Rams lose opener in controversial fashion 60-59
December 13, 2012 By Squire News
By Randy Gregory
It was far from a classic contest as Rockford ventured
to Muskegon Heights on Friday, December 7th for the opening game
of the 2012-13 boys basketball season. The Rams were burned repeatedly
in the first half with fast break points from the speedy Tigers.
But the Rams refused to fold and battled back time and again
and seemed to have forced overtime at 59-59 when an awkward
twisting fall away jumper by the Tigers came up well off the
mark at the buzzer from about thirty feet away.
But the tweet
of a solitary whistle seemed to catch everyone in attendance
by surprise. The perimeter official came rushing in to signal
a foul on the shot and the Tigers would have a chance to win
it with no time on the clock. Junior Jeffrey Jordan calmly stepped
to the stripe and the ball settled in the net after bouncing
around the rim a few times. Game over and the Tigers celebrated
accordingly.
Rockford coach Nick Allen refused to put any of
the onus on the officials after the game.
“They (Muskegon Heights) are a good team,” said Allen. “They
were better than we were tonight. As for the officials, they
call what they are going to call and see what they are going
to see. There were a hundred other plays tonight that had just
as big an impact on the game tonight as that last one.”
The
game began with both teams feeling each other out and trading
the lead back and forth. Rockford held a 13-11 lead before the
Tigers closed things out with a 7-2 run that gave them an 18-15
lead after one quarter. The second quarter was more of the same
and it was a 30-30 game with 2:30 left in the first half. But
the Tigers closed out the second quarter with a flurry. The Tigers
went up 41-34 with consecutive steals and layups in the final
thirty seconds before a Chad Carlson hoop just before the horn
made it 41-36 Tigers at the half.
Allen was less than pleased
with the effort of the Rams defensively in the first half.
“We just have to get it in our hearts that we want to defend,” said
Allen. “Defense is all about effort and hard work and it
just wasn’t there in the first half. We were better in
the second half, but the most disappointing thing about the game
tonight was the effort defensively.”
The second half began
the same way the first half ended with the Tigers exerting their
will and getting multiple attempts in their opening few possessions.
That prompted Allen into an expression of frustration that is
about as strong a signal as a coach can send to his team. He
substituted all five of his players out en masse. That helped
stem the tide temporarily but the Tigers still pushed the lead
to 51-42 before the Rams began their gradual comeback.
Casey Watters
scored seven of his eleven points in the third stanza to keep
the Rams within shouting distance, but Carlson was the catalyst
in the fourth quarter. Rockford tied things up at 51-51, 54-54
on a Carlson triple and 59-59 on another Carlson three-pointer
with 10.7 seconds to play. But the Tigers and the refs would
have the final say and the Rams fell despite a valiant effort.
“We
were able to get things back more towards the tempo we wanted
in the fourth quarter,” said Allen. “Not
as many shots went up in the final quarter and we did a better
job of rebounding their misses. But it is still difficult to
find anything positive about our play. We will just get back
at it and work hard next week.”
Carlson paced the Rams with 26 points (four three-pointers) paced
by some deadly marksmanship from outside. Zach Finkbeiner, Chase
Fairchild and Robert Holmes all tallied six points as well to
go along with Watters efforts.
