By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio
Photo courtesy of Miles Postema
After taking an extended break from game action since December 22nd, the girls’ basketball team from Rockford finally returned to the court at home on Tuesday, January 6th. The opposition was provided by another squad pretty highly thought of in Midland. Despite entering the game with a record of only 3-2, the Chemics losses had come to a pair of stalwart teams in Tecumseh and Saginaw Heritage. Unfortunately for Midland, Rockford was less than a hospitable host as the Rams dominated from start to finish on their way to the 65-39 victory. The win left Rockford with a 6-1 mark thus far in the season.
Rockford jumped out to a commanding 22-6 lead after the first quarter as every facet of their game was clicking with devastating effects. Midland was barely able to get the ball over the midcourt line as they struggled mightily with the tenacious Ram press. And the Rams piled on that factor with precise shooting from the three-point line on their way to hitting a sizzling six triples in the opening eight minutes. But the game was much more competitive from that point as Rockford fell back into a half-court defense for the balance of the game. But the final outcome was never in doubt as Rockford got major minutes for nearly the entire roster.
“We really wanted to work on our half court man defense after the opening quarter, but I felt like if we needed to, we could have gone back to the press at any time,” said Rockford coach Brad Wilson. “We got up by 20 so quickly that we felt like we wanted to work on some other things. That was probably the best start to a game for us so far this year, but we got a little sloppy there in the second half. I felt like we stopped moving the ball enough offensively and forcing too many shots at times. But it was a solid game for us in many aspects as well as a nice win over a good team in Midland.”
Sophomore Addison Wypych and senior Sienna Wolfe both nailed a pair of triples in the opening quarter to key the fast start for the Rams. Wolfe would end up tallying 11 points in the opening half while Wypych had ten. After the sizzling opening quarter from the perimeter with six three-pointers, Rockford added only three more over the balance of the contest. The 34-17 Ram lead at the break grew to 46-22 midway through the third quarter before the Chemics had an 8-0 run to make it a 46 to 30 contest just before the end of the final quarter. But from that point forward the Rams stepped things up again to finish the game on a 19-9 run of their own.
“Midland did give us some problems with their post player for a while but I think we adjusted well to that later and really took back control of the game for the balance of the contest,” said Wilson. “I feel like we could have been a little rusty after such a long layoff, but it didn’t look like it at the start of the game. It is tough to keep up that intensity for a whole game after being off for so long, but we will get there. We have OK Red play starting next week and you must be ready any time a conference game is involved. We also got quite a bit of playing time for a lot of our players and being able to use our depth is one of the biggest strengths of our team.”
Wypych led Rockford with 17 points while Wolfe finished with 15. Senior Kate Higgins finished with ten and fellow senior Audrey Muterspaugh added seven of her own. As a further testament to the depth of the Rams, ten different players dented the scoring column.
Rockford will return to action on Tuesday, January 13th when they host a talented, young team from Eats Kentwood at 7:00 P.M. They will finish the week by making the trek to Hudsonville on Friday, January 16th at 7:00 P.M. to face off with the Eagles.
