Kiser’s 26, Paulik’s clutch trey lead to Zebra semifinal win over Wabash
- Val T.
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Up next: vs. No. 2 Oak Hill, 7:30 p.m. tonight at Manchester
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
NORTH MANCHESTER — Their opponent made a shot from just inside halfcourt at the first-quarter buzzer. Another opponent made his first 3-pointer in 11 games.
They committed a technical foul for touching the rim during a deadball situation. They had a scoring drought of over five minutes in the second half.
And the first-half 3-point shooting was often errant.
The Rochester boys basketball team was tougher than all that might have gone against it, earning a 47-41 win over Wabash in a Class 2A, Sectional 38 semifinal at Manchester Friday.
Jonas Kiser scored nine of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter, including the free throw that put the Zebras ahead for good with 5:03 left, and he also had seven rebounds to lead Rochester.
Carson Paulik added nine, including seven in the fourth quarter.
Freshman Treyce Daughtry scored 11 of his 20 in the fourth quarter for Wabash. Rochester held DaVon Osborn, who scored 19 in Wabash’s quarterfinal win over Eastern (Greentown) Tuesday, to nine. Senior sharpshooter Eli Mattern, who scored 23 against Eastern, was held to three against
Rochester’s 2-3 and 3-2 zones.
Rochester improved to 10-12. Wabash finished 7-17.
Rochester will meet No. 2 Oak Hill in the sectional final at 7:30 p.m. tonight. Oak Hill dismissed Lewis Cass 72-34 in the other semifinal.
“Our defense was our identity tonight,” Rochester first-year coach Luke Smith said. “And our guys did a really good job. They executed the game plan. We talked about it the last two days of practice. I’m proud of them.”
Wabash went on an 11-0 run covering the third and fourth quarters to erase a nine-point deficit, and they took a 32-30 lead on a Daughtry triple with 5:42 left.
Rochester answered with a decisive 8-0 run of their own.
Paulik spun and drove for a banker. Kiser was fouled and split a pair of free throws to give Rochester a 33-32 lead.
After a defensive stop, Mitchell Clark’s pass intended for Liam Spence resulted in a Daughtry steal. Daughtry charged into the frontcourt but slowed as he made his way into the lane. Clark never gave up on the play and chased Daughtry from behind and knocked the ball from him just as he was about to go up with it.
The ball deflected off the backboard to Paulik, who made a behind-the-back dribble and spun away and pushed the ball to the right wing. He passed to Spence and weaved behind him and then took a pass from Spence on the right wing and swished a trey.
The lead was up to four.
Mitchell Clark deflected a routine pass intended for Daughtry off Daughtry’s shoulder out of bounds, and Kiser cut behind the Apache defense for a layup and a six-point lead.
Wabash played a 2-3 zone at the start but switched to a man-to-man later.
“I wasn’t really surprised,” Kiser said of Wabash’s zone. “We watched the game Tuesday, and that’s what they were playing. We adjusted by just attacking down the middle and getting some 3s to fall for us early and then it just kind of went on from there.”
Wabash would get within 41-37 on Cooper Long’s 3-pointer with 1:11 left. It was Long’s first 3 since Jan. 17.
But Kiser split the lane and powered down the middle of the lane for a layup.
Mattern missed a 3. Grant Clark rebounded and passed to Kiser, who passed into the frontcourt to Spence. Mattern fouled Spence with 30.5 seconds left.
As the official went to the scorer’s table to announce the foul, Paulik inexplicably ran to the rim and touched it and was called for a technical foul, per NFHS rule 10-4-4b regarding “unsporting behavior.”
With Rochester in the bonus, Spence split a pair of free throws. Daughtry split the technical free throws. The lead was 44-38.
Kiser stole a pass intended for the wing and made one of two free throws.
Daughtry hit a 3, but Paulik atoned with two free throws with 12.2 seconds left.
Mattern missed a 3, and Kiser rebounded, and the Zebras could celebrate.
“Look, this is tournament basketball, and the guys are smiling and having a good time right now,” Smith said. “We’re going to enjoy this one tonight. … We’re going to get to the gym tomorrow, refocus, do what we’ve got to do, and just compete, and we’ll see what happens.”
Rochester lost five of their first six games in February but have won two straight since.
“Next game’s just about going out there and having fun and playing like it’s your last game,” Kiser said.
Wabash scored the first five points of the game, but Rochester came back to lead 12-9 thanks to a pair of Kiser treys and baskets from Grant Clark off a screen-and-roll assist from Paulik and Mitchell Clark off a Grant Clark assist while running behind a Conner Dunfee screen with seven seconds left in the quarter.
Mattern then flew into the frontcourt and drilled a 3 from just inside halfcourt to tie it. It turned out to be his only points of the game.
Wabash took a 17-15 lead on an Osborn banker in the lane with 4:24 left in the half, but that would be Wabash’s last field goal for eight minutes.
Rochester took a 19-17 lead on Paulik’s driving banker at the halftime buzzer.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Smith said. “I think we were like 3 for 16 in the first half from 3, but man, we could not make a shot there, but neither could they on the other end.”
Wabash stayed within 23-21 when Daughtry flashed to the left side of the lane for a jumper.
Spence pulled up in the lane and hit a midrange jumper. Reffett’s crossover move resulted in a 3-point play.
Then Kiser hit two free throws with 2:42 left to cap a 7-0 run and make it 30-21.
Rochester’s run coincided with the 6-5 Osborn having to sit after picking up his third foul 14 seconds into the third quarter. Once they went to a man-to-man, Osborn was Wabash’s best option defensively against the 6-4 Kiser.
“His length can bother a lot of people because he’s 6-5 and really athletic,” Smith said of Osborn. “He got in foul trouble at our place too if I remember right, and Jonas had a heyday there.”
But with Kiser getting a breather with 2:35 left, Wabash went on their run.
Baskets by Noah Baldwin and Osborn and two Osborn free throws cut it to 30-27 after three quarters.
A Daughtry left baseline pullup and a Daughtry trey to start the fourth quarter capped the Wabash run.
ROCHESTER (47) (10-12)
Carson Paulik 3 2-2 9, Brady Coleman 0 0-0 0, Jack Reffett 1 1-1 3, Liam Spence 2 1-2 5, Jonas Kiser 8 7-11 26, Mitchell Clark 1 0-0 2, Parker Casper 0 0-0 0, Conner Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Grant Clark 1 0-0 2
TEAM: 16 11-16 47
WABASH (41) (7-17)
Treyce Daughtry 8 1-2 20, Eli Mattern 1 0-0 3, Cooper Long 1 2-2 5, James Unger 0 0-0 0, DaVon Osborn 3 3-4 9, Derek Reed 0 0-0 0, Noah Baldwin 2 0-0 4
TEAM: 15 6-8 41
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 4 (Kiser 3, Paulik),
Wabash 5 (Daughtry 3, Long, Mattern)
Total fouls: Rochester 11, Wabash 15
Technical foul: Paulik (RHS), :30.5, fourth
Turnovers: Rochester 13, Wabash 15
Score by quarters
Rochester 12 7 11 17 – 47
Wabash 12 5 10 14 – 41
Oak Hill 72, Lewis Cass 34
Freshman point guard Will Tonagel hit four 3-pointers and scored 28 points, and Jace Tonagel added 10 for the Oak Hill boys basketball team in a win over Lewis Cass in a Class 2A, Sectional 38 semifinal at Manchester Friday.
Brennan Deeter scored 12 points to lead Lewis Cass (13-10). Julian Levine and Trey Johnson added eight each. Deeter, Levine and Johnson are all seniors. Meanwhile, Oak Hill starts one senior.
Oak Hill (23-1) scored the first nine points and led 19-8 after a quarter. Then they scored the first six points of the second quarter to kick the lead up to 17.
Will Tonagel scored 13 of his team’s 16 points in the second quarter, combining swashbuckling drives to the rim with pullup jumpers off the dribble.
Deeter scored all six Lewis Cass points in the second quarter, including a banked-in 35-footer at the horn. Lewis Cass still trailed 35-14.
The Tonagel brothers combined for 18 of Oak Hill’s 26 points in the third quarter. When Landon Watts hit a 3-pointer 30 seconds into the fourth quarter, the lead was 64-27, and that instituted a running clock, per the IHSAA Mercy Rule.
Oak Hill beat Rochester 61-23 in the 2016 sectional quarterfinals at Manchester in the teams’ most recent postseason meeting. Either Rochester will win their first sectional since 2021, or Oak Hill will win their first sectional since their state title-winning season of 2018.
LEWIS CASS (34) (13-10)
Trey Johnson 3 2-4 8, Karston Gray 1 0-0 3, Brennan Deeter 4 2-3 12, Julian Levine 4 0-4 8, Owen Cotner-Graves 0 1-2 1, Jackson Darland 0 0-0 0, Jaxon Lutane 0 0-0 0, Bentlee McCauley 0 0-0 0, Bentley Bray 0 0-0 0, Jacob Dixon 1 0-0 2
TEAM: 13 5-13 34
OAK HILL (72) (23-1)
Will Tonagel 11 2-2 28, Luke Elzinga 2 0-0 4, Landon Watts 3 0-0 7, Jayden Younce 2 0-0 5, Jace Tonagel 4 1-2 10, Beckham Lamb 0 0-0 0, Solomon Boswell 0 2-4 2, Kevaunte Simmons 2 1-2 5, Landon Cruzan 2 0-0 5, Corbin Dailey 3 0-0 6, Josh Clark 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 29 6-10 72
Three-point field goals:
Lewis Cass 3 (Deeter, K. Gray),
Oak Hill 8 (W. Tonagel 4, J. Tonagel, Watts, Younce, Cruzan)
Total fouls: Lewis Cass 13, Oak Hill 12
Fouled out: Cotner-Graves (LC), 4:10, fourth
Turnovers: Lewis Cass 13, Oak Hill 6
Score by quarters
Lewis Cass 8 6 13 7 – 34
Oak Hill 19 16 26 11 – 72
