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Reinartz, Bowers, Baugher, Paulik all score in double figures
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Tanner Reinartz Carson Paulik
Rochester boys basketball coach Rob Malchow battled illness and a raspy voice prior to the team’s game with Southwood at the RHS gym Thursday.
So it was time for the Zebras’ shooting to do the talking for them.
Rochester hit five 3-pointers and forced seven turnovers with their pressure defense to build a 24-2 lead, and they cruised to a 64-38 win over the Knights.
Tanner Reinartz led four players in double figures with 12 points for the Zebras, who improved to 12-3 overall and 4-2 in the Three Rivers Conference. Rochester has won five in a row, all over Class 1A teams and all by double-digit margins.
Drew Bowers added 11, and Bruyce Baugher and Carson Paulik added 10 each.
Rochester hit 10 3-pointers for the game. Seven different players hit at least one trey.
Rochester outscored Southwood 12-2 from the foul line and also had a 17-0 advantage in bench points.
Bo Liddick hit five treys and scored a game-high 19 for Southwood (7-8, 3-4 TRC). Bryce Wilcox added 13 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Dalton Barney was out with an ankle injury, according to coach Christian Perry.
After trailing by as many as 26 in the first half, Southwood did get within 41-27 on a Wilcox 3-pointer with 1:33 left in the third quarter, but Rochester went on a 10-0 run that bled into the fourth quarter, and Southwood never got the lead under 20 in the fourth.
“The guys came out and knocked down shots,” Rochester coach Rob Malchow said. “The way they spread their defense and come out, you’re going to have open looks, and it’s kind of a tricky situation. If you miss some shots, and they’re going to be out on the break getting some easy opportunities for themselves, but fortunately we made those shots and got a big early lead.”
Rochester scored the first 17 points of the game in a run that included four treys. Baugher absorbed a foul from Liddick and finished off the break and completed the 3-point play to start the scoring. Paulik hit a 3, and Bowers scored on a transition layup to make it 8-0 two minutes in.
After a Southwood timeout, Reinartz hit a 3 from the left corner and then assisted on 3s from Baugher and Paulik.
“Coach has been sick the last few days, and he really wanted us to start out hot,” Baugher said. “He told us he wanted us to pick up the slack he left behind since he’s lost his voice. He gave an encouraging speech, and he was a little quiet, but that meant a lot to us tonight, and that fired us up quite a bit.”
Perry said he wanted his 2-3 zone defense to be aggressive and force Rochester to dribble while not giving up open 3-point looks.
“It didn’t work out that way,” Perry added. “They definitely hit a high percentage, and we only got one field goal in the first quarter. That wasn't our plan at all. We just didn’t come out ready. With their shooting and then you throw in the 1-2-2 press they were doing, we had practiced for it. It didn’t look like we had though. So that was very disappointing not handling that pressure.”
Wilcox broke a a nearly four-and-a-half minute game-opening drought with a 13-foot right baseline jumper off the dribble, but Prater hit a corner 3 off a drive-and-kick setup from Bowers, and a Bowers steal and lead pass to Reinartz behind the defense led to a finger roll and a 20-point lead.
Paulik finished the run with two free throws with 7:22 left in the half.
Meanwhile, Rochester had success both with their 1-2-2 three-quarter court trap and their 2-3 zone.
“Other than 32 (Liddick) getting loose a couple times and knocking a couple 3s down … that’s the thing,” Malchow said. “Just like North Miami the other night, we played man-to-man in the fourth quarter because I thought Jo (Kiser) did a good job on the (Jake) Riley kid. Sometimes, it’s a zone; sometimes it’s a man. But obviously, the staple is our halfcourt pressure.”
Said Baugher: “Well, that first half, I think, was our strongest at leading them to turnovers because we focused on keeping our hands up.”
Rochester also won the C-Team game 37-19 and the JV game 42-34. The C-Team finished with an undefeated record.
Rochester 64, Southwood 38
SOUTHWOOD (38) (7-8, 3-4)
Maddox Marshall 2 0-0 4, Owen Enyeart 0 0-0 0, Bo Liddick 7 0-2 19, Griffin Chambers 1 0-0 2, Bryce Wilcox 5 2-3 13, Kaiden Valdez 0 0-0 0, Cooper Drake 0 0-0 0, Duke Sparks 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 15 2-5 38
ROCHESTER (64) (12-3, 4-2)
Drew Bowers 5 1-1 11, Carson Paulik 2 4-4 10, Tanner Reinartz 4 2-2 12, Bryce Baugher 4 1-1 10, Owen Prater 1 1-2 4, Brady Coleman 0 0-0 0, Conner Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Jonas Kiser 1 3-4 6, Grant Clark 2 0-0 5, Jack Reffett 2 0-0 6, Xavier Vance 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 21 12-14 64
Three-point field goals:
Southwood 6 (Liddick 5, Wilcox),
Rochester 10 (Reinartz 2, Paulik 2, Reffett 2, Baugher, Kiser, Clark, Prater)
Total fouls: Southwood 17, Rochester 13
Turnovers: Southwood 21, Rochester 11
Score by quarters
Southwood 2 17 8 11 – 38
Rochester 22 18 8 16 – 64
JV: Rochester 42, Southwood 34
C-Team: Rochester 37, Southwood 19
