Rockford boys grind out win over Grand Haven, 41-35
Steve Vedder | The Grand Rapids Press, January 07, 2011 10:58 p.m.
ROCKFORD
-- Rockford boys basketball coach Steve Majerle clearly remembers
the last time his team managed just five baskets in a half and
still won.
It was game that closely resembled the Rams’ 41-35 win against
Grand Haven on Friday in a must-win OK Red game.
“It had to be the state championship game,” Majerle
said of the team’s 41-38 win over Flint Carmen-Ainsworth in
the 2003 Class A final.
“Not many buckets in that game.”
Rockford’s latest win doesn’t mirror the importance
of a state title, but it does keep the Rams (5-4, 3-1) in OK Red
title contention on a night when they managed to hit just 5-of-16
second-half shots while shooting only 33 percent (13-of-39) for the
game.
The Rams went from leading by as much as 26-9 with 5:54 left in
the third quarter to just a 36-33 margin with 38 seconds left in
the game.
“That’s their style. It’s a frustrating style
and that’s not a putdown,” Marjele said of Grand Haven
(4-3, 1-3). “They muck things up to make it close game and
they don’t beat themselves.”
It took some clutch free-throw shooting at the end for Rockford
to fend off Grand Haven. The Rams made eight free throws in the last
1:37 and were 9-of-12 in the fourth quarter. Senior guard Ryan Majerle
made seven free throws in the final quarter.
“I love getting to the line,” said Ryan Majerle, a 90-percent
free-throw shooter. “Sometimes I try to draw the foul so I
get to the line as much as possible. It’s one of those things
that I just like being there.”
Majerle finished with 21 points. Grand Haven had three players with
11 points in Alex Edison, Jordan Hoogerhyde and Marshall Rusco.
“We got antsy in the second half,” Steve Majerle said. “We
wanted to run and shoot threes. It was one of those games where we
had to grind it out.”
Grand Haven coach Steve Hewitt, whose team nearly survived 17 turnovers,
said while the Rams’ offense was contained, the defense gave
the Buccaneers problems.
“They bothered us with their half-court defense and we let
it bother us,” Hewitt said. “We played too much one-on-one
(in the first half) and didn’t rely on each other. You can’t
do that against a team like Rockford.”
