Leasure leads with 10, but Zebras’ fall again at Tig-Arena

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Boys basketball

Peru 64, Rochester 36 (Friday): Matt Ross scored 26 points and hauled down 15 rebounds to lead the Class 3A, No. 6 Peru boys basketball team past Rochester at Tig-Arena Friday.

Ross outscored the entire Rochester team 9-4 in the second quarter as Peru overcame a 17-12 deficit after one quarter and assumed a 26-21 halftime lead.

Ross scored six more points in the third quarter, and Gavin Eldridge, Braxten Robbins and Matt Roettger each added a 3-pointer as the lead reached 43-29.

Roettger finished with 14 points.

Paul Leasure scored five of his team-high 10 points in the first quarter for Rochester, who fell to 9-10 overall and 4-3 in the Three Rivers Conference.

Tanner Reinartz added nine points on three 3-pointers.

Peru (16-1, 7-0) had a 37-20 rebounding advantage. They also made more free throws (10) than Rochester attempted (8).

Rochester is 1-6 against Peru since the schools became TRC rivals in the 2015-16 school year. Rochester has not beaten Peru at Tig-Arena since 2002.

In the JV game, Drew Bowers scored 13 points, and Bryce Baugher added 11 for Rochester, but the Tigers pulled out a 59-52 win. Colton Ferverda added nine for the Zebras, Dylan Hook and Gavin Young had six each, Owen Prater had five, and Hunter Campbell had two each.

ROCHESTER (36) (9-10, 4-3)

Tarick McGlothin 2 0-1 4, Paul Leasure 4 2-3 10, Brock Bowers 2 0-0 6, Tanner Reinartz 3 0-0 9, Luke Hunting 1 2-2 4, Aaron Huffman 0 0-0 0, Xavier Vance 0 1-2 1, Robert Bozzo 0 0-0 0, Ethan Medina 0 0-0 0, Evan Elliott 0 0-0 0, Owen Prater 1 0-0 2, Dylan Hook 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 13 5-8 36

PERU (64) (16-1, 7-0)

Gavin Eldridge 2 0-0 6, Braxten Robbins 1 0-0 3, Matt Roettger 5 3-3 14, Eli Walters 0 0-0 0, Matt Ross 8 7-8 26, Ian Potts 2 0-0 5, Alex Ross 3 0-0 6, Xavier Turner 2 0-0 4, Isaac Beam 0 0-0 0, Logan Gatliff 0 0-0 0, Bryce Hill 0 0-0 0, Zach Smithers 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 23 10-11 64

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 5 (Reinartz 3, Bowers 2),

Peru 8 (M. Ross 3, Eldridge 2, Robbins, Roettger, Potts)

Total fouls: Rochester 11, Peru 11

Turnovers: Rochester 17, Peru 15

Score by quarters

Rochester 17 4 8 7 – 36

Peru 12 14 17 21 – 64

JV: Peru 59, Rochester 52

Watch full JV and Varsity games here:

https://team1sports.com/RochesterTV/?B=361812