Rockford Rams 62, Detroit Murray Wright 61

Rams rally into title game
By Jane Bos / The Grand Rapids Press

EAST LANSING -- Rockford coach Steve Majerle watched his Rams rally more than once from double-digit deficits this season.

But this time, with his team trailing Detroit Murray-Wright for all but a brief 30-second span early and by as many as 18 points, he had his doubts.

"Oh, yeah, about five times I thought there was just no way," Majerle said. "I even started thinking about what I would say in the locker room afterwards, you know, 'You played hard, made a great comeback, it just wasn't our night.'"

Majerle can save that speech. Rockford rallied to post a dramatic 62-61 Class A state semifinal victory over Murray-Wright at Michigan State's Breslin Center Friday before a crowd comprised mostly of orange-clad, raucous, rowdy Rockford fans.

Third-ranked Rockford (27-0) advances to today's 4 p.m. state championship game against ninth-rated Flint Carman-Ainsworth (25-2), a 63-54 winner over West Bloomfield in Friday's other semifinal.

The Rams make their first finals appearance in school history, thanks to a remarkable rally that included a critical 13-0 scoring run near the end of the game. The Rams also raised their defensive pressure, forcing the Pilots into 10 second-half turnovers.

It was a long way back. But none of the Rams -- not the ones in the stands and not the ones on the floor -- gave up.

"I think it helped that our whole group, the core guys who played last year, lost to Forest Hills Central in the district finals after going unbeaten," said junior all-state point guard Michael Redell. "We really didn't go after it at the end. We all kind of look back on the missed opportunities we had, and I just think we all felt we didn't want to feel like that again."

They won't. After a dismal first half, which included shooting 18.2 percent (4 for 22) from the floor, the Rams trailed 31-16. With 2:32 left in the third quarter, they were down by 16 points (41-25).

"At that point, we said, 'It's do or die,'" Redell said. "We either go home or go on. I think the mentality changed for us as a group. We knew what we had to do. Otherwise, we would go home."

Let the rally begin.

Senior guard Drew Powell, who led the Rams with 24 points, including 19 in the second half, kicked off the comeback. He scored seven of his points in the final 1:42 of the third quarter to help narrow the score to 47-37 with eight minutes to go.

Slowly, the Rams chipped away at the Pilots lead. And with about two minutes left, another Powell basket pulled them to within 58-54. Then, with 1:45 left, Rockford missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw situation, and that's when Majerle started thinking about his end-of-the-season speech.

"I thought, this is just not our night," he said. "Good try, but not this time. Then 30 seconds later, that all changed."

Joel Visser started things changing with a critical blocked shot, which led to another Powell basket. Then Visser stole the Pilots inbound pass, which led to Powell's game-tying free throws (58-58) with 36.3 seconds remaining.

The free throws completed Powell's scoring spree at 11 consecutive points for the Rams.

Then the Rams full-court pressure defense helped cause a Murray-Wright turnover, which led to Rock-

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ford's first lead of the game, 60-58, since a 3-2 edge less than one minute in. Redell made a pair of free throws to give the Rams that lead with 9.1 seconds to go.

Senior Kevin Wurn then intercepted the Pilots inbound pass. He was fouled and, with 6.5 seconds left, Wurn sank both free throws to put Rockford on top 62-58.

The Rams let Murray-Wright take the ball down court and let Juandrell Lewis shoot an uncontested 3-pointer at the buzzer. He made it for the final margin.

Powell got help scoring from R.C. Douglas with 11 points, Alex Briggs with 10, Redell with nine and Wurn with eight.

A Hillsdale-bound senior, Powell also led the Rams with eight rebounds and four assists.

"I think at the end, the noise might have rattled my kids a little bit," said Murray-Wright coach Earl Moore Sr., whose team missed three field-goal attempts and turned the ball over three times in the final 2:30.

"The crowd was kind of mind-boggling. I think my guys were kind of shaken by that. The crowd, noise, pressure, it was enough to bust a pipe for anyone."

Michael Daniels led Murray-Wright (19-3) with 22 points. Antonio Berry, one of two Pilots to foul out in the final 36.3 seconds, chipped in 11 points.

"I told the guys there are no 10-point baskets, to do it one point at a time," Majerle said. "We were doing it, but I knew that if they kept scoring, there was no way we come back."

And he started preparing that end-of-the-season locker room talk, just in case. Guess what he had to say afterwards?

Just this: "I'm kind of speechless."