Rockford Rams 57, Grand Haven Buccaneers 41

2012 Regional Champions

Torrid 3-point shooting lifts Rockford to Class A regional crown
Dean Holzwarth | grsports@mlive.com, March 14, 2012 9:20 p.m.

GRANDVILLE – So much for the assumption that the Rockford boys basketball team wouldn't have enough gas left in the tank to win back-to-back games on consecutive nights in the state tournament.

The Rams had plenty of it, especially from long range, and it helped propel them to a Class A regional crown.

Rockford connected on 11 3-pointers in a convincing 57-41 win over OK Red Conference rival Grand Haven in Wednesday night's regional final at Grandville High School.

“We played back-to-back games during the regular season, and we were conditioned well,” said Rams senior guard Alex Durkin, who scored a game-high 14 points.

“We practiced for this situation, and we were prepared. I think the adrenaline kicked in and helped out too.”

Rockford (20-5) advances to Tuesday's Class A quarterfinal against Okemos, which edged Ottawa Hills 55-54.

Wednesday's win the second straight for Rockford against conference foes. It reached the finals with a victory Tuesday night in the semifinals against Hudsonville.

In the third meeting against Grand Haven, the Rams came out firing on all cylinders and turned an early 7-5 deficit into a 19-7 lead at the end of the first quarter by draining four consecutive 3-pointers.

Rockford's hot shooting continued in the second quarter as it built a comfortable 26-10 advantage.

The Rams made 8 of 12 3-pointers in the first half, and the final one by junior Chase Fairchild at the buzzer put them up 34-17 at the half.

“The coaches have all the confidence in the world in us, and they tell us to shoot it,” Durkin said. “We were knocking them down tonight, and we all started feeding off each others' energy.”

Five Rams had at least one 3-pointer. Durkin, Fairchild and junior Chad Carlson each made three, while junior Kyle Short and senior Mitch Cayfield added one apiece.

“Coach (Steve) Majerle always said shooting covers up a lot of sins,” said Rockford coach Nick Allen, whose team ironically made only 4 of 17 free throws. “We shot the ball well and that made things a little bit easier.”

Grand Haven coach Steve Hewitt was displeased by his team's inability to stop the 3-point barrage by the Rams.

“We didn't guard them as well as we hoped, and for whatever reason, we weren't getting out on them,” Hewitt said. “We guarded them well the first two times we played them, and that was a huge talking point, and so not to do it tonight was the difference in the game and that was very disappointing.”

The Buccaneers (14-11) lost three of its last four games in the regular season before making an inspired run in the tournament.

“I felt like all year people doubted our ability,” Hewitt said. “But we played very well to win districts and we beat a a really good Petoskey team. I was thrilled with the how we finished the year and I thought it was outstanding.”

Carlson and Fairchild each had nine points for Rockford, which had nine players score at least two points.

Senior Alex Eidson scored a game-high 22 points for Grand Haven.