BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Rochester boys basketball team got a halftime wake-up call from coach Rob Malchow and followed by finishing off visiting North Miami at the RHS gym Friday for their first conference victory.
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Tanner Reinartz led Rochester with 15 points, and Brock Bowers and Luke Hunting added 13 each.
Rochester hit 10 3-pointers as compared to North Miami’s two and also made more free throws (13) than North Miami attempted (8).
Rochester also had a 16-2 advantage in bench points, including contributions from seniors Ethan Medina (eight points) and Aidan Smith (six points). Paul Leasure had six points and a team-high seven assists.
Landen Hunt led North Miami with 17 points, and Jake Riley added 12.
North Miami committed 19 turnovers against a Rochester team that substituted fresh players in liberally and pressed continuously.
“I felt like they did a good job at times early in the game of breaking the pressure and getting to the bucket, but definitely I thought they were starting to struggle,” Malchow said. “You know, turnovers became a little bit of a problem for them. They got a little sloppy because I thought they got sluggish and tired, and even their shots and stuff … Free throws, they really struggled with because of their legs. … That’s why you press. It’s a 32-minute game, and we pressed the whole game because you just want to try by the second half start to wear on them.”
Rochester improved to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in the Three Rivers Conference. They also beat North Miami for the sixth straight year.
North Miami lost their sixth straight game and fell to 1-6, 0-2. They are 1-53 in their last 54 TRC games.
Rochester built a 43-27 lead on Smith’s 3-pointer from the right wing with 7:19 left, but North Miami trimmed the deficit to 43-34 on a left baseline stop-on-a-dime jumper by Hunt with 6:25 left.
The Zebras then closed the game on a 20-4 run with Reinartz raining down three consecutive 3-pointers to get the lead to 18. Rochester also went 9 for 10 from the foul line in the fourth quarter.
Coming out in a switching man-to-man defense, North Miami forced seven Rochester turnovers as part of a game-opening 9-3 run. They still led 18-17 on a Riley off-balance turnaround with 2:46 left in the half, but a Hunting putback started a 6-0 run to close the half and give the Zebras a 23-18 lead.
“Well, we talked at halftime about the slow start we had again tonight and that we really need to honestly grow up as a team and make sure we’re coming out with more energy and meeting or surpassing the opponent,” Malchow said. “I thought the first half, a lot of it, probably until the last four minutes of the second quarter, was about North Miami just getting to the ball a little quicker, being stronger with their hands, everything. And you know, we put a little run on them and got the five-point separation at half, but I challenged them pretty hard about coming out the second half and enough’s enough. We knew that as far as this game went, it’s a game we could win if we just went out and exercised our talent with our energy. And we weren’t doing that, but in the second half, the guys really did a good job of it.”
Said Smith: “We kind of got a wake-up call at halftime. I’ll leave it at that.”
Rochester 63, North Miami 38
NORTH MIAMI (38) (1-6, 0-2)
Landen Hunt 7 2-3 17, Jake Riley 5 1-1 12, Ray Pickett 2 0-0 4, Dolan Blakely 0 0-0 0, Isaac Floyd 1 1-3 3, Brayden Binnion 1 0-1 2, Preston Wilcox 0 0-0 0, Bryce Gosnell 0 0-0 0, Braxtyn Rader 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 16 4-8 38
ROCHESTER (63) (3-2, 1-0)
Owen Prater 0 0-0 0, Paul Leasure 1 4-6 6, Brock Bowers 5 2-2 13, Tanner Reinartz 5 0-0 15, Luke Hunting 5 2-2 13, Drew Bowers 0 0-0 0, Ethan Medina 3 0-0 8, Luke Malchow 0 0-0 0, Bryce Baugher 0 0-0 0, Aidan Smith 1 3-4 6, Davis Renie 0 2-2 2, Xavier Vance 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 20 13-16 63
Three-point field goals:
North Miami 2 (Hunt, Riley),
Rochester 10 (Reinartz 5, Medina 2, Hunting, B. Bowers, Smith)
Total fouls: North Miami 14, Rochester 15
Turnovers: North Miami 19, Rochester 12
Score by quarters
North Miami 11 7 9 11 – 38
Rochester 6 17 17 23 – 63