By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio
Photo courtesy of Rick Laven
After taking on all comers during the 2025-26 basketball season, the girls’ basketball team from Rockford hit a week where there was a bit of a lull in the schedule. That is not to say that they were going to be walkover wins, but the pair of games against an 8-7 West Ottawa squad and a 6-8 Grandville team were a marked difference from the nonleague schedule. The game played on Monday, February 9 at West Ottawa ended with the Rams winning 68-33. The return engagement at Rockford on Friday, February 13 was nearly identical in the final score with the Rams winning 68-34. Sandwiched between the two was a Tuesday contest against Grandville. Rockford came out on top in that one by the final of 74-40.
Rockford has now won 14 consecutive games following their only loss to Muskegon in the third contest of the year. They sit at 16-1 on the season and 9-0 in OK Red play. They have clinched at least a share of the conference crown and will face off with Grand Haven at home on Friday, February 20 with a chance to claim a solo title or a split should the Buccaneers come out on top. Also on the docket this week are home games against Byron Center on Tuesday, February 17 and Wednesday, February 18 against Wayland. The Tuesday and Friday games are slated for 7:00 P.M. tips and the Wednesday game is scheduled for 6:00 P.M.
All three contests followed the same script with Rockford jumping out to big leads and just continuing to build on them. The Monday night contest with West Ottawa saw Rockford nail 14 three-pointers as their hot streak from beyond the arc continues. Leading the way for Rockford was senior center Kate Higgins with 14. Fellow seniors Sienna Wolfe and Jordan Mateer both added 11 along with sophomore Addison Wypych.
The Grandville contest on the following day featured more of the same for the Rams. Rockford poured through 13 triples on the night and still just kept expanding the lead after jumping out to a 21-6 margin after the opening quarter. Balanced scoring was again the theme of the day as the Rams had four players in double figures. This time around it was Wolfe leading the way with 20 while Wypych ended with 15 and Higgins and sophomore Brooke Hambleton finished with 11 and 10 respectively. Wolfe appeared to be on her way to a huge night as she poured through 16 points in the first half, including four triples that touched nothing but net. But her playing time was limited after that with the lead continuing to expand.
“We are just in a streak where we are finding the open shooters, catching the ball in rhythm and shooting with confidence,” said Rockford Coach Brad Wilson. “It has been really nice to see some shots go through for sure. I thought that defensively we were pretty solid for the most part, but we did not really limit their best player from getting too many good looks. We were able to deflect multiple passes and force a lot of turnovers but we still have some room for improvement on that end. It has been nice to get a lot of playing time for the entire team this week. These girls have been grinding every day and giving their all so it is a nice reward for their efforts.”
The West Ottawa contest at Rockford saw the Rams hit a much more mundane eight three-pointers on the evening. But the game was once again never in doubt after the opening eight minutes. It was 25-8 Rockford at the end of the first quarter and 39-17 at the half. Unlike the previous two games, Rockford spent a lot more time feeding the ball down low as West Ottawa tried to take away the three-point attempts. That led to Rockford capitalizing multiple times in the low post led by Wolfe with 14. Wypych and Higgins added 13 and 12 respectively. Junior Audrey Zollman played a solid floor game and finished with six points on the night.
“WE are looking for consistency this time of year and we are really proud of the way the kids have been playing,” said Wilson. “We are a couple of weeks away from the playoffs and some distractions with the Cancer Awareness theme, but the kids just kept their focus all night long. Kate (Higgins) led us in three-point shooting percentage last year and struggled early on this year but has really shot her way out of it and is shooting with tremendous confidence. And tonight, we tried to get Sienna (Wolfe) down low on the blocks and she showed just how effective she can be down there tonight. We are playing with a lot of confidence right now but the schedule really gets ramped up in the next two weeks. We have Grand Haven, Jackson Lumen Christi and South Christian all coming up. All three games will be tremendous challenges for our team and will really help prepare us for the state tournament.”
