Rockford Rams 56, West Ottawa 35

Rockford rolling along
By Jane Bos / The Grand Rapids Press

Rockford coach Steve Majerle talked about his streaky team after defeating West Ottawa 56-35 Friday night.

Of course, he referred to his team's offensive output.

But what about the other streaks? With Friday's O-K Red Conference victory at Rockford, the Rams raised their winning streaks to 25 consecutive regular-season games, 17 straight home games and 18 straight in the O-K Red.

Talk about streaky.

"We try not to talk about last year," said Majerle, whose team went 20-0 last season and currently is 3-0 overall. "This is this year. What is the same is that we stress defense."

Well, it was that defense which kept West Ottawa off balance and off the scoreboard for much of the first half.

With Rockford leading 7-3 with 3:28 left in the first quarter, the Panthers went 24 seconds shy of a full quarter before scoring again.

During that time, the Rams went on a 13-0 scoring streak.

West Ottawa scored the next six points to pull to within 20-10, but that was all the closer the Panthers got.

Rockford senior R.C. Douglas grabbed an offensive rebound and scored at the buzzer, giving his team a 25-12 lead at halftime.

Douglas did the same at the end of the third quarter, putting back a shot as the horn sounded to give the Rams a 41-21 lead entering the fourth quarter.

A 6-foot-6 forward, Douglas led the Rams with 17 rebounds and 13 points. Drew Powell came off the bench to add 10 points, including eight in a critical second-quarter effort.

Rockford's stingy, deny defense also helped West Ottawa total 22 turnovers and shoot a dismal 13 of 44 from the floor.

"This is a credit to Rockford," said West Ottawa coach Von Washington. "I thought they forced their will on us. They are a strong and physical team, a determined team.

"They were forcing us out of what we normally do, and we have not been shooting well from out there all season," Washington said.

One person the Rams keyed on was shooting star C.J. VanWieren. The senior forward entered the game averaging about 25 points per game.

He was held to just eight points Friday, but he did manage to pull down a team-high seven rebounds.

Zach Osburn, a junior forward, led the Panthers with nine points and six rebounds.

"I thought we did a good job on VanWieren," Majerle said. "We made him work for everything. Right now he's the main part of their offense, and I thought Joel Visser defended him well."

As far as their offense, well, Majerle says his Rams are "streaky."

"We are not going to be a steady offensive team because we rely on the jump shot too much," he said. "Offensive rebounding, we do that well, but as far as scoring, it can get pretty ugly for us."

Still, the streak goes on.

Next up: the Rams will play Detroit Renaissance at Creston High School (Dec. 27)