Kiser scores 23, Zebras use strong 3rd quarter to beat Wabash

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Basketball is a hard game, but it is also a simple game.

The Rochester boys basketball team had two hard days of practice prior to Friday’s game against Wabash at the RHS gym. Coach Luke Smith made them hard after a 17-point loss to Plymouth Tuesday.

The simple part seemed to revolve around Kiser. If Wabash attacks Kiser with a double team, cut to the basket, and he will find you. Move the ball for an open shot.

On defense, pay attention to where the opponent’s best shooters are and try to disrupt their timing.

Making seven 3-pointers and also getting the ball in the paint to senior forward Jonas Kiser, the Zebras pulled away in the third quarter to beat the Apaches 55-41.

Kiser led Rochester with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Jack Reffett came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers for nine, and Liam Spence added eight.

“He was the enforcer tonight,” Smith said of Kiser. “And he feels like he’s getting hammered down there. I said, ‘Jo, it doesn’t matter. Don’t argue with the refs about it. Just go back down there and do it again, and maybe the next time, you’ll get the call.’ And what really helps him is he hits two 3s tonight, and when he can make them guard him at the perimeter, it allows him to get by some guys too, and he can use his physicality at that point. But man, how many layups did he still miss? He could have had another eight to 10 points, I feel like.”

Freshman Treyce Daughtry hit four 3-pointers and scored 17 points for Wabash. Eli Mattern added 13. DaVon Osborn, who scored 23 points in a loss to Frankton Tuesday, was held to six this time.

Rochester trailed 22-19 on a Mattern 3-pointer with 3:51 left in the half but responded with a 13-0 run that bled into the third quarter. They held Wabash scoreless for over six minutes during the run.

Leading 25-22 at halftime, they got two Kiser baskets – including one on a putback of his own miss – a Spence free throw and a Grant Clark putback to expand the lead to 10.

Wabash never got closer than eight after that. Rochester led by as many as 18 in the fourth quarter.

“The third quarter, they were the more aggressive team,” Wabash coach Paul Wright said. “We knew that. They took it right at us. They responded coming out of halftime better than we did. That’s been a problem for us this year. We had a lot of turnovers. We had a 12-point lead against Frankton on Tuesday, and in the third quarter, we turned it over a ton, and we go into the fourth quarter down four. The same thing happened tonight. We just weren’t ready to match their intensity. They took it right at us. That’s what teams do that are coached well and are pretty good.”

Rochester improved to 8-9 overall and 3-4 in the Three Rivers Conference. Wabash lost their sixth straight game and dropped to 5-14, 2-5.

The teams could meet again in Class 2A, Sectional 38 at Manchester. The draw is set for Feb. 22, and the sectional begins March 3.

Smith gave Grant Clark a start and brought Reffett in off the bench as part of his quest to have a more physical unit. Conner Dunfee was the sixth man, entering after less than four minutes. Parker Casper also got more playing time. Smith said the increase in minutes for both Dunfee and Casper were a reward for hard work in practice.

“As hard as my guys played tonight, they went harder in practice the last two days,” Smith said. “Just to see them respond to the disappointment I had after the Plymouth game, it means a lot to me as a head coach. I told them I know you guys have my back. And I have your back. To see their response tonight, it didn’t matter who we played tonight. We were going to compete. We were going to get after them. And it’s always nice when a shot goes in.”

However, the hot start belonged to Wabash as Daughtry and Mattern combined to hit three 3-pointers in the first two-and-a-half minutes as Wabash built a 9-2 lead. A Spence trey and a Kiser free throw would cut the lead to three, but Osborn would pick Carson Paulik’s pocket and go in for a dunk to make it 11-6.

A Brady Coleman 3 from the left corner, and a Reffett 3 would give Rochester their first lead at 12-11, but another Mattern 3 gave Wabash a 14-12 lead after a quarter. Neither team led by more than four points in the second quarter, but Rochester scored the final six points of the half to lead 25-22.

Kiser hit a lefty hook and then a driving lefty hook that he banked in. A transition layup from Casper after a Kiser rebound and attack off the dribble into the frontcourt put the Zebras up three at halftime.

Among the highlights in the fourth quarter included Coleman hitting a short left baseline jumper during the opening possession. The other four players on the floor were Grant Clark, Mitchell Clark, Dunfee and Reffett. Kiser, Paulik and Spence were all on the bench getting a rest.

“They came in, they moved the ball, they found the open guy, and they made a shot,” Smith said. “Basketball is really not that hard if you try to play as a team.”

Smith also noted that he made more substitutions than a typical game. He said the players were playing harder and needed more frequent breathers.

“I was really active getting guys in and out tonight because every time I looked up, I was like, ‘He needs one. He needs one,’” Smith said. “And that’s the way basketball is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be hard.”

Spence was asked what went wrong against Plymouth. He called it “an effort thing.”

“It’s been really hard,” Spence said of the practices since the Plymouth game. “Coach has been pretty quiet, just pushing us. We’ve been running a lot. Just trying to get focused again.”

Rochester also rolled 57-30 in the JV game behind Aiden Wilson’s 19 points, Van Kiser’s 10 and Owen Lett’s nine.

Rochester 55, Wabash 41

WABASH (41) (5-14, 2-5)

Treyce Daughtry 6 1-1 17, Eli Mattern 3 4-6 13, Noah Baldwin 0 0-0 0, DaVon Osborn 3 0-2 6, Cooper Long 0 0-0 0, Jake Sailors 1 0-0 2, Derek Reed 1 0-0 3, James Unger 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 14 5-9 41

ROCHESTER (55) (8-9, 3-4)

Carson Paulik 1 2-3 4, Brady Coleman 2 1-2 6, Liam Spence 3 1-2 8, Jonas Kiser 9 3-7 23, Grant Clark 1 0-0 2, Mitchell Clark 0 0-0 0, Parker Casper 1 1-2 3, Conner Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Jack Reffett 3 0-0 9

TEAM: 20 8-16 55

Three-point field goals:

Wabash 8 (Daughtry 4, Mattern 3, Reed),

Rochester 7 (Reffett 3, Kiser 2, Spence, Coleman)

Total fouls: Wabash 12, Rochester 13

Turnovers: Wabash 13, Rochester 12

Score by quarters

Wabash 14 8 7 12 – 41

Rochester 12 13 21 9 – 55

JV: Rochester 57, Wabash 30