Rockford's 'D' does it
By Jeff Chaney / The Grand Rapids Press

Rockford boys basketball coach Steve Majerle may have been the only person in Creston's gymnasium Friday night not surprised with the result of his team's game against Detroit Renaissance. Information from Our Sponsors

Playing against a team loaded with Division-I talent, the Rams stood tallest with a 64-46 win over the Phoenix in the feature game that followed the Domino's Pizza Holiday Basketball Tournament.

"We have some decent athletes on this team, too, and that helps," said Majerle, whose team improved to 4-0. "My kids have a lot of interest in basketball, and tonight they played smart and weren't timid at all."

In fact, it was the Rams who looked intimidating.

The Detroit Renaissance athleticism was prevalent at the start of the game, as the Phoenix built a 9-2 lead just three minutes in.

But the Rams, behind point guard Michael Redell, weathered that run by the Phoenix and fought back the rest of the quarter to cut the Renaissance lead to just 14-10 after eight minutes of play. Redell hit a couple of big 3-pointers that allowed the Rams to get back into the game.

Then it was Rockford's time to show off some of its hustle and defense in the second quarter.

The Rams were hitting the floor and boards, forcing Renaissance into five turnovers in the second quarter, and causing the Phoenix to look frustrated most of the second.

In the end, Rockford outscored the Phoenix 14-1 in the quarter to take a 24-15 lead into the break.

"I've never seen anything like that before," said Detroit Renaissance coach Mark White, whose team fell to 4-1. "You have to give their defense a lot of credit. We didn't play that well, but you have to give them credit, they played great defense."

That trend continued in the third quarter when Rockford extended its lead to 46-29 after the third quarter.

The Rams' defense continued to get strong, and senior forward R.C. Douglas began to get hot on offense, scoring six of his game-high 17 points in the third.

The quarter also feature a spectacular dunk by senior reserve center Andy Ruddick, who slammed the ball on an inbound pass from senior guard Kevin Wurn. It was Ruddick's second dunk of the game.

"A couple of dunks are always nice to get the offense going," Majerle said. "But we hang our hats on defense, that's where we won this game. We got some nice stops on defense the second and third quarters, and we also scored a couple of easy baskets off our defense, which always helps."

The Rams did have to hold off a late rally by the Phoenix, and they did that by hitting 10-of-12 free throws down the stretch for the victory.

In addition to Douglas' 17, Wurn scored 13 and Drew Powell and Redell had 12. Junior Malik Hairston paced Renaissance with 12 points.

The Rams held highly-touted junior guard Joe Crawford to three points, all on free throws.  

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