Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊAfter Friday night's basketball game between the Rochester Zebras and his Manchester Squires, coach Gary Goshert had much to say about his team's performance.
The one word that continued to pop up, however, was "inconsistent."
Goshert was right.
Despite defeating the Zebras 62-52, Manchester struggled to find itself on both sides of the floor all night.
The Squires moved to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Three Rivers Conference.
Rochester fell to 0-3 and 0-1 in the TRC.
On offense, the Squires shot an anemic 38 percent from the field in the first half before improving to 45 percent for the game.
On defense, Manchester sent Rochester to the line 11 times in the first half. As would be the case all night, however, the Zebras were unable to convert on those free-throw attempts They hit on three of the 11.
Rochester's Kevin Clark kept things interesting early as he scored six straight points for the Zebras to leave them behind 15-11 at the end of one quarter. Junior center Nick Bowers then scored the first three points of the second quarter to bring his Zebras to within one point.
That's as close Rochester would come all night as the Squires went on a 12-3 run to extend their lead to 10 points. Eight of those points were scored by senior standout Eric Swan in the span of four minutes.
Things came to an offensive standstill in the third quarter as both teams would combine for only 19 points. Most of those points came from the foul line. Rochester continued to struggle from there as the game wore on. The Zebras would finish 10 of 23 from the line for the night.
After the third quarter mercifully ended, both teams came out in the final period and lit up the scoreboard. Manchester center Chris Betten scored six of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.
Goshert said of Betten's performance, "He did a heck of a job on the defensive boards."
Betten finished with 12 rebounds.
"He also had some good offensive post moves for us," Goshert said. "He was a big key for us. After that, though, the rest of the team play was pretty spotty."
While Rochester was able to match the Squires basket for basket in the fourth quarter, the Zebras were unable to get any type of run going that would threaten the Manchester lead. Several late three-pointers brought the Zebras to within 10 points, making the game appear much closer than it acutally was.
Manchester hosts Homestead tonight.
MANCHESTER 62
ROCHESTER 52
Rochester (0-3) 11 10 9 22 -Ê52
Manchester (4-0) 15 12 10 25 - 62
Manchester FG FT A S R Pts.
Swan (F) 6-12 8-9 1 2 5 20
Betten (C) 3-4 7-11 0 0 12 13
Fawcett (F) 1-3 6-6 0 1 5 8
Reimer (G) 2-4 2-4 1 1 3 7
Hendrix (G) 3-5 1-2 2 1 5 7
Little 0-2 1-2 0 0 0 3
Shafer 1-4 0-1 0 0 2 2
Keffaber 1-2 0-0 0 0 1 2
Young 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Lochner 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Totals 17-37 25-35 4 6 33 62
Rochester FG FT A S R Pts.
Newton(G) 5-13 2-4 0 2 3 15
Clark(F) 3-5 4-8 2 3 0 10
Bowers(C) 4-6 1-4 0 1 5 10
Patterson(F) 3-4 1-2 0 0 3 9
Beck(G) 3-7 2-5 1 1 10 8
Wagoner 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0
Tyler 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Zink 0-0 0-0 0 0 3 0
Totals 18-37 10-23 3 8 24 52
Three-point goals -ÊManchester 1-10 (Reimer 1-4, Swan 1-4, Young 0-1, Hendrix 0-1) Rochester 6-11 (Beck 3-4, Patterson 2-3, Bowers 1-2, Newton 0-2.). Fouled out -ÊBowers. Total fouls - Manchester 18, Rochester 26. Turnovers -ÊManchester 14, Rochester 14.
Referees - N/A
JV: Manchester 54, Rochester 53
