By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio
Photo courtesy of Miles Postema
Rockford made the trip out to the lakeshore on Friday, January 31 to take on an 11-3 Grand Haven squad that was still clinging to hopes of making a case for the OK Red title. But Rockford built a 20-11 advantage after the first quarter and battled tooth and nail to hold on to that lead over the remainder of the contest before claiming the 57-50 victory and maintaining their lead atop the OK Red at 6-0. They also moved to 15-1 overall and are now preparing for a brutal stretch of five games in the next 11 days beginning on February 3 at home against Whitehall. They will then travel to East Kentwood on Friday, February 7 before facing North Farmington the following day at Grand Rapids Catholic Central. Then comes a huge showdown at Hudsonville on Tuesday, February 11 before hosting Grandvile on Friday, February 14 to close out that chapter..
The game with Grand Haven featured a solid start to the opening eight minutes behind a great opening quarter from senior Mikey DeKuiper and junior Jake Bascom. Both scored eight points in the quarter, but in decidedly different ways. DeKuiper hit a pair of triples and a pair of free throws while Bascom showed off his dizzying array of post moves and also hit a pair of free throws. But from that point forward it was an absolute slugfest with the Buccaneers trying to deny Rockford’s inside game and benefitting from a dismal performance from the three-point line for a normally potent Ram outside attack.
“There were probably a lot of misconceptions about the game that outsiders had about how easy this was going to be tonight based off the way we played the last game against them,” said Rockford Coach Kyle Clough. “Grand Haven has a very good team with a very good record and they put a lot of pressure on you. Obviously, they played a lot more zone tonight and kept us off balance and it was a night where we did not shoot the ball very well. It was nice to see us dig out a win out here on the road in a place that is really tough to play in traditionally. We talked to the guys tonight about a game where you are not shooting well and have to adapt to take advantage and get great shots so you have a better chance of making them. I thought we did a great job of adating as the game went on. I thought early on that Jake (Bascom) and Lucas (Pitsch) did a great job on getting offensive rebounds and giving us second chances that we really needed because we just weren’t hitting much from the perimeter. Sometimes you just have to win on the defensive end and I think that is exactly what we did tonight. We held them to 41 points for most of the game and then they hit three tough triple down the stretch to get to 50. It was a great effort all night long for us defensively.”
Grand Haven made it a 32-24 contest at the half and got it down to 36-30 midway through the third quarter. They even eventually made it a 43-39 contest early in the final quarter but the Rams always managed to keep them at arm’s length. They got four quick points on a pair of hoops from Pitsch and Bascom to extend their lead and got a key three-pointer from Dylan Gross right after the Bucs had made it a 43-39 game.
Freshman Josh Bascom had the highlight reel play of the game on a beautifully executed alley oop dunk from the baseline and made a pair of dazzling assists to his brother for a layup and a dunk that made it a 51-42 lead for Rockford and basically salt the game away. The late desperation threes made it a little interesting but the Rams would eventually prevail.
Jake Bascom led Rockford with 19 points and was joned in double figures by DeKuiper with ten. Josh Bascom tossed in eight while Pitsch and freshman Eli Wolfe both added seven for Rockford.
Earlier in the week Rockford blasted Wyoming Godwin Heights 66-22 led by a career high of 23 points from Pitsch. Jake Bascom added nine and DeKuiper tossed in eight to abet the cause in the runaway win.
