Baugher, D. Hook get career highs in Zebra win over Caston

Zeider hits 6 treys, scores 21 for Comets

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Basketball should be played with energy, according to Rochester boys coach Rob Malchow.

Playing their second game in less than 24 hours, they found that energy after falling behind 15-2 in the first quarter and knocked off Caston 60-43 at the RHS gym Saturday afternoon.

Bryce Baugher scored a career-high 19 points to lead three Rochester players in double figures.

Tanner Reinartz added 15, and Dylan Hook had a career-high 10 off the bench.

The Zebras still trailed 20-18 at one point in the second quarter on a Talon Zeider 3-pointer before closing the half

on a 16-1 run to take a 34-21 lead.

Caston senior sharpshooter Zeider hit six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 21 points for the Comets.

Rochester improved to 5-6. Caston fell to 4-7.

Caston committed 13 turnovers in the first half.

Rochester pressured Caston into mistakes once they mustered the defensive energy, according to Malchow.

“Nothing works when you don’t play with energy,” Malchow said. “When we finally decided that we were going to get after it, our pressure was able to flip it, and we got some easy buckets as far as transition got going, and we were on our way finally.”

Baugher, a junior forward, had eight points during the second quarter run, including a layup in transition, a 3-point play off a spinning layup and another 3-point play in transition. Sophomore reserve Jack Reffett also had a 3-pointer and a putback.

Caston got within nine in the third quarter, holding Rochester scoreless for the first 5:20 of the half before an Owen Prater cutting layin, a Hook short banker and a Baugher free throw stretched the lead back to 14.

Rochester led by as many as 23 in the fourth quarter.

This marked the first time since 2018 that the home team had won the Rochester-Caston game. Caston had won their past two trips to Rochester in 2020 and 2022, and 3-pointers from Zeider and a Lane Hook layup off a Carter Clingler assist led to an 8-0 Caston lead.

Reinartz hit a 17-footer, but Clingler scored on a putback, Zeider hit another 3 from just off the left baseline, and Stinson hit a short jumper to make it a 13-point lead.

But Rochester answered back with a 9-0 run, which included a Drew Bowers 3-pointer, a Bowers assist to Dylan Hook for a layup, a Bowers steal that led to a Baugher transition layup and a Reinartz steal and layup.

“We talk about this a lot, but you’ve got to respect the game,” Malchow said. “The game will bite you if you don’t respect it. … It’s not meant to be played at a mediocre speed. It’s meant to be played at a high level of energy, and if you can execute and have talent, you can have fun with the game.”

Two Reinartz buckets – one on a 17-footer and another on a runner in the lane – gave Rochester their first lead.

“I think the big thing in the second quarter is some of those things that made us successful in the first quarter – some of those reads we made specifically in the first quarter – we just assumed they were going to be there the second time,” Caston coach Carl Davis said. “I thought that was big. I can remember three or four turnovers off-hand that we made because we tried to make the same read that we made the first time we did it and it was there and we were successful with, and that’s just a matter of us adjusting as the game goes on to what the defense is doing, and Rochester did a great job of covering up the mistakes that they made early in the game and making sure they didn’t get beat on the same stuff twice. They did a better job of adapting to that than we did. … Our worst enemy defensively sometimes is us offensively.”

Reinartz, a junior in his third year on the varsity, said that experience has helped his development. He said he knows when to shoot the 3, when to shot-fake and shoot the pullup jumper, when to attack the basket and when to pass.

“Getting to the rack, getting to the hole, for sure,” Reinartz said when asked what parts of his game he has worked on since last year. “And when they come out and fly when I go to shoot it, take one dribble and take a pullup. … I can see out of the corner of eye and just go off the hip. That’s what we’ve been working on for a week or two with (assistant) coach (Luke) Smith and attacking the hip and going to the hole.”

It was all in support of Baugher’s career game.

“His ability to do it all is just awesome,” Reinartz said.

Rochester also won the JV game 45-38 behind Brady Coleman’s 11 points.

Rochester 60, Caston 43

CASTON (43) (4-7)

Carter Clingler 1 0-0 2, Talon Zeider 7 1-1 21, Caleb Stinson 2 0-0 4, Grant Yadon 1 1-2 3, Lane Hook 4 0-0 9, Corbin Smith 0 0-0 0, Gavin Mollenkopf 0 0-0 0, Alex Craig 1 1-2 4, Josh Evans 0 0-0 0, Max Sommers 0 0-0 0, Reed Sommers 0 0-0 0, Carson Harness 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 16 3-5 43

ROCHESTER (60) (5-6)

Drew Bowers 1 0-0 3, Owen Prater 3 0-0 6, Carson Paulik 0 2-2 2, Tanner Reinartz 7 0-0 15, Bryce Baugher 7 5-6 19, Davis Renie 0 0-0 0, Dylan Hook 5 0-0 10, Luke Malchow 0 0-0 0, Hunter Honkomp 0 0-0 0, Jonas Kiser 0 0-0 0, Grant Clark 0 0-0 0, Jack Reffett 2 0-0 5

TEAM: 25 7-8 60

Three-point field goals:

Caston 8 (Zeider 6, L. Hook, Craig),

Rochester 3 (Reinartz, Reffett, Bowers)

Total fouls: Caston 16, Rochester 14

Fouled out: Stinson (CAS), 6:46, fourth

Turnovers: Caston 27, Rochester 15

Score by quarters

Caston 17 4 7 15 – 43