By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio
Photo courtesy of Miles Postema
Rockford coach Kyle Clough left no stone unturned in his quest to set up a challenging schedule for the 2025-26 version of Ram basketball. That effort reached a crescendo last week as the Rams first journeyed to Hazel Park High School on Monday, January 22 to take on Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice. The Rams entered the game ranked second in the state in Division 1 while the Warriors entered the fray at number three. The capacity crowd in attendance got their money’s worth and then some as Rockford finally prevailed 81-78 in double overtime in a contest that rarely reached a difference of four points after slow start from the Rams.
The Rams next challenge was a trip to Ferndale High School on Saturday, January 27 to take on the Golden Eagles. Ferndale features a pair of division 1 players in waiting and presented a formidable challenge on their home court. This was another contest that was closely contested from the start before a late surge from Rockford helped procure the 83-75 win. The wins left Rockford with an overall record of 6-0 so far in the young season. Rockford will next step onto the court during a two-day trip to Traverse City where they will take on Traverse City West on Friday, January 2 and Traverse City Central on Saturday, January 3.
The Brother Rice contest was about as closely contested from start to finish as you will ever see in a basketball game. The game was tied at 22-22 after the first quarter, Rockford led 41-37 at the half and the two teams were tied again at 54-54 after the third stanza. But the fun was just getting started as first Jake Bascom made a steal and dunk that gave Rockford a 67-65 lead late before Brother Rice knotted things up at 67-67 shortly before the end of regulation. The first overtime saw the game knotted up at 73-73 at the horn and Brother Rice was setting up for the final shot in the second overtime with the game tied at 78-78. But an aggressive Ram trap forced a late turnover that set the stage for the thrilling finish. Bascom got the ball at the top of the key and swung it around to his sophomore brother Josh on the left side. Josh wasted no time swinging the ball into the corner to senior Dylan Gross and the senior sharpshooter buried the triple to make it an 81-78 Ram lead with four seconds to play. The Ram defense stood tall and denied the Warrior attempt to tie the game and the Rams had a thrilling victory to add to their resume.
“I have always been taught that you do not stay passive in a situation where your opponent has the ball and the chance at a potential game-winning shot,” said Clough. “We were able to force the turnover and the kids just made a great play for the winning shot. Josh (Bascom) has been battling an injury all year and just made a great pass to set up Dylan (Gross) for the shot. He had been struggling with his shot earlier this year but people didn’t realize that he has been battling the flu for a large portion of the early season and has just started rounding into form. We always have confidence when the ball leaves his hand that it is going in and he made no mistake. It was just a great game between two great teams and we were very pleased to come out on top.”
The Ram attack was extremely guard oriented in the win over Brother Rice. The Warriors featured several large bodies that somewhat checked the elder Bascom and held him to 14 points in one of the rare games where he was not the leading scorer for Rockford. That honor went to sophomore Eli Wolfe who demonstrated his ability at every level in scoring 23 points for Rockford. Gross chipped in with 20 and freshman Jace Opoku-Agyeman added 17 in a great effort.
The Ferndale contest saw Rockford get off to another sluggish start for the third time in the last four games. They fell behind 10-3 and spent the bulk of the contest getting back in front. It wasn’t until the third quarter that the Rams finally took the lead, but it was still anyone’s game until the final Ram spurt as both teams really filled it up in the final quarter. Gross poured in ten third quarter points to key the Ram rally and Wolfe tossed in eleven in the final quarter to key the win. Jake Bascom led Rockford with 18 points and Wolfe finished with 17. Gross tossed in 15 and Josh Bascom had 14 as he finally is beginning to show his recovery after the debilitating ankle injury.
“We have only had four out of 23 practices where we have had everyone healthy so far this season,” said Clough. “Even in these last two games we didn’t have Carter Drolema because of an injury and the assorted injuries and illnesses have made it difficult to build any continuity as a team. But I think we will finally see everyone together starting this week and that will go a long way towards solidifying our depth. We have always felt that is one of our biggest strengths and hopefully we can continue to stay ahead of the injury bug going forward.”
