Rockford Rams 49, Hudsonville Eagles 42

Regional Semifinals

Rockford boys basketball team beats Hudsonville in tough game, now has quick turnaround for regional championship game
Jeff Chaney, March 13, 2012 10:27 p.m.

GRANDVILLE – There would be no conserving of energy for the basketball teams from Rockford and Hudsonville Tuesday night.

Scheduled to play their Class regional semifinal game Monday night, that game was postponed to Tuesday because of the tornado watch in the area.

So the Rams and Eagles prepared to play Tuesday night at Grandville High School, knowing that the winning team would have only 24 hours to recover and get ready for the regional championship game against Grand Haven back at Grandville Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

In a back-and-forth battle, a game that had players repeatedly hitting the floor and 35 fouls called, Rockford held on for a 49-42 victory.

“It was a very tough game,” said Rockford coach Nick Allen, whose team is now 19-5. “But I'm totally confident will come back tomorrow with effort and heart and play another hard game. It is what it is, and we'll just have to wait and see for tomorrow.”

School officials from Rockford, Grand Haven and Grandville agreed that the regional championship game could be played Thursday night to give each team a well-deserved rest with a quarterfinal berth on the line, but MHSAA officials said the game must be played on Wednesday.

Grand Haven beat Petoskey 57-51 Monday night at Traverse City Central High School at to earn its way to Wednesday's regional championship.

Rockford junior point guard Chad Carlson, who led his team in scoring with 20 points, including five in a 10-2 run early in the fourth quarter that turned a 30-30 game heading into the final quarter to an eight-point lead with just over five minutes to play, says his team will be ready Wednesday.

“It was a rough game tonight,” Carlson said. “It was a defensive battle and Hudsonville played tough. But we have to move on now and get ready to play Grand Haven.

“We've already have had back-to-back games this year,” he added. “We lost to West Ottawa on a Friday and them came back against Forest Hills Northern Saturday and got it done. So we'll be ready.”

The problem of a quick turnaround could have been Hudsonville coach Eric Elliot's problem if his talented big man, B.J. Van Loo, hadn't got into foul trouble and fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.

When Van Loo was on the court, the Eagles (17-6) were a different team on the offensive end.

He scored eight of his game-high 22 points in the first quarter, and the Eagles took a 14-8 lead into the second quarter.

He then scored his team's only two points in the second, before picking up his second foul and siting the bench most of the second quarter, watching his team go down 20-16 at the break.

That scenario played out in the second half as well.

“They played well defensively, and obviously without having B.J., we were limited offensively,” Elliot said. “They did a great job on (Blake Hibbits), he had an extremely hard time getting open looks. They played well defensively, but we knew it was going to be that type of game coming in.”

Hibbits ended his night with five points.

The Rams will need another strong defensive effort Wednesday night.

“I imagine we'll be ready,” Allen said. “I know how I feel, and I think I know how the kids feel. They know they have to get up for it and play.”