By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio
Photo courtesy of Miles Postema
Rockford’s girls’ basketball team kept rolling along as they claimed a pair of wins this week to run their record to 15-1 on the season. After a rare off day on Tuesday, Rockford pummeled Caledonia 65-31 at home on Friday, February 2nd to move to 7-1 in OK Red play. Coupled with a West Ottawa upset of East Kentwood the Rams are now tied with the Falcons in first place with that mark. Rockford then concluded the non-conference portion of their schedule the following day when they journeyed to Haslett to take on the 12-4 Vikings in a continuation of a challenging slate of games outside of the OK Red. Despite struggling through an uncharacteristic poor shooting night, the stifling Ram defense more than made up for that in posting a 46-32 win.
“We struggled out of the gate against Caledonia,” said Rockford Coach Brad Wilson. “But we were really able to pour it on in the second and third quarters and outscored them 48-8 to gain firm control. We were able to get everyone on the team a lot of court time which is very important for their development. With East Kentwood’s loss to West Ottawa. we are also now tied for first place in the OK Red.”
Anna Wypych led the Rams with 16 points. Grace Lyons and Kate Higgins chipped in with 13 and 10 respectively as Rockford again emphasized their depth with multiple double figure scorers.
The game against Haslett saw the Rams fall behind at the end of the first quarter by the score of 10-9 as they again got off to a slow start. But the rest of the game saw Rockford gradually extending that lead before finally settling at the final score of 46-32. Wypych again led the scoring parade for Rockford with 17 points and Sienna Wolfe tossed in 11 of her own.
Grace Lyons scored only three points on the night, but those three points were significant as that was all she needed to break Maddy Waters career scoring mark with 942. Higgins also produced a milestone for the Rams as she fought her way to fifteen rebounds. That total set a new single-game rebounding mark for the Rams.
“It was our worst shooting night of the season,” said Wilson. “But once again our defense traveled well and gave us a shot at the end to pull away. It was another gritty win and showed that we do not have to just try and get into a shoot-out to win.”
Rockford returns to action this week with a pair of road games. First up is a trip to Grand Haven on Tuesday, February 6th to take on a 14-2 Buccaneer team that finds themselves squarely in the middle of the conference title picture with a record of 6-2. The Bucs are also ranked fifth in the state in Division 1 and will present a formidable challenge to the Rams and their hopes of claiming a solo conference title. Rockford will then journey to Grandville to square off with a struggling Bulldog team that sits at 4-9 thus far.
Make sure you check out the standings and schedules at michigansportsradio.com
