Rockford scores 43-32 OK Red victory over East Kentwood
Jane Bos | The Grand Rapids Press,
ROCKFORD – Be nice if Rockford first-year coach Nick Allen
could come up with a new shtick, some new lines or comments about
his boys basketball. Maybe some fresh quotes.
The same ol' yadda yadda cliches from a first-year coach, like,
it's a total team effort, we play great defense, we don't give
up, you know, that stuff?
Well, what else can he say? That's how Rockford plays. That's
why the Rams are sitting atop of the OK Red Conference after
Tuesdays' convincing 43-32 victory against visiting East Kentwood.
“If someone doesn't have a good night for us, someone else
steps up,” Allen said with a smile when I asked for something
different from the last time I saw the Rams win. “East
Kentwood is an incredible team, athletic, disciplined, well-coached,
they run the floor as well as anybody. We just did a great job
on defense, coach (Ryan) DeKuiper did a great job planning defensively
for us.”
It didn't hurt that East Kentwood (3-2, 9-2), leading for most
of the game, including by as much as 27-19 early in the third
quarter, suddenly started missing. Rockford rallied to a 31-31
tie entering the fourth quarter. Then, the Rams blew it open
as the Falcons went 1-for-10 from the free-throw line in the
fourth quarter.
OK, you say, that is the story. East Kentwood just stinks shooting
free throws, going 4-for-19 in the game. Write that up. I just
did. But that's not the story. And EK coach Jeff Anama is not
going to spend much extra time shooting free throws in practice
today.
“We just need to focus on the play at hand, be a little
more strong mentally,” he said. “You miss a free
throw, and you end up thinking about the one you missed, and
it keeps going. We need to think about making the next play.
Free throws are not our problem. We're shooting in the high 70s
(percentage). We've gone 15-for-19, 14-for-19. We've never done
this.”
Anama also admits that Rockford is a good team with a lot of
talent.
The kind of talent who take turns stepping up every night.
“I saw the team needed a little energy, and part of my job being captain
on the team, is to bring that energy to help get the victory we needed,” said
Mark Pearson, a senior who came off the bench and threw some of his weight
around. “I wanted to go in there and stand up. Fight for
what's right. East Kentwood is a great team, we needed to back
in. It was a total team effort and a great team victory.”
There it is again. So let's not forget to mention two other key
players who came off the bench to help the Rams. Chase Fairfield
was certainly one of them, leading the team with 12 points. And
then there's big Ivy Johnson inside. He comes in and gives the
Rams a boost underneath, but he racked up two amazing assists,
too, to go with his four points and seven rebounds.
“Wining this one means a lot, it gets up
one in the OK Red on Hudsonville, and two on East Kentwood,” Pearson
said. “That is
just huge.”
Miles Robinson totaled 15 points to lead the
Falcons.