Rockford Rams 43, East Kentwood Falcons 32

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.

 

2011-2012 OK-RED STANDINGS
Team
Conference
Overall
Rockford
11
3
22
6
East Kentwood
11
3
18
4
Hudsonville
11
3
17
6
Grand Haven
8
6
14
11
Jenison
6
8
8
15
Muskegon
6
8
11
11
West Ottawa
3
11
8
13
Grandville
0
14
3
18

SCORES from Saturday, March 24
Rockford 42, Saginaw 54
Lansing Sexton 67, Stev-Lakeshore 32

Flint Beecher 74, St. Francis 60
Southfield Christian 76, Climax-Scotts 44