.png)
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.
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
