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Bowers leads 4 in double figures with 16 in senior night triumph
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Luke Malchow Robert Bozzo Dylan Hook
The Rochester boys basketball team scored its most points in a game in 15 years Tuesday, torching visiting Oregon-Davis 86-45 at the RHS gym after honoring seniors Robert Bozzo, Dylan Hook and Luke Malchow in a pregame ceremony.
Drew Bowers scored a game-high 16 points for Rochester, who snapped a five-game losing streak and improved to 9-11. Tanner Reinartz added 13, all in the first half, and Bozzo and Carson Paulik had 10 each.
Grant Clark had a career-high nine off the bench, and perhaps no basket was enthusiastically applauded more than reserve Davis Renie’s 3-pointer from just in front of the Rochester bench in the fourth quarter. They were among 10 different Zebras to score.
“It was an opportunity tonight to get them out there and get a lot of minutes,” Rochester coach Rob Malchow said. “They responded well, and I thought they came out tonight and got us going early, and we just built on that throughout the game.”
However, junior forward Bryce Baugher missed his second straight game while in the concussion protocol, and Malchow added that Baugher will Friday’s regular season finale against Maconaquah and the entire sectional week.
Rochester scored their most points in a game since the Class 3A state runner-up Zebras team did it in an 86-39 win over LaVille on Jan. 27, 2009.
Carson Matthew led Oregon-Davis with 13, Ethan Huitt had 12, and D.J. Garland had 11.
Oregon-Davis, who was playing their third game in four days, lost their ninth straight game and fell to 4-18. They will take a 10-day break before playing either Trinity Greenlawn or Marquette Catholic in a Class 1A, Sectional 50 semifinal at Triton on March 1.
O-D allowed their most points in a game since an 86-39 loss to North Judson in 2019.
Rochester jumped out to a 10-1 lead and never trailed. All three seniors started per senior night tradition, and Bozzo sunk a 3-pointer to open the scoring. Bowers hit a pullup 13-footer, and Reinartz scored on a drive and a 3-pointer on an out-of-bounds play.
Bozzo did not play last year as a junior but decided to come back out.
“I decided because I wanted to stay in shape, and I like what the program does and how it works, and I enjoyed it my sophomore year, so I wanted to come back and experience it before I go off to college,” Bozzo said.
O-D cut the deficit to 10-5 on two Matthew buckets, but Reinartz and Jack Reffett hit treys to make it 16-5.
Oregon-Davis hing within 24-16 on a Carson Matthew layup off a Connor Matthew assist on a high-low play, but Rochester countered with an 18-2 run. The run included Hook putting in banker over the 6-6 Carson Matthew thanks to a Kiser assist, 3-pointers from Bowers and Kiser, a Paulik layup, a Reinartz layup, a Bowers steal and layup off an O-D inbounds pass and a Bowers 3-pointer.
Bowers, Bozzo and Owen Prater had four points each in the third quarter.
Clark had a 3-point play, a 19-footer and two free throws. Paulik also had six points in the quarter.
Rochester has increased their scoring average from 50.6 ppg last year to 56.3 this year. (The 56.3 average was prior to the O-D game.) If that number holds, it will be Rochester’s highest scoring average since the 2009-10 season.
Assistant coach Luke Smith, who is the team’s offensive coordinator, has worked with the players at both improving fundamentals and at executing set plays.
“He does a really good job with the drill work and putting the kids through different types of scenarios and help our offense function better, and against certain defenses, he has Xs and Os along with myself this year that we put together for a game plan,” Malchow said. “He’ll go online or he’ll watch a game, and he’ll send clips to the guys of specific plays that we ran and worked well and why and the ones that didn’t work well and why, so he’s heavily involved.”
Along with the rest of the coaches, Smith emphasizes spacing.
“I think the game is about space now,” Malchow said. “I was even watching and listening to the guys talk today on TV, and they were just talking about how the lane doesn’t even really factor in anymore because you don’t have big guys and you’re spread out, and the 3-point shot’s become such a big part of the game, and it’s trickled down to our level as well. You saw tonight how many we shot.”
The JV game was canceled due to Oregon-Davis’ lack of numbers.
Rochester 86, Oregon-Davis 45
OREGON-DAVIS (45) (4-18)
D.J. Garland 3 5-7 11, Cashton Swanson 1 2-2 5, Ethan Huitt 5 1-1 12, Brady Danford 0 0-0 0, Carson Matthew 6 1-4 13, Connor Matthew 1 0-0 2, Jason Blackburn 1 0-0 2, Nathan Cooke 0 0-0 0, Taylor McKeehan 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 17 9-14 45
ROCHESTER (86) (9-11)
Drew Bowers 7 0-0 16, Luke Malchow 0 0-0 0, Dylan Hook 2 1-2 5, Tanner Reinartz 5 1-2 13, Robert Bozzo 3 2-2 10, Davis Renie 1 0-0 3, Hunter Honkomp 0 0-0 0, Owen Prater 3 0-2 6, Carson Paulik 5 0-0 10, Jonas Kiser 3 0-2 7, Grant Clark 3 3-5 9, Jack Reffett 2 1-2 7
TEAM: 34 8-17 86
Three-point field goals:
Oregon-Davis 2 (Huitt, Swanson),
Rochester 10 (Bowers 2, Reinartz 2, Bozzo 2, Reffett 2, Renie, Kiser)
Total fouls: Oregon-Davis 15, Rochester 12
Fouled out: Connor Matthew (O-D), 2:13, fourth
Turnovers: Oregon-Davis 15, Rochester 9
Score by quarters
Oregon-Davis 12 10 13 10 – 45
Rochester 24 22 17 23 – 86
