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Burns scores 23 off bench, but NM’s TRC skid reaches 45 games
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
DENVER — Robert Bozzo was welcomed to the starting lineup. Xavier Vance was welcomed to the big time. Paul Leasure was welcomed to the club of tough guys.
And if you didn’t know already, Tarick McGlothin is clutch.
Those four players keyed the Rochester boys basketball team’s 71-64 overtime victory over host North Miami Friday.
Leasure led Rochester with 20 points. Bozzo scored 17 in his first career start. McGlothin had 16. Vance, a 6-5 freshman center, scored eight points off the bench.
Braden Burns came off the bench to score 23 points for North Miami. Keagan Donaldson scored eight of his 15 in the fourth quarter, including a game-tying 3-point play with 34.5 seconds left in regulation. Both Burns and Donaldson fouled out in the overtime.
Rochester won their 10th straight Three Rivers Conference game and improved to 3-3 overall and 1-0 in conference play. Rochester also won an overtime game for the first time since beating Rensselaer in double overtime in the 2020 sectional final at Winamac.
Rochester made just 3 of 8 free throws in regulation but went 9 for 12 in the overtime, including 6 for 6 in the last 26.2 seconds.
North Miami lost their 45th consecutive TRC game – their last conference win came at Rochester in December 2016 – and fell to 3-2, 0-1.
Leasure suffered an apparent left knee injury on a drive into the lane with 6:58 left in regulation. He was down for a time while an injury timeout was called and hobbled off under his own power and missed only 1:23 of game time before returning.
Rochester had two field goals in the overtime. Both of them were McGlothin 3-pointers, and Leasure assisted on both, even though he still appeared to be limping.
“I thought they really responded with a lot of heart,” Rochester coach Rob Malchow said. “I was fearful that we might let down, and be concerned, A, for him, and, B, the fact that he’s such an important player that we’d kind of feel like, ‘Uh oh.’ But I saw the eyes in Rick (McGlothin) and Bob (Bozzo) and all the guys we’re playing at that time, and they just kept on competing. And I think it inspired Paul because the next thing I know, he comes by and said, ‘You’ve got to put me in. Please put me in.’ And he finished strong.”
McGlothin outscored the entire North Miami team 10-8 in the overtime. He hit the trey that put Rochester ahead for good at 64-61 from the right side, and he also made all four of his free throws.
“When Paul went down, that was a sign of disrespect towards our team, I knew I had to step up for him and the team, and when I saw him come in, it just gave me more and more drive to see him fighting for us,” McGlothin said.
Bozzo hit four 3-pointers.
Vance also helped out on defense against Donaldson, a 6-5 center, after Luke Hunting fouled out with 3:48 left in regulation.
After McGlothin’s 3 gave Rochester the lead, Landen Hunt had an open look for 3 just from the right of the top of the key. It was in the cylinder and somehow popped out.
Aidan Smith split a pair of free throws to give the Zebras a four-point lead.
After Patriks Reimanis missed twice for North Miami, there was a held ball going for the rebound with 30.8 seconds left. The arrow pointed towards Rochester, and McGlothin hit two free throws.
Two more Leasure free throws made it 69-61 with 14.9 seconds left.
Rochester was playing in back-to-back overtime games for the first time since games against Culver Academy and Plymouth in the 2010 sectional. They were coming off a 57-53 overtime loss to Logansport on Saturday.
“It gives us a lot of confidence,” Malchow said of the win. “I think that that game Saturday, as much as you don’t want to lose, kind of helped tonight because I thought we played with more urgency when it came to getting the ball inbounds or when it came to meeting our passes in the overtime. I thought we let down against Logan, but tonight, I thought we played off that game a little from that experience.”
Rochester went on a 15-2 run covering the first and second quarters and led 24-8 when Leasure found Bozzo for a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Rochester led 34-22 at halftime and still led 39-24 in the third quarter on a Bozzo trey from the left corner. North Miami would later go on a 13-2 run covering the third and fourth quarters to cut the lead to 48-46 on a Hunt 3-pointer.
They inched within 54-53 on a Parker Johnson right baseline pullup.
North Miami coach Ryan DeMien said his team came out “tight” and “nervous,” but he said they got more aggressive in the second half.
DeMien also switched defenses, going from a man-to-man at the start of the game to a 3-2 zone that walled up the top of the paint with Patriks Reimanis, a 6-4 exchange student from Latvia, in the middle of the top of the zone.
“We started out in a man, and we switched it to a zone,” DeMien said. “They got some pressure on that. It’s something that we’ve worked on in practice, just because Rochester has a lot of outside shooters.”
Smith fed Vance, who powered home a layup to make it 56-53.
“He just played big, played strong, played like a man,” Malchow said of Vance. “X tonight … Wow, he was just a beast.”
Vance blocked two shots but missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Burns committed an offensive foul, but Leasure traveled against Warrior pressure.
Donaldson’s 3-point play in the post tied the game at 56, and when Smith traveled on the ensuing possession, North Miami had the ball with a chance to win.
DeMien called timeout with 21.3 seconds left and another with 7.4 seconds left.
Burns’ long 3-point attempt from the left edge of the volleyball line was short off the rim, and a wild running putback attempt from Johnson also missed at the buzzer.
When Reimanis scored on the first possession of overtime, North Miami had their first lead since the first quarter.
But McGlothin answered from the left wing with a 3.
Malchow said that McGlothin, Leasure and Smith are all “interchangeable” given their skill sets.
“We are both dominant off the ball and with the ball,” McGlothin said of his oncourt chemistry with Leasure.
Aaron Huffman, last year’s JV point guard, also saw crunch time minutes and gave the Zebras yet another ballhandler, according to Malchow. Huffman also was a presence on defense to try and corral Burns’ relentless drives to the basket.
Rochester 71, North Miami 64 (OT)
ROCHESTER (71) (3-3, 1-0)
Tarick McGlothin 4 6-9 16, Paul Leasure 8 3-4 20, Aidan Smith 1 1-2 3, Robert Bozzo 6 1-2 17, Luke Hunting 1 1-2 3, Aaron Huffman 1 0-0 2, Tanner Reinartz 1 0-0 2, Xavier Vance 4 0-1 8
TEAM: 26 12-20 71
NORTH MIAMI (64) (3-2, 0-1)
Landen Hunt 3 1-4 9, Austin Smith 1 3-4 5, Parker Johnson 2 3-4 8, Patriks Reimanis 2 0-0 4, Keagan Donaldson 6 3-4 15, Braden Burns 8 5-7 23, Trevor Simons 0 0-0 0, Jake Riley 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 22 15-25 64
Three-point field goals:
Rochester 7 (Bozzo 4, McGlothin 2, Leasure),
North Miami 5 (Burns 2, Hunt 2, Johnson)
Total fouls: Rochester 22, North Miami 21
Fouled out: Hunting (RHS), 3:48, fourth; Donaldson (NM), 2:03, OT; Burns (NM), :14.9, OT
Turnovers: Rochester 14, North Miami 15
Score by quarters
Rochester 14 20 12 10 15 – 71
North Miami 8 14 14 20 8 – 64
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