Muskegon struggles at the line, falls to Rockford in boys basketball
David Tomczak | Muskegon Chronicle, January 29, 2010 11:21 p.m.
Muskegon's opportunity to upset Rockford was done in by two things
Friday night.
Free throws made and free throws missed.
Unfortunately for the host Big Reds, they led in the second category.
Rockford made 32-of-44 from the charity stripe and overcame a slow
start to earn a 67-57 O-K Red Conference win over Muskegon.
The Big
Reds went to the line 26 times, but only made 12.
"There was certainly a discrepancy in free throws (but) we didn't
take advantage of ours," said Muskegon coach Bernard Loudermill. "We
hung close, but we have got to make free throws."
Behind Jevante Hunter, the Big Reds came storming out of the gate
in the first quarter.
Hunter scored the team's first 15 points and Muskegon took a 20-10
lead after one quarter.
"He's been hot lately and shooting well," said Rockford
coach Steve Majerle. "We made the mistake of leaving him open."
But
the Big Reds' lead, and Hunter, would both be gone by the end of
the game.
The Rams (7-4, 5-2) came back behind the coach's son, Ryan Majerle,
outscoring Muskegon 19-6 in the second quarter to take a 29-26 halftime
lead. Majerle scored nine of his game-high 31 points in the quarter.
"(Muskegon) played really good defense tonight," said the
junior guard. "They did a good job of keeping us from shooting
the 3. In a game like this you know not to take bad shots, so we
had to go to the hole."
After falling behind 35-31 in the third, the Big Reds (4-8, 2-5)
battled back to take a 39-37 lead on Hunter's three-point play, his
first basket since the first quarter.
Hunter's 3-pointer later in
the third put Muskegon up 46-45, but after the play he was called
for his second technical foul of the game, earning an ejection. "It
was hard because (Jevante) brings a lot of energy to our team," said
the Big Reds' Desmond Grissom. "After he was
gone we really tried to come together as a team. We have a lot of
seniors who tried to pick it up."
But with Hunter out, Rockford
outscored Muskegon 22-11 the rest of the way. "It was won at
the free-throw line," added Steve Majerle,
whose team shot 10-of-16 from the line in the fourth. "The way
they played defense against us, there wasn't a flow to the game.
(And) 3-point shooting is our game and they defended it and we still
found a way to win without it."
The Rams hit only 3-of-14 attempts
from long range while Muskegon made 7-of-22. Majerle was only 2-of-6
from 3-point range, but by taking his game inside, he managed to
get to the line 20 times, making 17. "We were there (in the
fourth), but we missed some opportunities," said
Loudermill. "Then it all reverts back to us missing free throws
and them making theirs."
The Big Reds finished the game with
28 fouls, while Rockford had 19. Hunter finished the game with 24
points, Trellis Loudermill added 10 points and Grissom had eight,
all in the second half. Matt Karamol led the Rams with nine rebounds
and scored 11 points, Justin Klein added 11 points and Ryan Darby
finished with five assists.
