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Reinartz scores 19, Paulik adds 10 for Rochester
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Rochester boys basketball team scored 19 more points than Triton allows on average Tuesday.
But it was the missed opportunities due to bad passes that bothered coach Rob Malchow after his team’s 60-52 loss at the RHS gym to the Class 1A, No. 7 Trojans.
Tanner Reinartz scored 19 points, and Carson Paulik added 10 for the Zebras, who had their seven-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 14-4.
Owen Prater scored seven of his nine in the first half. Drew Bowers had six, all in the fourth quarter.
Only Class 3A, No. 6 NorthWood has scored more points in a game against Triton than Rochester has this season. Triton came in ranked No. 1 in the state in defensive scoring average at 32.8.
“There were a lot of good things about tonight, if we had just passed the ball better,” Malchow said.
Gage Riffle hit six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 24 for Triton, who won their sixth straight game and improved to 17-3. Tanner Witt-Hoyo added 14.
Julian Swanson scored five points but held Rochester leading scorer Drew Bowers to six defensively. Bowers came in averaging 17 points per game. He averaged 24.6 ppg in his previous seven games.
“Really good,” Triton coach Jason Groves said of Swanson’s defense. “He has a low center of gravity. He’s really strong. He’s been, along with Dante Workman, one of our better defenders all year long. He’s amazing at just keeping guys in front of him without fouling. He’s one of the few kids on our team that can do that. Bowers is a really good player. He did a great job.”
It could be argued that all four Zebra losses have occurred against teams that were physical with Bowers.
“There’s no question, and that’s something whether it’s the offenses that we run, we’ve got to do a better job of executing our screens for him to get him open to break him loose,” Malchow said. “Or it’s again how we defend a little. We were kind of sloppy in our halfcourt traps, and we weren’t able to get in the open court where Drew can hurt you also. I think those two things, because those didn’t happen, I think Drew was frustrated.”
Triton beat Rochester for the fourth straight year. Rochester has not beaten Triton since Nick Allen hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer at the Trojan Trench Feb. 18, 2020 – exactly five years ago to the day earlier.
Triton started the second half on a 15-5 run, and they led by as many as 14 in the second half.
Rochester forced eight turnovers in the fourth quarter with their pressure defense and got within 49-44 and again at 56-51 with 1:16 left when Reinartz made a back cut behind the Triton defense and hit a short floater in the lane.
Reinartz then yanked the ball out of Swanson’s arms after Swanson gave up his dribble. He sent an outlet pass intended for Bowers, but Riffle stole it and eventually hit two free throws after Jack Reffett fouled him with 39.7 seconds left.
Another sloppy pass into the backcourt that Dante Workman tracked down and then fed to Riffle for a layup made it a nine-point lead again.
“The point of emphasis I had in the locker room was about our passing,” Malchow said. “There were three trips where we stole it, had a guy out in front for a layup and made a bad pass that they stole back and got a layup. Three times that went six points on their side. The last one, had we done it correctly the first two times, would have been to take the lead. … Those are unforced turnovers that in a game like this where you know when it’s all said and done, if done right, it’s going to be a two-to-five-point game – and it was with a minute-and-a-half to go – that’s when you look back at those types of decisions or lack of execution, and they’re huge because they’re unforced.”
Rochester jumped out to an 8-2 lead thanks to a short pullup in the lane and a 3-pointer from Prater and a Paulik 3-pointer. A Riffle 3-pointer and a Jayden Overmyer driving banker cut it to 8-7 after one quarter.
Reinartz scored Rochester’s first seven points of the second quarter on a trey, a pullup 17-footer and a 17-footer off the curl as the lead rose to 15-12, but a Witt-Hoyo layup and a Riffle 3-pointer gave Triton their first lead at 17-16 with 4:35 left in the half.
Reinartz hit a 3 from the left corner to put the Zebras back up, but freshman reserve Brady Wood hit a 3, Riffle hit a 3, and Wood scored on a driving layup to put Triton up 25-19. Prater and Paulik combined to go 4 for 4 from the foul line in the final 39.7 seconds of the half to keep the deficit at 27-23.
Already leading 29-25 a minute into the second half, Triton went on an 8-0 run. Workman hit a free throw, Landon Patrick hit a pullup 13-footer, Riffle hit a 3-pointer off the dribble, and Witt-Hoyo drove and scored.
Reffett hit an off-balance 3 off the dribble, but Workman stole an outlet pass after a Reffett steal, and he fed Patrick for a layup. After Riffle canned a 25-footer just in front of the Triton bench, the lead was up to 42-28.
The Zebras began their best stretch while trailing 47-33 with 6:13 left after a Riffle transition layup.
Jonas Kiser hit a cutting layup and was fouled. He missed the ensuing free throw, but Bowers hit a pullup 17-footer for his first points.
Overmyer scored in the post and was fouled, but he missed his ensuing free throw.
Then Bowers fed Kiser in the post for two. Reinartz hit a 17-footer and was fouled and completed the 3-point play. After a backcourt steal, Reinartz pump-faked from behind the arc and then fed a wide-open Bowers for a layup to cut it to 49-44.
But Triton broke down the Rochester press, and Riffle found Witt-Hoyo for a layup. After a Grant Clark miss, Patrick found Witt-Hoyo for another layup to make it 53-44.
Two Paulik free throws and a Bowers free throw had Rochester back within 53-47, but Reinartz was hit with an offensive foul and Prater a technical foul for arguing the call.
Swanson hit two technical free throws and then split a pair five seconds later to bump the lead back to nine, but a Kiser backcourt steal led to a Reinartz layup and the lead was back down to seven.
Rochester won the JV game 44-39 behind Mitchell Clark’s 15 points and Brady Coleman’s 11. Conner Dunfee had six, Parker Casper and Aiden Wilson had four each, Alex Chapman had three, and Trenton Meadows had one.
Malchow’s breaking of Clyde Lyle’s school coaching wins record was acknowledged in a pregame ceremony. Malchow earned his 231st career win in a 62-44 triumph over Wabash Friday.
Triton 60, Rochester 52
TRITON (60) (17-3)
Landon Patrick 2 0-2 4, Dante Workman 1 2-3 4, Julian Swanson 1 3-4 5, Gage Riffle 8 2-2 24, Tanner Witt-Hoyo 7 0-0 14, Jayden Overmyer 2 0-1 4, Caden Large 0 0-0 0, Brady Wood 2 0-0 5
TEAM: 23 7-12 60
ROCHESTER (52) (14-4)
Drew Bowers 2 2-4 6, Carson Paulik 2 4-4 10, Bryce Baugher 0 1-2 1, Owen Prater 3 2-2 9, Tanner Reinartz 8 1-1 19, Jonas Kiser 2 0-1 4, Grant Clark 0 0-0 0, Jack Reffett 1 0-0 3, Xavier Vance 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 18 10-14 52
Three-point field goals:
Triton 7 (Riffle 6, Wood),
Rochester 6 (Reinartz 2, Paulik 2, Prater, Reffett)
Total fouls: Triton 16, Rochester 16
Technical foul: Prater (RHS), 1:51, fourth
Turnovers: Triton 20, Rochester 14
Score by quarters
Triton 7 20 15 18 – 60
Rochester 8 15 8 21 – 52
JV: Rochester 44, Triton 39
