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Leasure adds 14, Bowers 11, Bozzo 10
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
MONON – Bentley Buschman scored eight of his game-high 28 points during a 16-2 run in the second half, and the North White boys basketball team beat visiting Rochester 69-62 Saturday.
Nate Miller added 15 points, and Jeff Stevens had 10 points and nine rebounds for the
Vikings, who won their fourth straight game and improved to 9-3.
Freshman Tanner Reinartz had a career-high 15 points and eight rebounds for the Zebras, who dropped to 6-8.
Paul Leasure added 14 points while holding North White senior point guard Hunter Pogue to a season-low nine on the defensive end. Pogue had scored 20 and hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer the previous night against Class 2A, No. 6 Carroll.
Brock Bowers scored 11, including three 3-pointers in the second half, and Robert Bozzo came off the bench to score 10.
One night after making 11 3-pointers against Northfield, the Zebras made 10 more treys against North White.
North White made 16 of 20 free throws while Rochester made 8 of 14.
Pogue had scored in double figures in 14 consecutive games dating back to last year before facing Leasure and the Zebras, but it was his 3-point play with 53.6 seconds left that put North White ahead for good at 49-46.
The lead stayed at 49-46 after three quarters. A Miller driving layup and a Buschman drive along the left baseline for a 3-point play got the lead to 54-46.
Xavier Vance’s basket made it 54-48, but Buschman hit a 3-pointer and two free throws, and when Isaiah Denton, one of five senior starters for North White, swished a 3-pointer from the right wing, the lead was up to 62-48.
Rochester would whittle the lead down to 68-62 in the final minute after 3-pointers from Tarick McGlothin and Bowers, but Miller’s free throw with 21.7 seconds left made it a three-possession game, and after McGlothin missed a 3, North White dribbled out the clock.
“It was a combination, I think, they ratcheted it up maybe a little bit, and we got tired,” Rochester coach Rob Malchow said. “We didn’t rotate as well on them on our defense. So they really got some big-time open looks that we weren’t letting them have early. So I think our defense was more of a failure than their defense was a positive.
“But at the end of the day, both teams, especially them, it was just pressure, pressure, pressure. And they ended up pulling through and finding the open looks and knocking them down and then we were a little short.”
Rochester jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a Leasure pullup jumper, two Reinartz free throws and a Leasure 3-pointer from the top of the key.
But Rochester committed eight first-quarter turnovers against North White’s hectic, fullcourt pressure style, and North White would tie the game at 8 on a Caleb Orr layup.
Reinartz hit a 3-pointer to give Rochester a 13-10 lead in the second quarter, but Buschman hit three treys and scored 12 points in the second quarter alone, and North White led 32-30 at halftime.
Bowers hit two 3s – one from the left wing in transition and one from the right corner after an offensive rebound – as the Zebras hung within 38-36 in the third quarter.
A Reinartz trey and a Luke Hunting hoop off McGlothin’s dribble penetration and bounce pass dish gave Rochester a 43-42 lead with three minutes left in the third.
Miller’s finger roll gave North White the lead, but Rochester went back ahead 45-44 when Leasure found Reinartz for a layup.
“That 24, hats off, he’s a great player,” North White coach Matt Sipkema said of Leasure, referring to him by uniform number. “He was giving (Pogue) some problems. Give credit to Rochester that they are physically stronger than us, so I was trying to get Hunter off the point a little bit, but I just didn’t trust another guy with the ball, to be honest with you. But it worked out well for us.”
Miller hit a 12-footer in the lane, but Hunting’s free throw with 1:26 left in the third tied the game.
“All in all, not a bad weekend, getting the conference win, coming over and playing a team on their floor that’s probably one of the better teams in Loganland, and really having a legitimate shot at maybe pulling the upset tonight, but it got away in the fourth quarter,” Malchow said.
Rochester won the JV game 48-34. Dylan Hook and Drew Bowers scored 12 points each to lead Rochester. Gavin Young had eight, Ethan Medina and Bozzo had five each, Owen Prater had three, Luke Malchow had two, and Thatcher Sampsel had one.
North White 69, Rochester 62
ROCHESTER (62) (6-8)
Brock Bowers 4 0-0 11, Tarick McGlothin 1 2-4 5, Paul Leasure 6 0-0 14, Tanner Reinartz 4 4-6 15, Luke Hunting 2 1-2 5, Aaron Huffman 0 0-0 0, Evan Elliott 0 0-0 0, Robert Bozzo 4 1-2 10, Xavier Vance 1 0-0 2
TEAM: 22 8-14 62
NORTH WHITE (69) (9-3)
Nate Miller 5 5-6 15, Hunter Pogue 4 1-2 9, Isaiah Denton 1 0-0 3, Bentley Buschman 8 8-10 28, Jeff Stevens 4 2-2 10, Dane Hood 1 0-0 2, Caleb Orr 1 0-0 2
TEAM: 24 16-20 69
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 10 (Reinartz 3, Bowers 3, Leasure 2, Bozzo, McGlothin),
North White 5 (Buschman 4, Denton)
Total fouls: Rochester 18, North White 17
Fouled out: Hunting (RHS), 6:59, fourth
Turnovers: Rochester 20, North White 13
Score by quarters
Rochester 10 20 16 16 – 62
North White 10 22 17 20 – 69
JV: Rochester 48, North White 34
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