Rockford's outside shooting sinks Grandville
By Jane Bos / The Grand Rapids Press

GRANDVILLE -- Let's see. We'll pick Mitch Briggs. Yeah. We're going to guard Rockford's center tough, collapse on him.
The junior, he's been playing so well. And the Rams? They aren't shooting the 3-pointers that well. Make 'em shoot.
Grandville's game plan seemed solid enough. Until Rockford started making all those 3s, eight in all. Turned out to be enough as the Rams posted a 52-39 O-K Red Conference victory against host Grandville.

The win keeps Rockford (10-2 overall, 9-1 in the Red) one game behind unbeaten league-leading Jenison. Grandville is 7-6, 4-6.
" Wasn't that great?" said Briggs, who scored eight points. "We were struggling out there. Every time I touched the ball, everybody was in the lane. Those guys were wide open out there."

Help from the bench
One of those guys, senior Mark Grinzinger, came off the bench and sank four 3-pointers. He totaled a career-high 12 points.
" With Rockford, it's pick your poison, just like with any team," Grandville coach Rick Albro said. "They had been shooting 29 percent behind the arc, and Briggs has been playing so tough." Friday, the Rams made 8-of-20 long-range attempts for 40 percent. They made three of them during one critical stretch in the second quarter. Trailing 11-10 after the first quarter, Rockford went on a 14-0 run. During that three-minute stretch, Grandville committed five turnovers.

On one of the three 3-pointers during the run, Rams junior Brogan Bibler was fouled and made the free throw for a 4-point play.
The Rams led 26-15 at halftime. The Bulldogs never recovered. " Take away those two-three minutes, and it's a different game," Albro said.

It clearly was a different game for Rockford than the one it played against East Kentwood on Tuesday. The Rams trailed the entire game until the end, when they earned the 40-37 victory. " It was like night and day from Tuesday," Rockford coach Steve Majerle said. "We came out focused. Grandville is dangerous, they can beat anybody, they played hard. They forced us to kick it out, and we hit some 3s. That works.

" Except for last Tuesday, we have a nice chemistry going in our top five. We are not really good at any one thing, we are just really solid everywhere." The Rams can go inside. They can go outside. They outrebounded Grandville 25-18, led by Briggs with six. And they have a good senior leader in Bryan Pasciak, who totaled nine points and three assists. They got it going.
Grandville did what it had to do to try and win. The Bulldogs were led by David Krombeen with 14 points and six assists. Teammate Aaron Szarowicz added six points and three assists. Not quite enough.