Kiser’s double-double off bench cannot prevent Maconquah sharing TRC title

Bowers adds 15; Ball scores 36, Kelly adds 22 for Braves

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Jonas Kiser

BUNKER HILL — The Maconaquah boys basketball team delivered a knockout punch against visiting Rochester Friday, and Jonas Kiser’s double-double off the bench could not bring the Zebras back.

Josiah Ball scored 36 points, and A.J. Kelly scored his 1,000th career point as the Braves jumped out to a 19-4 lead and rolled to an 82-61 win Friday.

Kelly finished with 22. Officials stopped the game with 5:07 left in the first quarter to present Kelly with a game ball.

Kiser led Rochester with 19 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Drew Bowers had 15.

Maconaquah improved to 17-5 overall and finished Three Rivers Conference play 8-1. The Braves shared the TRC title with Manchester.

Rochester finished the regular season 16-5, 6-3. They finished in sole possession of fourth place in the conference.

“He really played well,” Rochester coach Rob Malchow said of Kiser. “Even when we lost against Manchester and tonight, he’s really playing well against some good competition, and hopefully, that’s something that he can parlay into next week.”

Rochester allowed only 26 points in a win over Oregon-Davis Tuesday. Maconaquah had that many points less than six minutes into the game, and they led by as many as 23 in the first quarter.

Maconaquah coach John Burrus said the school re-arranged its typical senior night festivities – it typically involves each senior player speaking to the crowd – to Thursday night because he wanted his team focused on winning the conference and out of respect to a Rochester team that came in with nine wins in its last 10 games.

“We came out tonight with a purpose, and we knew we had to play well because Rochester’s had a great year,” Burrus said. “I really was a little bit panicky about how we would look against them because they’ve got all that size down low, and Kiser did hurt us. But we came out, and we hit early, and you know, when you hit early, it makes your defense look a little bit better.”

Maconaquah hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter, including back-to-back 3s from Landon Adams and Ball on the first two possessions to open up a 6-0 lead. Bowers hit a pullup in the lane, but Ball, who also led Maconaquah with nine rebounds, went coast to coast after grabbing a Bowers miss and scoring while spinning away from Bowers and dropping in a finger roll.

Their pressure defense also forced seven Rochester turnovers in the first quarter, which included a blindside strip of Tanner Reinartz by Devon Murry. Murry’s off-balance layup missed, but Kelly scored on a putback to make it 10-2.

Malchow called timeout just 1:55 into the game.

“They were coming at us, and we didn’t handle it well early for sure,” Malchow said. “I thought it got better, but that’s twice as many (turnovers) as we want.”

Rochester got within 52-38 at halftime, but Maconaquah went on a 9-0 run in the third quarter to increase the lead to 67-43, and the lead stayed over 20 the rest of the way.

“They came out and punched us in the mouth athletically speaking,” Malchow said. “They had us on our heels that first quarter.”

Ball, a Bethel University recruit who came into the game third in the state averaging 28.3 points per game, started the game at guard, but moved into a post role against Rochester’s 2-3 zone as the game slowed down.

Bowers had two 3-pointers and a 15-footer off a cut to cut the lead to 46-30. Two straight Kiser baskets made it 49-34.

Kelly drove the left baseline for a 3-point play, but Grant Clark scored on a putback, and a two-handed outlet pass from Kiser hit Carson Paulik in stride for a layup. The lead was down to 14.

But Ball surged again in the third quarter, outscoring the entire Rochester team 14-9. Ball finished with 1,994 career points.

“When you get into games like this, we don’t have an offense that’s going to come back in the fourth quarter when you’re down 25,” Malchow said. “So what we’ve got to do is we got to pick something that we want to do well and finish the game, and I was pleased with the way we competed all the way to the end. That game was on the verge of going into 100 to 60-something, and we were able to stop some of the bleeding and recover and work on some things to help us get ready for next week.”

Maconaquah also took the JV game 49-45. Brady Coleman led Rochester with 20 points, Mitchell Clark had 11, Aiden Wilson had five, Alex Chapman had four, Parker Casper had three, and Conner Dunfee had two.

Maconaquah 82, Rochester 61

ROCHESTER (61) (16-5, 6-3)

Drew Bowers 6 0-0 15, Carson Paulik 1 0-0 2, Bryce Baugher 2 3-4 8, Owen Prater 0 0-0 0, Tanner Reinartz 2 3-3 7, Mitchell Clark 0 0-0 0, Brady Coleman 0 0-0 0, Conner Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Jonas Kiser 9 1-2 19, Grant Clark 2 0-0 5, Jack Reffett 1 0-0 3, Xavier Vance 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 24 7-9 61

MACONAQUAH (82) (17-5, 8-1)

Landon Adams 2 0-0 5, A.J. Kelly 8 4-6 22, Devon Murry 3 0-0 7, Fuddy Kile 3 3-4 11, Josiah Ball 10 14-15 36, Jack Gochenour 0 0-0 0, Braylen Nipper 0 1-2 1, Brody Kubly 0 0-0 0, Treason Ambrose 0 0-0 0, Tyler Adams 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 26 22-27 82

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 6 (Bowers 3, Baugher, G. Clark, Reffett),

Maconaquah 8 (Ball 2, Kelly 2, Kile 2, Murry, Adams)

Total fouls: Rochester 18, Maconaquah 10

Fouled out: Prater (RHS), 4:54, fourth

Intentional foul: Paulik (RHS), :38.5, fourth

Turnovers: Rochester 16, Maconaquah 7

Score by quarters

Rochester 18 20 9 14 – 61

Maconaquah 35 17 23 7 – 82

JV: Maconaquah 49, Rochester 45