Paulik’s 15, Kiser’s double-double lead Rochester past Maconaquah

Zebras commit 25 turnovers, miss 14 FTs, but a 7-point possession in 4th quarter seals win

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Class of 2026 Rochester High School boys basketball players from left to right Carson Paulik, Ashton Musselman, Connor Dunfee, Jonas Kiser, Jack Reffett, Grant Clark Photo courtesy of Dee Brown

The Maconaquah boys basketball team erased all but two points from Rochester’s first run in the second half.

Rochester’s second run was too tall of a hill to climb.

Carson Paulik scored 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second half, including a 4-point play that capped a 7-point possession in the fourth quarter, and Jonas Kiser came off the bench to notch a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds as the Zebras beat Maconaquah 56-48 on senior night at the RHS gym Friday.

Jack Gochenour scored 28 points for Maconaquah, but the Braves could not overcome a scoring drought of nearly five minutes to start the second half and a four-and-a-half-minute drought in the fourth quarter.

Rochester won despite committing 25 turnovers against Maconaquah’s relentless full court pressure and missing 14 free throws. Still, they made more than twice as many free throws (23) as Maconaquah attempted (10).

“I’m worn out, you know?” Rochester coach Luke Smith said. “The pace of that game was quick. It played into their hands there when they made that run. I said, ‘Guys, don’t start playing the way they want to play. We need to play the way we want to play.’”

Rochester finished the regular season 9-12 overall and 4-5 in the Three Rivers Conference. They finished in a tie for fifth place in the conference.

Rochester also improved to 8-0 in games in which they scored at least 50 points.

Maconaquah lost their third straight game and finished the regular season 3-19, 1-8.

Maconaquah trailed by as many as 15 in the third quarter, but Gochenour hit a floater in the lane to trim the deficit down to 42-40 with 6:27 left.

A Kiser putback off a Grant Clark missed 3-pointer started a 13-0 run. Mitchell Clark was fouled while attempting a 3-pointer and hit two of three from the line. Neither team scored for 1:55 before Mitchell Clark made two more free throws with 3:16 left after Gochenour was called for a blocking foul on a drive.

Kiser grabbed an offensive rebound off a Brady Coleman missed 3-pointer and was fouled by Levi Merritt. Officials then called Merritt for a technical foul, which also was his fifth personal.

Kiser split a pair from the line, and Paulik hit two technical free throws to make it 51-40.

Rochester retained possession after the technical, and Kiser found an open Paulik in the right corner with a skip pass. Gochenour closed out hard but clipped Paulik on the arm as he drained a 3-pointer.

Paulik completed the unusual seven-point possession and a 13-0 run with a free throw that made it 55-40 with 2:23 left.

“It was hype,” Paulik said when asked about the 4-point play. “It got us going. It gave us more momentum. It was a big shot.”

Meanwhile, Smith said Rochester’s 3-2 zone impacted Maconaquah’s offense.

“They struggled with that ‘three’ defense a little bit where we didn’t allow them into the paint,” Smith said. “We were basically trying to figure out if they could make any shots. They took a bunch of long 3s, and that’s what we wanted.”

Maconaquah claimed a 20-19 halftime lead, but Rochester started the second half on a 16-0 run.

Jack Reffett zipped a pass to Liam Spence for a layup to kick off the run. Brady Coleman, who did not score in the first half, hit a 3 from the left corner off a Spence assist. Paulik hit a 3 off a Grant Clark feed.

Maconaquah coach John Burrus called timeout, but the run continued.

Coleman drained another 3. Paulik hit two free throws after Maconaquah’s Cohen Helmuth was hit with a technical. Grant Clark split a pair of free throws. Paulik hit a pullup jumper in the lane to make it 35-20.

Gochenour answered with a runner in the lane. A fortunate bounce on a Gochenour trey made it 35-25.

Kiser broke the press and attacked the rim and flipped in an off-balance layup off the glass. He appeared to sideswipe Maconaquah’s Treson Ambrose on his way back up the floor, and officials hit Kiser and Ambrose for offsetting technical fouls.

Gochenour got a pair of 3-point plays to help the Braves get within 40-33.

Kiser’s lob layup on an out-of-bounds feed from Paulik also fouled Marcell Sims out of the game at the third-quarter buzzer.

Rochester scored 23 points in the quarter despite committing nine turnovers.

“They were coming at us the whole game,” Paulik said. “They were all up in us. They called a lot of fouls, but there should have been more in my opinion. But they did a good job coming at us tonight.”

Kiser missed the free throw, and Maconaquah started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run on a Jaxon Cole triple from the left corner and a pair of pullup jumpers from Gochenour.

But Maconaquah, who started two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman, had only intermittent offensive bursts.

“That’s the most that Rochester’s probably had this year,” Maconaquah coach John Burrus said when informed how many turnovers the Zebras had. “And that’s a credit to our kids, but we let down for a little bit. And in a varsity game with the young kids we have, they’ve got to understand – we preach it, we teach it – you have to play that level of intensity for the whole game. You know, everybody always says 32 minutes. Well, you never play 32 minutes on defense. So I always try to sell our kids on when we’re on defense, you’ve got to be at that optimum level, and you’ve got to be intense, and they came out and zipped our press, and Paulik got open and got his feet under him.”

While Maconaquah started five non-seniors, Rochester started nothing but seniors – Paulik, Reffett, Grant Clark, Ashton Musselman and Conner Dunfee. Kiser, a senior who has started 19 games this season, volunteered to come off the bench, according to Smith. That allowed both Musselman and Dunfee to make their first career starts.

Musselman scored Rochester’s points on a right-wing 3. Neither team led by more than three in the first 13 minutes before a Helmuth 3 and two Gochenour free throws made it 19-14.

But Mitchell Clark nailed two free throws, and Kiser hit an off-balance jumper and was fouled and completed a 3-point play to tie it at 19.

“What a fun night for the seniors, you know,” Smith said. “For Muss to come in and get the first look, a wide-open 3 in the corner and hit that, what a special moment for him, a guy that came here all summer and doesn’t get to play … hardly at all actually, and to just to get that shot, I’m proud of him. It was a group effort. I think a lot of guys got in the book tonight.”

A Gochenour free throw pushed Maconaquah back ahead with 1:03 left in the half.

In the JV game, Maconaquah pulled out a 51-48 win.

Rochester 56, Maconaquah 48

MACONAQUAH (48) (3-19, 1-8)

Jack Gochenour 9 8-10 28, Brody Kubly 0 0-0 0, Cohen Helmuth 3 0-0 7, Levi Merritt 1 0-0 3, Marcell Sims 0 0-0 0, Caiden Richards 2 0-0 5, Treason Ambrose 0 0-0 0, Tristyn Herschberger 0 0-0 0, Evan Zeiser 0 0-0 0, Jaxon Cole 2 0-0 5, Tyler Adams 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 17 8-10 48

ROCHESTER (56) (9-12, 4-5)

Carson Paulik 3 7-7 15, Ashton Musselman 1 0-0 3, Conner Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Jack Reffett 0 2-2 2, Grant Clark 0 3-6 3, Aiden Wilson 0 0-0 0, Liam Spence 2 1-2 5, Mitchell Clark 1 6-7 8, Parker Casper 0 0-2 0, Alex Chapman 0 0-0 0, Brady Coleman 2 0-0 6, Jonas Kiser 5 4-11 14

TEAM: 14 23-37 56

Three-point field goals:

Maconaquah 6 (Gochenour 2, Merritt, Cole, Richards, Helmuth),

Rochester 5 (Paulik 2, Coleman 2, Musselman)

Total fouls: Maconaquah 31, Rochester 17

Technical fouls: Helmuth (MAC), 4:35, third; Ambrose (MAC), 2:33, third; Kiser (RHS), 2:33, third; Merritt (MAC), 2:41, fourth

Fouled out: Sims (MAC, third, 0:00; Kubly (MAC), 5:11, fourth; Merritt (MAC), 2:41, fourth

Turnovers: Maconaquah 12, Rochester 25

Score by quarters

Maconaquah 9 11 13 15 – 48

Rochester 11 8 23 14 – 56

JV: Maconaquah 51, Rochester 48