Lettinga twins lead Forest Hills Central
By Greg Johnson / The Grand Rapids Press

Forest Hills Central's Mark Lettinga, the Lettinga twin with the bigger hair, was one of many players in foul trouble in a physical struggle with Rockford.
Then he decided to get physical. " I wasn't playing very well, I was in foul trouble, coach got in my face and I decided, 'let's just go all out and win this game,' " the 6-7 senior center said amid a rather wild celebration of a 53-47 O-K Red Metro Conference win over the defending champions at Forest Hills Central Friday night.

Lettinga scored 11 of his 16 points and grabbed most of his seven rebounds in the fourth quarter to key the Rangers in their effort to hold off Rockford, champions of the conference four of the last five years.
" I told the guys we were two plays short, whether they were missed shots, rebounds, turnovers, whatever, it was that kind of game, a typical game with Forest Hills Central," Rockford coach Steve Majerle said. "Their size got to us. It really makes us work because they play great defense, too. They just made more plays than us in the second half." The Rams, fueled by their aggressive defense, led 14-5 after the first quarter, but foul trouble was starting to mount.

In the lead
The Rangers, now alone atop the Red standings, rallied in the second quarter behind the other Lettinga, Luke. The 6-7 senior forward scored nine of his 15 points in that quarter and the Rangers trailed by just four points at halftime. " We were fortunate to be able to go into halftime and talk about it being a basketball game," FH Central coach Ken George said. "The second quarter was big. We were down nine, and on the verge of being blown out in our gym. " We settled down though, got the ball to the Lets (Lettinga brothers) and it's a given we are going to play good defense."

A total of 47 fouls were whistled in the game, including 27 on Rockford, which lost three players to fouls. Majerle said it was a product of the competition. " We both play tough defense, and they are bigger so we had to battle harder and things got called," he said. "That's their advantage with the big guys. They are long, and they gave us some troubles."

Roll the dice
George said he gambled on his foul trouble, especially by putting Mark Lettinga back in the game early in the second half. " I told him I wanted him to play hard," he said. "Foul trouble can be misleading. Sometimes you just have to play them and foul them out, or they are sitting by you. " Either way, you don't have them."

Mark Bossuah, a speedy senior forward, also scored 16 points for the Rangers. His 3-point play off a pass from Mark Lettinga, a layup and foul shot with 3:01 remaining gave the Rangers a 45-40 lead.

" They got the two plays we needed," Majerle said. "I thought if we could have hit a couple of our shots at the start of the third quarter, then we might have had them on the run." Rockford was led by Mark Russell's 14 points. Nicholas Wendling and Ryan DeHaan each had 10.

George called it a big win, but cautioned that it's early in the conference race. " I saw our students celebrating, but we know we've got a long way to go," he said. "You have to win on your home court. We did that, and at this point that's important. It is a big win."