Rockford Rams 56, Grand Haven Buccaneers 47

Rockford tops Grand Haven in key OK Red boys clash
Jane Bos | The Grand Rapids Press

ROCKFORD -- Not a good day to be a steelhead in the Muskegon River or a basketball team competing against Rockford.

Well, depending on your perspective.

Friday morning, Rams boys basketball coach Steve Majerle cast his line and caught an 11-pound steelhead. Half a day later, his son, junior Ryan Majerle, stepped to the free-throw line, helping Rockford defeat visiting Grand Haven 56-47.

The Rockford (12-5) victory not only snapped a 10-game winning streak for the Buccaneers, it also forged a tie atop the OK Red Conference heap with Grand Haven (14-3). With two games left in the conference race, both teams are tied at 10-2 with at least three-game lead on the rest of the pack.

"Getting the steelhead was exciting, but, yeah, I would take this win any day," said Steve Majerle, a Rockford teacher who was off on winter break with the rest of the school Friday. "It was a good sign for tonight, that fishing trip."

The win also is a pretty good sign that, if the Rams continue to take care of business, they will repeat as conference champs. Grand Haven has not won a conference title since 1995.

"This was a great win for our team, and we are going to concentrate on winning our last two," Ryan Majerle said about OK Red games at Jenison and against visiting Muskegon next week. "Hopefully, we can cut down the nets at home next Friday."

In Friday's key showdown against Grand Haven, Majerle wore out the nets, scoring a game-high 25 points, including going 10-for-10 from the free-throw line, and grabbed seven rebounds.

An almost 90-percent free-throw shooter since his freshman season, Majerle made six of his 10 with a little more than a minute to play and Rockford on top 48-45.

The Rams, who made 14-of-15 free throws as a team, also got a boost offensively from Robert Pierson with nine points and Stephen May with eight.

But it was their defense, led by senior guard Ryan Darby outside and reserve senior center Brent Henry on the inside, that made the difference. A game-long, full-court pressure wore out the Bucs, helping cause 13 turnovers.

Grand Haven, which led 10-4 late in the first quarter, was outscored 15-2 during nearly a 5-minute stretch that spanned the first and second quarters. The Bucs got close, but never regained the lead.

If the Bucs can beat West Ottawa and Hudsonville in their final two games, they will clinch at least a share of the crown. But if they had beaten Rockford, they might not have had to share.

"We have a lot to play for, it's the OK Red," Grand Haven coach Steve Hewitt said. "We are very disappointed because we did not play very well. I thought we beat ourselves in some respects. Of course, Rockford did a good job doing what they do."

Isiah Law and Noah Veach led Grand Haven with 12 points each. Nate VanArendonk scored eight points and blocked two shots.

In the first go-round of the Red race, the Bucs beat the Rams 67-59 in overtime.