By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio
Photo courtesy of Miles Postema
The girls’ basketball team from Rockford had a nonleague tilt on Tuesday against a solid Holt team before returning to OK Red play on Friday with a trip to East Kentwood. Rockford won both games convincingly but in decidedly different ways to improve to 17-1 on the season. In the Holt game Rockford watched a 34-14 lead get reduced to 39-31 before Coach Brad Wilson called a timeout late in the third quarter. What he said needs to be bottled and sold as the Rams went on a 26 to 1 run to end the game and claim the 65-31 win. They followed that up by racing to a big lead against East Kentwood and continuing to increase it on their way to an overwhelming 67-27 win.
That stretched their winning streak to 15 games and is somewhat insignificant due to the return of junior star Sienna Wolfe from a knee injury she suffered nearly a year ago Wolfe poured in eight points despite playing only 12 minutes against East Kentwood. That portends very well for the fortunes of Rockford going forward.
“I am just so happy for Sienna,” said Rockford coach Brad Wilson. “She is such a great kid and an awesome basketball player as well. She has worked so hard you know, eleven months plus and to see her out there smiling and doing what she enjoys is awesome. She put in so much time and effort and has already been practicing with us. We knew we were going to have to get her in a game and really test the knee and she looked great out there tonight. The sky is the limit for us with Sienna back and now if one girl is struggling on a particular night we have other options to step up for us.”
“It is usually a very tough environment to shoot in here at East Kentwood,” said Wilson. “But I thought our shooting just started getting better and better as the game progressed. It wasn’t just one girl either, we had four, five or six who ended up shooting the ball well. It was a great testament to our depth and gave us a glimpse of what we are capable of going forward.”
Rockford jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead over East Kentwood and never looked back as they rolled to the win. As usual for the Rams it was All-Stater Anna Wypych who led the way. Wypych hit a three-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to give Rockford a 32-11 lead at the break. That was only three of her eighteen first half points and she ended the night with 25 despite not playing in the final eight minutes. Freshman Addison Wypych added 11 while Wolfe had eight and Audrey Muterspaugh had six.
Wypych was again the catalyst for Rockford against Holt as she poured in 28 points. Junior Jordan Mateer had a fantastic all-around game for Rockford as well while scoring 17 points and adding three steals, three assists and four triples.
“I just told the girls at the point of the timeout when they had cut into our lead so much that this was going to be a great test for our culture,” said Wilson. “Whether we are playing well or not playing well we are just going to move on to the next play. I challenged them a little bit and we got stops, made shots and just pulled away there at the end.”
The Rams return to action on Tuesday, February 11 at Hudsonville before returning home on Friday, February 14 to host Grandville for the final home game of the season.
