Rockford Rams 66, East Kentwood 49

Rockford stops East Kentwood, still seeks best effort
By Jeff Chaney / The Grand Rapids Press

Rockford boys basketball coach Steve Majerle wants more than just victories from his Rams these days.

He wants a strong effort every night his team hits the court.

Majerle wasn't happy with his team's effort Friday against O-K Red Conference rival East Kentwood, even though the Rams beat the visiting Falcons 66-49.

In a game that was closer than the score indicated, Rockford needed a late push to put scrappy East Kentwood away and remain undefeated.

"They played really hard and smart, and with more enthusiasm than we did tonight," said Majerle, whose team has now won 37 straight regular-season games. "Our attention span was not there tonight. I'm not taking anything away from East Kentwood, but they are awfully young, and we walked through this game, and doing that could bite us in the butt later. Tonight we did just enough to win."

Rockford's roster is filled with seniors and juniors, while the Falcons have only three seniors on their roster, and play with three sophomores and one freshman.

East Kentwood's youth was not intimidated by the mighty Rams, cutting down a Rockford lead that was double digits most of the game to eight points with just more than four minutes to play.

But just like the first time these two teams met (a 58-52 win by Rockford Jan. 3.), the Rams used some late 3-pointers to pull out the win.

With 4:08 left, Rockford junior guard Michael Redell hit a 3-pointer, then after a steal, senior guard Drew Powell hit another 3-pointer to put the game away.

"That same thing happened at our place," East Kentwood coach Justin Jennings said. "Redell hit those 3-pointers that cost us the first game at our place."

Jennings also said that other points of the game cost his team at a chance for the upset.

The Falcons opened the game by committing more turnovers than points scored in the first quarter. East Kentwood had 11 turnovers, and scored just nine points in the first eight minutes of play. That allowed the Rams to build an 18-9 advantage going into the second quarter.

After that, East Kentwood played catch-up the rest of the night.

"We didn't start the game well," Jennings said. "But we did chip the lead down to eight points in the third in fourth quarter -- we just need to learn how to (finish) games."

The Falcons had chances to come back in the second half when the Rams committed nine turnovers.

"We're looking at the big picture here," Majerle said. "We want to play well every night, and we didn't play well tonight."

Powell and senior center Alex Briggs led Rockford in scoring with 18 points each. Sophomore forward Corey Crutcher paced East Kentwood with 15.