Rockford's Redell sets up game-winner
By Jeff Chaney / The Grand Rapids Press

Michael Redell wasn't having the kind of game he is used to Friday night against visiting Forest Hills Northern. So Rockford's senior all-state guard acted as a decoy and let junior guard Mark Russell take the shot of the game. With 20 seconds to play and the Rams trailing by a point, Redell dribbled to the center of the Northern defense, which held him to a season-low 11 points, and dished the ball outside to Russell.

Russell then drained a 3-pointer with 14 seconds to play to help Rockford win 62-58 in a key O-K Red Metro Conference game. " I knew Mike was going to go one-on-one against them, and I knew they were going to collapse on him and somebody would have a shot," Russell said. "Then when I got the ball and took the shot, I knew it was going to go in."

The game wasn't over at that point, though, because Forest Hills Northern had a chance to tie the game when senior guard Cory Zlydaszyk took the ball the length of the court and was fouled.
But Zlydaszyk missed his first free throw, forcing him to intentionally miss his second. Rockford junior forward Ryan DeHaan grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and sank his two free throws on the other end of the court for the final margin.

Huskies coach Steve Harvey pointed to the Russell shot that gave his team its first loss of the season. " That shot Russell hit was clutch," Harvey said. "Our plan was to have everybody else beat us but Redell, and Russell stepped up and hit a huge shot. That shot was ice cold." Rockford coach Steve Majerle knew Russell had big-shot potential, so he was confident when the ball landed the hands of his guard with the game on the line.

" (Russell) is not particularly the best practice player, but he is a gamer," Majerle said. "We would like for him to be a better practice player, but he does step up when it is game time. Part of that is that he likes the pressure, he is not afraid of it." Russell wasn't the only gamer playing for the Rams. With Redell held 13 points under his season average, DeHaan scored a team-high 19 points and junior guard Kyle Mahoney scored 10 points. Nine of Mahoney's 10 points came on three key 3-pointers.

" They did a really good job on Redell," Majerle said. "They did some things that we haven't seen before."

Junior forward Travis Worst led the Huskies with a game-high 21 points.