BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Jonas Kiser Bryce Baugher
NORTH MANCHESTER — Gavin Betten scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Ethan Hendrix added 20 points, and Aaron Reid had 11 as the Class 2A, No. 7 Manchester boys basketball team beat visiting Rochester 70-45 Friday.
Manchester led wire to wire over their conference and sectional rivals to improve to 13-1 overall and 5-0 in the Three Rivers Conference. The 25-point margin of victory represented their largest lead. They have won 12 straight since their only loss to Class 4A Homestead on Dec. 3, and 10 of their wins have been by at least 20 points.
Jonas Kiser, who came into the game averaging 2.9 points per game, scored a career-high 18 for Rochester, who fell to 7-3 overall and 2-2 in the TRC. Bryce Baugher added 10, all in the second quarter as Rochester cut what had been a 15-point deficit down to 35-27 at halftime.
Rochester played without seniors Owen Prater and Xavier Vance. Prater has an ankle injury suffered against Lewis Cass on Jan. 17, and Vance was ill. Coach Rob Malchow later said that “a couple” players who did play, including senior point guard Drew Bowers, were “dragging” with “flu symptoms.”
And in addition to all that, Rochester did not have school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, which meant that practice time was limited.
“We need to get healthy,” Malchow said. “That will help a little bit. Having Owen would be a big piece moving forward if we play them again. Even X (Vance) battling down low with the big guy (Betten) in short stretches, even for short stretches and making it a little more difficult on him with his size and strength … I think fatigue did play in, not having two guys to rotate the week that we had. But they had the same thing, just not being able to get into a normal practice schedule and conditioning.”
Rochester hung within 47-40 when Kiser got an offensive rebound off an air ball and put it back in with 7:33 left.
But the 6-6 Betten, a Grace College recruit, got a steal and threw down a dunk.
That started a string of seven consecutive Rochester possessions that ended in a turnover.
Betten had a putback, Reid scored on a transition layup, and Hendrix hit a 3-pointer from the right corner.
Jack Reffett answered with a 3 from the right wing to keep the deficit at 56-43, but the Squires followed with another 10-0 run, but Manchester went on another 10-0 run.
Of the final 14 points Manchester scored, they included six transition layups and a short jumper in the paint from Betten.
Rochester had 21 turnovers, including 10 in the fourth quarter.
“I felt really good about it, except for about six minutes tonight,” Malchow said. “There was about a six-minute stretch where we just turned the ball over and it became a layup line for them. But there was a lot of good things. It was good to see Jo have a good game and get going. There were some things coming into this game that I questioned or had doubts about that I feel a lot better about, and we will hopefully be able to build on that.”
Manchester coach Eli Henson emphasized getting off to a strong start in the second half, and in fact, they held Rochester without a field goal the first four minutes of the second half and extended their lead to 40-28.
But when Kiser made 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions, the lead was down to six.
“They played hard, and they played physical those first three quarters,” Manchester coach Eli Henson said. “They really made us work offensively. But when we get up 15 in the second quarter, we’ve got to learn how to maintain that or build on it. You don’t let a good team – because to me I think Rochester’s a good team; they’re physical, they have the shooters. Tonight I think Kiser played out of his mind. … That wasn’t on the scouting report that he was going to be aggressive looking for his outside shot, but good for him.”
But Kiser had to head to the bench after picking up his fourth foul with 2:34 left in the third quarter as Betten made an off-balance banker in transition and turned it into a 3-point play.
Grant Clark, who made his first career varsity start on the same night his younger brother Mitchell made his varsity debut, figured on Rochester’s final two buckets of the third quarter: He hit a short 12-footer in the lane and later hit a cutting Bowers for a layup that kept the deficit at 47-38 going into the fourth quarter.
Betten, who came in averaging 25 points per game, scored seven points in Manchester’s game-opening 12-2 run.
Two Kiser transition buckets sandwiched around two Tanner Reinartz free throws made it 12-8 before a Hendrix steal and layup, two Betten free throws and a Wyatt Prater 3-pointer got the lead to 11.
The lead was 21-10 after a quarter, and after Betten scored on a post turnaround that led to a 3-point play with 3:28 left in the half, the lead was up to 31-16.
What followed was a strong Rochester stretch – a Baugher 3-pointer off a Reffett assist, a Kiser finger roll and six straight Baugher points shrunk the deficit to eight by halftime.
“Their role players really stepped up for them, and I thought that we had a couple guys outside of Gavin and Ethan that stepped up for us a little bit, at least defensively late, but I want to see more of that from our guys,” Henson said.
Rochester will host Tri-County at 2:30 p.m. today.
Manchester also won the JV game 53-31.
Manchester 70, Rochester 45
ROCHESTER (45) (7-3, 2-2)
Drew Bowers 1 1-2 3, Carson Paulik 1 0-0 2, Bryce Baugher 3 2-3 10, Tanner Reinartz 1 2-2 4, Grant Clark 1 0-0 2, Brady Coleman 0 0-0 0, Conner Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Jonas Kiser 8 0-1 18, Jack Reffett 2 0-0 6, Mitchell Clark 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 17 5-8 45
MANCHESTER (70) (13-1, 5-0)
Aaron Reid 5 0-0 11, Ethan Hendrix 8 2-4 20, Kaleb Kline 1 0-0 3, Tallon Torpy 0 0-0 0, Gavin Betten 10 7-8 27, Wyatt Schroll 2 0-1 4, Wyatt Prater 1 0-0 3, Carson Heath 0 0-0 0, Dallas Martin 0 0-0 0, Carter Wagoner 1 0-0 2, Nick Cave 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 28 9-13 70
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 6 (Reffett 2, Baugher 2, Kiser 2),
Manchester 5 (Hendrix 2, Reid, Kline, Prater)
Total fouls: Rochester 12, Manchester 10
Turnovers: Rochester 21, Manchester 13
Score by quarters
Rochester 10 17 11 7 – 45
Manchester 21 14 12 23 – 70
JV: Manchester 53, Rochester 31
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