ROCHESTER HILLS – Sometimes teams just have that can’t miss attitude.

Rochester sure did so Friday night against visiting Utica Ford.

In the annual Battle of the Falcons game, host Rochester came out on fire by making nine of its first 11 shots from the field to build a 22-8 lead after the first quarter and never looked back in recording an impressive 75-49 non-league victory over Utica Ford in the 10th annual event.

Unbeaten Rochester scored a season-high in points with 75 – all while shooting 65.6 percent from the floor in the first half and 52 percent overall from the floor in one of the best single-game team field goal shooting percentages in program history and in over 100 years of Rochester basketball.

Although the host Falcons cooled down some in the second half, going 12-for-23 from the floor after shooting lights out in the first half (19-for-29), Rochester never allowed Utica Ford to make a serious threat on the lead.

“I didn’t realize the stat of our field goal percentages, but it did seem like we couldn’t miss for a while there in the first half,” said Rochester coach Nick Evola. “They do love playing with one another. They share the ball. We talk about playing the right way. We share the ball and it moves around. We play with a lot of energy and it seems like we find people in the right spots. I’m happy with the guys making plays – they’ve done that all season long.”

Rochester used a 24-15 second quarter surge to go up 46-23 at the half, while the home-standing Falcons outscored Ford 18-13 in the third quarter for a 64-38 advantage through three quarters of play.

The home Falcons – who led by as many as 31 points at 62-31 late in the third quarter – rotated all 14 players in the fourth frame.

“We just want to go 1-0 each night,” said Evola. “We want to keep working, keep our heads down and keep working hard and keep trying to get better. But you can see it. I think they are having fun out there. I’m proud of these guys. Some of them I’ve had for a long time. It’s a fun group to coach.”

Rochester was 27-for-52 from the floor in the contest, finished 5-for-9 from the foul line (55.6 percent) and made 8-of-19 shots from beyond the three-point arc (42.2 percent). Rochester also out-rebounded the taller Falcons 29-14, forced 17 turnovers, recorded 12 steals and showcased its balance and unselfish brand of basketball by registering 22 assists on 27 made baskets.

Senior guard Luke Lower scored all 20 of his points in the first half, finishing 4-for-8 from beyond the arc while adding four steals, three assists and three rebounds to pace Rochester.

One of five third-year varsity veterans, 6-foot-3 senior forward Anthony Chirco added 15 points and seven rebounds, and 6-2 junior guard Nate Tandy registered 15 points, six rebounds, five steals and three assists as he continued to impress in his first varsity campaign.

Photos of Rochester vs. Utica Ford in a boys hoops contest

A total of 10 Rochester players reached the scoring column, with 6-6 sophomore center Ben Bissett adding six points, four rebounds and four assists while senior point guard Logan Pleasant swished a pair of three-pointers for six points. Rochester’s starting five finished 26-for-44 shooting from the floor (59.1 percent).

Ford finished the night 19-for-44 from the floor, good for a reasonable 43.2 percent. The visiting Falcons also converted 8-fo-21 three-point attempts (38.1 percent). But even with those strong shooting numbers, Utica Ford just couldn’t keep pace with red-hot Rochester’s torrid shooting pace.

Junior guard Aiden Gillich sank four 3-pointers on the night to lead Ford with 12 points to go along with five assists. Senior center Nick Pagel added seven points, four rebounds and three blocked shots, and sophomore forward Mason Marchand and senior guard Jamie Thomas both chipped in with six points apiece.

The visiting Falcons still dipped their wings to a 1-6 record.

“I’m a first-year coach at Ford and we’re still searching for an identity,” said Ford coach George Woods. “We are playing hard, but one game we do one thing well and the next game we do something else well. We haven’t had that complete night yet. That will come with time.

“I think we’ve played a very tough schedule,” said Woods, whose team dropped its second game of the week to an undefeated team, including Tuesday’s 51-38 setback to Division 2 Yale. “In all of my years coaching, I always try to schedule some very good teams to help get us get ready for league play. I think everyone in our league has four, five, six losses overall. Someone will get hot and win our league.

“I think Adam Gillich really came to play tonight,” continued Woods. “He shot the ball well and passed it well. If we can get that type of effort from everybody, we’ll be fine.”

ROCHESTER HILLS – A year ago around the holidays break, Utica Ford pulled away from Rochester down the stretch.

The Ford Falcons earned a 63-48 win in that game between two cross-borders rivals of two traditionally-strong programs – Ford from Macomb County and Rochester from Oakland County.

On Friday night some 54 weeks later, Rochester remembered that defeat.

In a back-and-fourth battle that had the feeling of a state tournament atmosphere, Rochester held off visiting Utica Ford in the annual Battle of the Falcons, 43-42.

Rochester sophomore guard Sam Walker drilled a three-pointer off a senior Kelly Cook feed with 3:05 remaining for the go-ahead points – and the game’s final points overall.

“Last year (Ford) had two really good guards that took over in the second half and we couldn’t stop them,” said second-year Rochester coach Andy Topie. “This was a good win for us because Ford is always a strong program.”

Rochester missed two free throws and also misfired on two point-blank layups down the stretch, while Ford was 0-for-3 from the floor in the final three minutes of the game. Ford junior Lia Raciti’s three-point attempt was off the mark with one second left, as the home-standing Falcons staved off Utica Ford in the final minute.

Rochester opened the game with a 9-2 run, only to see Utica Ford surge back with a 13-0 run to take 15-9 lead late in the first quarter. Senior Aris McDonald hit a late three to make it a 15-12 game at the end of the first frame.

Ford (3-3) kept going inside to 6-foot senior center Claire O’Brien in the first half, where she scored all 20 of her points over the opening half. Ford outscored Rochester 14-12 in the second quarter to take a 29-24 lead into the locker room.

Rochester (4-1) switched up its defensive pressure to go on a 12-5 third-quarter run – and more importantly made life miserable for O’Brien and her teammates on the inside. O’Brien was 8-for-14 from the floor in the first half but finished 0-for-7 from the field in the second half.

“She (O’Brien) was killing us in the first half. She’s a really good player. We pinched her a little bit more and had someone come over on the backside every time she touched the ball,” offered Topie. In the first half we were letting her get to her spots. We tried to take that away and make it a little more tougher by sending someone behind. That really helped us get some momentum and we also started to make more shots in the third quarter,” said Topie. “We wanted to make someone else try to beat us.”

Holding on to a 36-34 lead through three quarters of play, Rochester continued to match Ford’s defensive pressure toe-for-toe and neither team was able to build larger than a four-point advantage in the fourth quarter.

“(Rochester) started to run three girls at (O’Brien) and we needed to do a better job taking care of the ball, kicking the ball out and having other players make shots,” said veteran Ford coach Matt Joseph. “We needed to do a better job of opening up that lane. Rochester did nice job taking that away in the second half.”

Photo gallery of Rochester vs. Utica Ford in girls hoops action

Utica Ford opened the fourth stanza with a 8-2 run with freshman Laila Sosnowski’s triple from the right corner giving the visiting Falcons a 42-38 advantage with 5:15 remaining in the contest. Ford would not score again.

“This is the 10th year in a row we’ve played them and it has become a fun little (non-league) rivalry,” said Joseph. “It’s good competition and we’ve had some great games with them. Both teams I thought competed very hard. It wasn’t always pretty, but I thought both teams fought hard to the end. They were just one point better than us this time around.”

Rochester picked up a layup from sophomore Abby Condon with 4:29 left to cut the deficit down to 42-40 with 4:29 left, while Walker’s triple 1:24 later served as the game-winning dagger.

Senior guard Taylor Parsons had one of the best efforts of her career, scoring 12 with a game-high 14 rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Cook led Rochester with 13 points and four rebounds and Walker finished with eight points and four rebounds for the hosts. Rochester finished 18-for-49 from the floor (36.8 percent) and made 7-of-22 three-pointers (31.9 percent) but finished an uncharacteristic 0-for-5 from the foul line.

Rochester also forced 17 turnovers, had 12 team assists and recorded 10 steals on the night.

“This was, I thought, a great team effort,” said Topie. “We lost one a couple of weeks ago to Romeo where we made some mistakes that really cost us. This time we found a way to win.”

Utica Ford finished 17-for-50 shooting from the floor (34 percent), made 5-of-10 free throws (50 percent) and canned 3-of-15 three-point attempts (20 percent). Following O’Brien, junior forward Emma McNally added eight points and nine rebounds, Sosnowski scored eight points, while Raciti finished with six points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals for Ford.

Utica Ford had 14 assists on 17 made baskets, recorded 11 steals and forced 20 turnovers. The visiting Falcons held a 30-25 edge on the boards.