Rockford Rams 55, Muskegon 43

Rockford's show is 'Ab Fab'
By Jane Bos / The Grand Rapids Press

(click here to read a tribute story about Muskegon coach Art Duren, a class act)

In the first half of its regional final Friday night, Rockford played its best basketball in more than a month.

The Rams dominated the boards on both ends, hustled for every loose ball, played a tight and deny defense and got off double-digit second and third shots.

Except for one small thing -- that is, that the Rams' shots weren't falling in and they trailed Muskegon by a point -- it was some pretty fine basketball.

Just a little thing, right?

Well, they took care of that one not-so-perfect aspect of their game when senior Kevin Wurn connected on a 3-point shot to begin the third quarter.

Call it the shot that finally broke in the net.

Wurn's lone basket regained the lead for Rockford -- for good. The Rams steadily pulled ahead and earned a stunning 55-43 Class A regional victory over Muskegon before an ear-ringing, standing-room-only packed house of 3,150 folks at Grand Haven.

Third-ranked Rockford (24-0) advances to Tuesday's quarterfinal at Lansing Everett High School to take on Jackson (15-10), a 61-57 winner over Okemos on Thursday.

"I thought we played absolutely fabulous in the first half, other than not making the shots," said Rockford coach Steve Majerle, whose team made 7 of 18 field-goal attempts in the first half -- and missed all eight of its 3-point tries -- to trail 17-16.

"We just needed to break the ice. Once we did, shooting is contagious."

The Rams outscored Muskegon 13-6 in the third quarter, making 5 of 14 field goals, to go on top 29-23.

After not shooting so well in the first half either, Muskegon (20-5) did not get on track in the third quarter like the Rams did. The Big Reds made 7 of 28 shots in the first half and just 2 of 13 in the third quarter.

"I knew it would be a great defensive battle," said Muskegon coach Art Duren. "The 17-16 at halftime was no surprise. Then in the second half, we didn't move, we didn't set the screens, we did too much one-on-one stuff. We settled for too many long shots. It cost us the ballgame."

The Big Reds raised their full-court defensive pressure in the fourth quarter, but Rockford was able to score off it, thanks to the strong play of guards Michael Redell and Drew Powell.

The penetrating Powell wound up with 14 points, all but two of them in the second half. If he couldn't get a shot off, he kicked it out to Redell, who scored 11 points. Redell made five of six free throws down the stretch.

As a team, the Rams went 11-for-14 from the free-throw line in the final 1:43 of the game to seal the win.

"When they got up six, seven, eight points, it was hard to pressure them," Duren said. "Redell and Powell are so good, so strong. They don't make bad decisions with the ball."

Rockford's 6-foot-7 senior center, Alex Briggs, also made some great decisions in the game. His duties included guarding 6-9 Callistus Eziukwu, and he did it well.

Big men in the middle had been a problem for the Rams until Friday. Then Eziukwu scored only 10 points, including just two in the second half. George Sharp led Muskegon with 15 points.

"Their big kid had 10 blocked shots against us when we played them last time, and Alex did a much better job on him this time," said Majerle, whose team rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Muskegon 55-53 last month.

"I thought all the kids did a better job of attacking in the middle and dishing it out this time."

Briggs totaled 12 points, while teammate R.C. Douglas scored seven points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds. Rockford earned a decisive 39-26 rebounding edge.

"We're a confident team, we knew how good we can be when we play hard for the whole 32 minutes," Redell, a junior point guard, said. "We just kept playing hard."

 

WAY TO GO RAMS!!