COLLEGE: NEB'S ROUGHT EXCITED FOR ANOTHER SEASON AT ELMIRA (2022-11-01)

BY BRIAN FEES
Southern Tier Sports Report
In high school at Northeast Bradford, Victoria Rought was often the tallest, strongest player on the court. She was able to use that size and strength to score down low in games.

The college game is different, and last season Rought started to develop her game to help her score at the collegiate level.

“I can’t get taller, so the strength, and trying to overcome that is what I was working on over the summer,” Rought said.

“It’s definitely different having the size difference and not being the tallest one, or the biggest one, but you adjust.”

And, adjusting meant Rought working on her jump shot as she stepped away from the basket more during games.

“I’ve always been more of a forward and down low, so working on my outside shot was definitely something I had to work on,” Rought said. “Not like three pointers, but 15 footers for sure.”

A year ago Rought played in 11 games for Elmira, scoring points in nine games, including a career-high four against Medaille. She had a career-high seven rebounds along with three points against St. John Fisher.

For Rought after last year she’s excited to get this season started.

“I’m really excited for the season and the new girls and all the new incoming freshmen,” Rought said. “So far we look better than last season, but we still have a lot of growing to do.”

Last year the team’s numbers were smaller, especially in the second half of the year, and that allowed all the players to get more time on the court.

“We are still a young team, so I think last year helped all of us having big roles on the team so that benefits us this year,” Rought said.

Last year was an adjustment for Rought, who because of Covid hadn’t played in a while, but she found a way to have an impact for the Soaring Eagles.

“She’s a junior academically, but she’s a sophomore basketball wise,” Elmira coach Thad Phillips said. “She came in last year and she hadn’t really played in almost two years beaus of the pandemic. She took a year off, so it took her a while just to get used to how we do things here, the fast pace, we are always on the go.

“It took her a little bit, but she came through and she’s special in the fact that she’s found a way to have an impact on our team even when she wasn’t always necessarily playing all the minutes. She’s been wonderful with her leadership as well.”

This year Rought is excited to see what the freshmen add to the team.

“It’s definitely boosted the season having more players and the freshmen coming in,” Rought said. “It’s been very easy for them to come in and fit in.”

Rought had some things she really wanted to work on after playing her first year in college.

“More strength and more ball handling for me personally,” Rought said.  

With good size on the roster this year Rought and the other post players are hoping to play an inside-out game with the guards.

“We have a lot of good bigs this year, so to try and get the team to work in and out is good,” Rought said.

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NEB graduate Victoria Rought plays last season for Elmira. . . PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES