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Elliott’s rebound, free throws help cap decisive 12-0 run in the 4th quarter
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Wabash boys basketball team made 17 of its 25 3-pointers in a 78-34 win over North Miami on Feb. 8.
The law of averages caught up to them in the fourth quarter against Rochester, and the Zebras were only happy to take advantage.
Tarick McGlothin scored six of his team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter, and Paul Leasure added 11 points for the Zebras as they won a Three Rivers Conference home game from the Apaches 51-48 at the RHS gym on Feb. 11.
Brock Bowers added nine, and Luke Hunting had eight for RHS, and Evan Elliott’s fourth quarter defense and two free throws with 8.2 seconds left proved crucial.
Kolton Wilson scored a career-high 22 points for Wabash, who dropped to 10-6 overall and 4-2 in the Three Rivers Conference. Trevor Daughtry added 16. Daughtry scored seven of Wabash’s nine points in the third quarter but had to leave briefly with 1:54 left with a hamstring cramp.
Rochester also held Izaak Wright, who had scored in double figures 12 previous times this season, to a season-low four points. Grant Ford, who had scored in double figures 11 previous times, was held to three points and nothing after the first quarter.
Rochester improved to 8-8 overall and 4-2 in the TRC.
Daughtry came back in and got off a running 3-pointer from the right wing with Wabash down 49-45, but Elliott boxed out Wilson, who was called for a foul after knocking him down.
Elliott’s two free throws with 8.2 seconds left made it 51-45 and capped the run.
Andrew Dinkins hit a 3-pointer with three seconds left to stop a 4:29 Wabash scoring drought, but Wabash did not call their remaining timeout, and the final seconds expired.
Rochester trailed 45-39 with 4:32 left after two Wilson free throws, but Rochester went on a 12-0 run to take ultimate command.
McGlothin found Leasure for a 3-pointer to make it 45-42 and then got a friendly rim roll on a pullup in the lane to cut the deficit to one.
Rochester went to a token fullcourt pressure defense. Wabash called two timeouts in a 12-second span.
Another McGlothin turnaround in the paint gave Rochester a 46-45 lead. It was their first lead since the first quarter.
“We talk about that area between the free throw line and the volleyball line,” Rochester coach Rob Malchow said. “We worked this week with Paul and Rick (McGlothin). I said you’ve been going too deep. … You need to pull up. Don’t go too deep, and Rick did a really good job of that tonight.”
A Tanner Reinartz free throw made it 47-45 with 1:31 left.
Grant Ford missed a 3 for Wabash, and Luke Hunting rebounded for Rochester.
Reinartz missed the front end of a one-and-one with 40.7 seconds left. Daughtry was back in the game.
But Ford missed another 3. There was a held ball going for the rebound with 30.2 seconds left. Wabash retained possession.
Daughtry lined up a left corner 3-point try on an inbounds play but missed, and Wilson missed a short putback.
Leasure’s two free throws with 23.9 seconds left made it a two-possession game.
Then came Daughtry’s missed 3 and Elliott’s rebound and free throws.
“We felt like the energy he brings is something we see in practice a lot,” Malchow said. “And the style with the trapping defense that we were doing is something he can do really well. We were looking for rebounds, and when I put him earlier in the game, I felt like he was crashing and going for it. So we thought, you know what, he did it in the first half, let’s see if he’ll come out in the second half and do it again, and he did.”
The Zebras had the win.
“In the first half, we were struggling with their 3s on the wings,” Malchow said. “I felt like we weren’t being physical enough, so I demonstrated what I wanted them to do. I said, ‘The bottom line is we have to be very physical. We have to make them alter their course. We can’t let them have the route they want. We can’t let them catch it more in a hurry instead of relaxed. And I thought their 3-point shooting was far different in the second half than the first half.”
Wabash coach Paul Wright said his team missed open looks.
“We shot 32 percent tonight,” coach Wright said. “We’re not going to win too many games shooting 32 percent. We’ve been shooting around 40 percent, almost 50 percent all year. This was definitely our worst shooting game of the year.
“But I’ll give Rochester credit. They played great defense. We just missed some open looks, and Rochester is a good team. I don’t care what their record says: We knew they were going to be a great team.”
Running shooters off curls, Wabash hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter and took an 18-13 lead after one quarter.
The lead reached 26-16 after Daughtry hit a 3 from the top of the key in the second quarter, but McGlothin hit a pair of 3s as part of an 8-0 run as Rochester cut the lead to 26-24.
A Wilson putback and a transition layuip made it 30-24 at halftime.
Rochester got within 31-29 in the third quarter on an Aaron Huffman short floater in the lane and 33-31 when Xavier Vance scored in transition off a Leasure assist.
But a cutting layup and two steals and buckets from Daughtry got the lead back to 39-31.
But Leasure found Hunting in transition for two, and McGlothin hit a pullup banker at the third quarter buzzer. Rochester took advantage of the double possession on a lob finish from Hunting on the first possession of the fourth.
But Wilson scored the next six Wabash points.
Wabash won the JV game 44-41. Dylan Hook led Rochester with 11 points, Hunter Campbell, Owen Prater and Bryce Baugher had seven each, Thatcher Sampsel had five, and Colton Ferverda had four.
Rochester 51, Wabash 48
WABASH (48) (10-6, 4-2)
Trevor Daughtry 6 1-2 16, Grant Ford 1 0-0 3, Andrew Dinkins 1 0-0 3, Izaak Wright 1 2-2 4, Kolton Wilson 8 5-7 22, Kaden Vogel 0 0-0 0, David Ford 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 17 8-11 48
ROCHESTER (51) (8-8, 4-2)
Tarick McGlothin 6 0-0 14, Paul Leasure 4 2-4 11, Brock Bowers 3 0-0 9, Tanner Reinartz 0 1-3 1, Luke Hunting 4 0-2 8, Aaron Huffman 1 0-0 2, Evan Elliott 0 2-2 2, Robert Bozzo 0 0-0 0, Ethan Medina 0 0-0 0, Xavier Vance 2 0-0 4
TEAM: 20 5-11 51
Three-point field goals:
Wabash 6 (Daughtry 3, Wilson, G. Ford, Dinkins),
Rochester 6 (Bowers 3, McGlothin 2, Leasure)
Total fouls: Wabash 13, Rochester 10
Turnovers: Wabash 11, Rochester 13
Score by quarters
Wabash 18 12 9 9 – 48
Rochester 13 11 11 16 – 51
JV: Wabash 44, Rochester 41
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