GRAND RAPIDS -- Steve Majerle admits to being a little picky. Not even a double-digit win on the road to start off the boys basketball season had the Rockford Rams coach happy. The Rams beat host Grand Rapids Christian 67-53 Tuesday night. "It was ugly, but a win is a win," Majerle said. "As poorly as we shot, and we are a good shooting team, I'll take the win, but it was ugly. This is the worst I have seen this group shoot, ever."

Rockford did come out and shoot poorly, allowing the Eagles to take a 10-8 lead after one quarter of play. But an old staple for the Rams -- defense -- allowed them to counter the sloppy play on the offensive end of the court. Rockford picked up its defense in the second quarter, forcing Grand Rapids Christian into nine turnovers in the quarter that helped the Rams take a 23-22 lead at halftime. Rockford's defense remained strong after the break, as the Rams pushed the one-point lead to eight points two minutes into the third quarter. After the third was done, the Eagles had eight more turnovers and were facing a 42-36 deficit.

" We found a way to win this game," Majerle said. "We came out in the second half and forced some turnovers and that got us a nice cushion." It was a cushion Rockford would need, because the Eagles used a 9-2 run at the start of the fourth quarter to grab its only lead in the second half at 45-44 with just under seven minutes to play in the game. From there it was all Rockford, and senior guard Nick Wendling. Wendling scored nine of his game-high 19 points in the final six minutes. And all of those nine points came from the free-throw line. He was 9-for-9 and the team was 15-of-19 from the charity stripe down the stretch.

Turnovers hurt Eagles First-year Grand Rapids Christian coach Mark Warners said sloppy play hurt his team. The Eagles had 22 turnovers. " We panicked a little bit," Warners said. "The type of pressure that Rockford puts on you is hard to simulate in practice, and I think we panicked a little. " We did figure it out a little in the second half and made a run, but I think the guys may have run out of gas." Besides Wendling's 19, Rockford got 13 from guard Bryan Pasciak and 12 from forward Kyle Karasiewicz. Grand Rapids Christian was paced by sophomore guard John Oostema, who scored 12 points.