Bowers’s 32, Paulik’s 40-footer key win, but Reinartz injured
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
On a night in which the new trophy case in the lobby of the RHS gym was filled, Rochester boys basketball coach Rob Malchow achieved two personal milestones Tuesday.
First, he earned his 300th career win combined between girls and boys coaching with the team’s 70-57 win over Plymouth.
Second, he tied Clyde Lyle for the Rochester boys basketball record for coaching wins with his 230th. He also won 70 games as the Rochester girls coach in the 1990s.
The team’s accomplishments are harkening back to the 2008-09 Class 3A state runner-up team. They have scored 60 or more points in five consecutive games for the first time since 2008-09. They also beat Logansport and Plymouth in the same season for the first time since 2008-09.
Drew Bowers led Rochester with a game-high 32 points. He scored off the ball and off the dribble and even hit a 3-pointer that went in after hitting the front of the rim and dropping through the net.
Carson Paulik hit three 3-pointers, including a 40-footer from just inside halfcourt at the halftime buzzer, and added 13.
“Yeah, actually I do shoot a lot of them,” Paulik said when asked if he practices shots like the one he made. “But it’s kind of lucky in my opinion.”
Bryce Baugher added 10 for Rochester, who won their sixth straight game and improved to 13-3.
One game after opening with a 17-0 run against Southwood, the Zebras scored the first 12 points this time and never trailed. They also started the second half on a 12-2 run.
“The first quarter killed us,” Plymouth assistant coach Tony Plothow said. “By halftime, we had it to three, and then (Paulik) hits a last-second shot. But we just kept digging holes and trying to get out of them. They were mixing up their defenses, and turnovers just killed us at the wrong time.”
Senior starting forward Tanner Reinartz went down with an apparent head injury with 3:28 left in the first half and did not return. He spent the rest of the first half in the trainer’s room and then returned to sit with his teammates on the bench for the second half.
Fellow senior Owen Prater also left with 6:52 left in the third quarter after Ellery inadvertently stepped on his head. He walked back to the locker room and was back in the game less than two minutes later.
“I was as shocked as anybody when Owen came back,” Malchow said.
Plymouth cut the lead to 39-36 on Dan Nguyen’s 3-pointer in the waning seconds of the half to cap an 11-0 run, but Paulik’s heave and another Paulik triple on the first possession of the second half resulted in a six-point double possession and a nine-point lead.
Kadyn Ellery and Preston Wolfe scored 17 each for Plymouth, who dropped to 9-9. Trenton Van Duyne added 11.
“Number 12 for them is a heck of an athlete and a heck of a player,” Malchow said of Ellery, referring to him by uniform number. “But we got Drew, who was a pretty good player tonight too. Again, the guys came together, even though Tanner went out … the middle of the second quarter, and he couldn’t come back, and Jo (Jonas Kiser) came in and really played well for him. Clarkie (Grant Clark) came in and played well for him, so I just thought the guys picked up the slack and kept attacking defensively.”
The 6-5 Ellery scored the first two baskets of the fourth quarter to trim the lead to 58-50, but Baugher hit two free throws, Paulik hit another trey, and Baugher passed from the corner to an open Kiser for a layup after a timeout to get the lead back to 15.
“So I said we want to be up double digits going into the fourth quarter, so then we could run it down to three or four minutes, and we’ll run clock, and let’s go home,” Malchow said. “And that’s exactly what they were able to do. They did a great job executing in that fourth quarter.”
Bowers started the scoring on a 15-footer off a curl. Then he got a 3-point play off a back cut. Then Reinartz hit a 3-pointer on a dribble handoff. A Baugher transition layup and a Prater driving layup made it 12-0.
The hot starts are a far cry from the Tippecanoe Valley game Nov. 30 when the Zebras were held scoreless in the first quarter.
“I think at the start of the season, we just came out slow, and once we recognized that we need to come out stronger, we just came more mentally prepared into the games, I feel,” Bowers said. “More locked in at the start.”
Assistant coach Luke Smith has installed what Malchow calls a “motion offense” and what many players call a “flow.”
“Last year we called it a flow offense, but it’s really just a motion,” Bowers explained. “And you just want to attack. If you attack, you break the defense down, and then you kick, and that’s basically it.”
Rochester also took the JV game 48-32 behind Brady Coleman’s 20 points. Parker Casper and Conner Dunfee had eight apiece, Mitchell Clark had seven, Alex Chapman had three, and Trenton Meadows had two.
Game notes
The Brown family donated the trophy case. The state championship teams (1918 track, 1980 boys golf, 1987 football, 2004 girls basketball) still have their own separate trophy cases as do individual state champions like Alisha Ewing (high jump, 2000) and Marshall Fishback (wrestling, 2022).
Notre Dame linebacker Jack Kiser was in attendance. Kiser, a 2019 Pioneer grad and the IndyStar Mr. Football that year, is Jonas Kiser’s cousin. Jack Kiser played in 70 career games at Notre Dame, the most in school history.
Plymouth guard Trey Delp fouled out with 4:39 left in the third quarter. He was called for a personal foul and then a technical foul.
Rochester made 10 of 17 free throws while Plymouth made just 4 for 11.
Smith remains away from the team. His 16-month-old son Ford is hospitalized. Malchow asked for prayers for Ford’s recovery.
Rochester travels to Wabash at 7:45 p.m. Friday. Wabash is the defending regional champion, and they knocked Rochester out of last year’s sectional, but they are 0-18 this season.
Rochester 70, Plymouth 57
PLYMOUTH (57) (9-9)
Preston Wolfe 6 0-0 17, Trey Delp 0 0-0 0, Dan Nguyen 2 0-0 6, Trenton Van Duyne 4 3-5 11, Kadyn Ellery 8 1-6 17, Exzander Ramirez 0 0-0 0, Hayden Feldman 1 0-0 3, Kylen Ellery 1 0-0 3
TEAM: 22 4-11 57
ROCHESTER (70) (13-3)
Drew Bowers 14 2-4 32, Carson Paulik 4 2-3 13, Bryce Baugher 4 2-6 10, Owen Prater 2 2-2 6, Tanner Reinartz 2 0-0 5, Jonas Kiser 1 2-2 4, Grant Clark 0 0-0 0, Jack Reffett 0 0-0 0, Xavier Vance 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 27 10-17 70
Three-point field goals:
Plymouth 9 (Wolfe 5, Nguyen 2, Kylen Ellery, Feldman),
Rochester 6 (Paulik 3, Bowers 2, Reinartz)
Total fouls: Plymouth 18, Rochester 9
Technical foul: Delp (PLY), 4:39, third
Fouled out: Delp (PLY), 4:39, third
Turnovers: Plymouth 15, Rochester 12
Score by quarters
Plymouth 17 19 10 11 – 57
Rochester 21 21 16 12 – 70
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