishing with a lopsided 31-17 advantage off the boards.
"That's something that we can't have.That's something that we even talked about at halftime was our passing in the halfcourt setting," Heckaman said. "You've got to see that defender coming out. Let the offense go back door; it's wide open because they're gambling on that. They didn't do anything different to us in the second half than they did in the first, we just decided to pass the ball to the wrong spots and not be strong with it, and it resulted in turnovers. They crashed the boards hard, they did a nice job of doing what they needed to to build that lead, and they needed every bit of it because we finally settled down in the fourth."

The Trojans were led by reserve guard Aubrey Boardman, who buried three triples en route to her game-high 11 points, including one from the wing to spark Triton's 20-8 fourth-quarter run, and she assisted on two other 3s from Savannah Stutzman, who scored all of her eight points in the final frame. Stutzman's last trey came with 10 seconds left and cut Rochester's lead to 54-48, but the Trojans couldn't get over the hump.
"We talked before the game, and we talked a lot this week about how all I can ask of the girls is that they give me everything they have the whole time they're here and be focused and ready to go," said Heckaman. "I talked to them after that third quarter and said, look, this is where we're at right now, we're focused and we're giving 100 percent three of four quarters and that's where we're at. We came out in that fourth quarter and refocused, finally took care of the ball a little bit, got after it defensively, and we didn't panic against their trap and attacked it. When you do that, there are lots of openings, and we found them.
"Aubrey, she did a good job tonight, she's one where she has a goal to start, and that's a great goal and she started several games for us," said the Triton skipper. "But for some reason when she doesn't start, she gets a little chip on her shoulder and she's ready to play a little bit more and she comes out and does what she did tonight. The same thing with the Argos game, she didn't start and she came out and scored I think 18 in that game. We need her to get that chip on her shoulder when she's starting. She's almost too relaxed when she starts."
Freshman Shana Anderson also had a strong all-around outing starting for the Trojans, finishing with six points, five steals and two assists for Triton.
Rochester's balanced offensive attack was spearheaded by senior forward Ciara Smith's 10 points.
The Zebras improve to 6-3 on the year, while Triton slides to 3-7 with its third straight loss. But although the Trojans have struggled lately, Heckaman sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
"We're still at that point where we've got to put the whole game together, but I think we're getting closer," he said. "We're starting to get the fact that there aren't too many people out here that we can't play with if we put a whole game together."
Triton hosts New Prairie in a Northern State Conference match-up Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
• ROCHESTER 56, TRITON 48
At Rochester
Score by quarters
Triton:           9  19  28  48
Rochester: 14  25  48  56
Triton (48): Shana Anderson 3 0-0 6, Aubrey Boardman 3 2-2 11, Hannah Downing 0 0-0 0, Megan Howdeshell 0 0-1 0, Amanda Miller 2 3-4 7, Aundrea Sellers 0 1-2 1, Sarah Stichter 0 0-0 0, Savannah Stutzman 3 0-0 8, Allison Thacker 2 3-5 9, Brittany Wallace 3 0-3 6; Totals: 16 9-17 56.
Rochester (56): Kaitlyn Denney 2 0-0 4, Kelsi Denney 3 3-8 9, Kirsten Elliott 2 3-4 7, Kayla Lindsey 2 3-5 7, Abbie Malchow 3 2-2 9, Ashley Minix 0 0-0 0, Jayme Smiley 0 0-0 0, Ciara Smith 4 2-2 10, Leighnee Smith 0 0-0 0, Alanie Sroufe 0 2-3 2, Hannah Starkey 3 2-3 8; Totals: 19 17-27 56.
3-point goals: Triton 7 (Boardman 3, Thacker 2, Stutzman 2), Rochester 1 (Malchow); Rebounds: Triton 17 (Wallace 5), Rochester 31 (Elliott 7); Assists: Triton 13 (Boardman 4), Rochester 12 (Malchow 5); Steals: Triton 16 (Anderson 5), Rochester 18 (Kelsi Denney 8); Turnovers: Triton 29, Rochester 27; Fouls (fouled out): Triton 20 (Stutzman), Rochester 17 (none).
Records: Triton 3-7, Rochester 6-3.