Spence scores 10 in first start, but Zebras fall to Northwestern

Wilson’s 3 third-quarter treys spark 16-0 Tiger run

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Liam Spence

KOKOMO — Facing a Northwestern team determined to crash the offensive boards on one end and protect the paint at the other, the visiting Rochester boys basketball team lost their Three Rivers Conference opener Friday.

Braidyn Wilson scored a game-high 18 points, including a 12-point load that included three 3-pointers to start the second half, and Colin Cook added 16 for the Tigers in a 51-37 win.

Wilson’s scoring spurt to start the second half pushed a nine-point halftime lead up to 39-18. Rochester never got closer than 13 after that.

Liam Spence made his first career start for Rochester and scored a team-high 10 points. Brady Coleman had seven, all in the first half. Spence was starting in place of Jonas Kiser, who did not play until the second half.

Northwestern improved to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the TRC. Rochester fell to 2-3, 0-1.

Rochester cut their turnovers down from 23 in a loss to Logansport Wednesday to just 10 this time, but they made just 5 of 12 free throws and struggled to hit from the perimeter as well.

“We really struggled tonight,” Rochester coach Luke Smith said. “I’m really disappointed in the rebounding effort tonight. I don't know how many putbacks they had in the first half. … The offensive rebounds just killed us the first half.” 

Rochester scored on their first two possessions on a Coleman 3-pointer and a Carson Paulik 13-footer to take a 5-3 lead, but Northwestern countered with an 11-0 run and never trailed again. Landen Begley scored on a driving layup, Cook scored the go-ahead basket, and Begley scored on a third-chance putback. Begley would hit a free throw, and Cook dropped in four straight free throws to push the lead 14-5.

The lead would reach double figures for the first time at 16-6 on a Mason Butler pullup from the right baseline.

Slowing the pace and settling into a 2-3 zone, Rochester would chip into the lead. A Spence left-wing rainbow 3 would cut the lead to seven after a quarter.

A Coleman reverse layup in the second quarter cut it to six.  A Cook driving layup from the right baseline and a Jordan McKinney transition layup got the lead back to 10, but a Spence pullup from the right baseline and another Coleman reverse layup made it 21-15.

An alley-oop lop from Wilson to Henry Neher excited the crowd, but Reffett netted a 3 from the right wing to cut the lead to five. When Coleman was fouled with 1:10 left in the half, he had an opportunity to trim the lead even further, but he missed both, and that triggered a six-minute Zebra scoring drought.

“Our ball was back to being sticky again tonight,” Smith said. “We talk about the way they play defense. They really pack it in, and the ball has to move. You have to move their defense, and unfortunately, we didn’t do that. We didn’t get a lot of time on the floor yesterday. We had a tough one Wednesday and had one day on the floor Thursday. That’s something I’ve got to work on as I get more experience, how we handle those one days of practice between games.”

A Neher 13-footer got the lead back to seven.

Reffett missed two more free throws with 33.2 seconds left, and Cook cut back door for a layup with four seconds left to push the halftime lead to nine.

And then Wilson, a 6-5 guard-forward, tore up the Rochester zone to start the second half. Northwestern coach Jim Gish said it was a team effort to get Wilson open looks.

“I thought the boys did a nice job,” Gish said. “I think Braidyn Wilson had three 3s in the third. The boys did a nice job of finding him and moving the ball in a rotation so that we found him on the weak side, and Braidyn was able to knock them down.”

A Kiser driving layup along the left baseline broke Northwestern’s 16-0 run. Smith decided to sit Kiser for the first half after he was called for a technical foul with 2:10 left against Logansport Wednesday. Kiser slammed the ball to the floor after he was called for traveling.

At the time, Kiser sat briefly before Smith put him back in. Smith later said he regretted putting Kiser back in.

Kiser was the third different Rochester player to be called for a technical in the first four games. Smith said that officials have called six technicals on Rochester players this season, including JV and freshman games.

“We’re dealing with some internal stuff in our locker room,” Smith said. “We’ve had a lot of technical fouls on this team, and if you’re going to play for me, you’re going to play the game the right way, and you’re not going to get too emotional (or) you’re going to cause the team some headaches because of it. And he’s not the only one. I’ve had six of them in my program since I started. … I made a mistake by putting Jonas back in on Logansport night after he did it. I was kicking myself that night for it. He paid for it tonight. We paid for it as a team. We’ll be better because of it, and that’s why he didn't play (in the first half) tonight.”

Senior Ashton Musselman scored his first three career varsity points on free throws in the fourth quarter.

In the JV game, Alex Chapman scored 16 points and was one of four Rochester players in double figures in a 61-56 win. Linden Wilburn and Aiden Wilson scored 13 points each, Van Kiser had 10, Owen Lett and Parker Casper had four each, and Taylor Howard had one.

Northwestern 51, Rochester 37

ROCHESTER (37) (2-3, 0-1)

Carson Paulik 2 1-1 5, Mitchell Clark 1 0-1 2, Brady Coleman 3 0-2 7, Liam Spence 4 1-2 10, Jack Reffett 2 0-2 6, Alex Chapman 0 0-0 0, Conner Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Jonas Kiser 2 0-0 4, Ashton Musselman 0 3-4 3, Parker Casper 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 14 5-12 37

NORTHWESTERN (51) (3-1, 2-0)

Landen Begley 2 3-4 7, William Rees 0 0-0 0, Braidyn Wilson 6 2-5 18, Henry Neher 2 2-2 6, Colin Cook 6 4-4 16, Preston Keating 0 0-0 0, Mason Butler 1 0-0 2, Jordan McKinney 1 0-0 2, Alexander McKoon 0 0-0 0, Kaiden Daily 0 0-0 0, Kade Dill 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 18 11-15 51

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 4 (Reffett 2, Coleman, Spence),

Northwestern 4 (Wilson 4)

Total fouls: Rochester 15, Northwestern 20

Turnovers: Rochester 10, Northwestern 12

Score by quarters

Rochester 9 9 6 13 – 37

Northwestern 16 11 16 8 – 51

JV: Rochester 61, Northwestern 56