Paulik scores 11, but Plymouth pulls away to beat Rochester

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

PLYMOUTH — Rochester boys basketball coach Luke Smith did not like the way his team practiced Monday.

A bad game against host Plymouth at Jack Edison Court followed Tuesday.

Dan Nguyen hit four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 14 points, and Grayson Terrone came off the bench to add 12 as the host Pilgrims handled the Zebras 53-36.

Parker Bagley added 10 for Plymouth, who improved to 5-13. Coming off a win over South Bend Career Academy Saturday, this marked their first winning streak of the season.

Carson Paulik was Rochester’s lone double-figure scorer with 11 points. Jonas Kiser, who came in averaging 17 points per game, was held to nine.

“I was a little disappointed with our effort,” Rochester coach Luke Smith said. “I’m kind of at a loss, to be honest with you. We were flat. We were flat in the locker room. I could just sense it. I talked to the guys before the game about it. They said, ‘No, we’re good.’

“We had a flat practice last night, and that’s on me. I’ve got to make sure we don’t have those practices. … I think we shot 22 or 23 percent from 3 again tonight. It’s hard to win games when you can’t make the 3 ball too.”

Rochester (7-9) led 8-4 at one point in the first quarter, but Nguyen hit two treys, and Bagley hit a 3 to give Plymouth a 13-12 lead after one quarter.

They then opened the second quarter on an 11-0 run with seven points coming from Terrone and four from Kyleb Ellery. By the time Kiser hit a free throw with 2:18 left in the half, that broke a scoring drought of 6:54.

Plymouth led 27-18 at halftime. Rochester went to what Smith called their “stagger” offense to start the second half and would cut the deficit to seven on two occasions in the third quarter, the last time at 31-24 on a Jack Reffett 15-footer.

But Nguyen drove for a layup, and Terrone nailed a 3, and the lead stayed in double digits the rest of the way.

Plymouth led by as many as 19 in the fourth quarter.

Plymouth committed only seven turnovers. Rochester alternated between three defenses – a man-to-man, a 2-3 zone and a 3-2 zone – but none could rattle Plymouth’s ballhandlers.

“Every time we called something, he had a set to match it,” Smith said of Plymouth coach Greg Miller. “I thought they did a nice job. They were prepared for us. Our 3-2 zone defense that causes some problems for people didn’t seem to faze them at all.”

Meanwhile, Plymouth defenders tried to make Kiser uncomfortable when he caught the ball at the elbow. Parker Wolfe had the primary responsibility, but a help defender, typically a guard, would dig down and try to strip him when he put the ball on the floor.

“They were sending help,” Smith said. “They knew who our guy was. Every time Jonas touched it, I think three guys were on him basically.”

Said Miller of Kiser: “We wanted him to feel us.”

Miller, a 2010 North Miami grad, praised his players for their toughness afterwards. Even though Plymouth starts four seniors, he called his team “inexperienced” and said they suffered through a “brutal schedule.” Plymouth is 0-7 against teams with winning records.

“We’re still getting better, we play really hard, we’re physical, and we take care of the basketball,” Miller said.

Plymouth also won the JV game 49-39.

Plymouth 53, Rochester 36

ROCHESTER (36) (7-9)

Carson Paulik 3 4-4 11, Brady Coleman 3 0-0 7, Jack Reffett 1 0-0 2, Liam Spence 1 0-0 3, Jonas Kiser 2 5-7 9, Mitchell Clark 0 4-4 4, Ashton Musselman 0 0-0 0, Parker Casper 0 0-0 0, Conner Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Grant Clark 0 0-0 0, Aiden Wilson 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 10 13-15 36

PLYMOUTH (53) (5-13)

Kylen Ellery 2 0-0 4, Dan Nguyen 5 0-0 14, Kyleb Ellery 2 2-2 6, Parker Bagley 4 1-2 10, Parker Wolfe 1 3-6 5, Brady Allen 0 0-0 0, Grayson Terrone 5 0-0 12, Hudson Davis 0 2-2 2, Christian Cruz-Mahler 0 0-0 0, Adan Macias 0 0-0 0, Grady Scott 0 0-0 0, Kaz Hundt 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 19 8-12 53

Three-point field goals:

Rochester 3 (Paulik, Coleman, Spence),

Plymouth 7 (Nguyen 4, Terrone 2, Bagley)

Total fouls: Rochester 16, Plymouth 16

Turnovers: Rochester 14, Plymouth 7

Score by quarters

Rochester 12 6 14 4 – 36

Plymouth 13 14 17 9 – 53

JV: Plymouth 49, Rochester 39