Rockford boys miss opportunities down stretch in loss to Muskegon
Jeff Chaney | The Grand Rapids Press, January 25, 2011 10:29 p.m.
ROCKFORD -- The Rockford boys basketball team had opportunities
to hold its home court in a key OK Red Conference showdown with Muskegon.
But Rockford misfired down the stretch and let Muskegon escape with
an important 51-50 victory Tuesday night that gave the Big Reds sole
possession of second place in the league.
Rockford falls to 4-2 in the OK Red, while Muskegon improves to
5-1, one game behind conference leader East Kentwood.
“Bottom line, we missed some shots and two free throws,” Rockford
coach Steve Majerle said. “If we make just one of those shots,
or both free throws, we win. This hurts because you don’t lose
on your home court if you want to win an OK Red championship. What
this means is that we are going to have to steal one at East Kentwood
on Friday night.”
Muskegon coach Bernard Loudermill knew how important the road win
was. But his team has been a road warrior for the past month.
“This was huge,” Loudermill said. “We’ve
been on the road since December. We went to Ottawa Hills on Dec.
21, and haven’t been home since, and we’ve won all of
those games.”
Senior guard Todd Mitchell was a big reason Muskegon came out victorious.
Mitchell ran down the court on offense whenever possible, especially
in the second half when he scored 15 of his game-high 26 points.
The last two came from the free-throw line with 15 seconds left to
play, which gave his team a four-point lead.
That turned out to be important, because Rockford senior guard Connor
McCane hit his third 3-pointer with 5 seconds to play to cut the
lead to one.
Rockford got the ball back with a second to play, but Ryan Majerle’s
desperation heave went wide.
“(Sophomore point guard) Chad Carlson did a wonderful job
with their pressure all night,” Steve Majerle said. “He
played the entire 32 minutes. And they were really keying on Ryan
in their 2-3 zone, and we weren’t deceptive enough to get him
the ball more because every time he did touch it he went to the line
or made a basket.”
Ryan Majerle finished with a team-high 23 points, including 12-of-15
from the free-throw line.
“We tried to take everyone else away, but they made seven
3-pointers, and that’s the most we’ve given up all year
in a game,” Loudermill said. “And they hit that big one
(Carlson’s half-court 3-pointer as time expired in third quarter),
and our kids could have gotten down after that, but they were resilient."
