By Max De Leeuw – Collegiate Staff
The Grand Rapids Community College men’s basketball team won its season opener against the visiting Mid Michigan Community College Lakers 84-72 on Wednesday.
“We started off really well,” Raider Head Coach TJ Carnegie said. “We got out to a big lead. We extended it a little bit to start the second half and then they had to try to play from behind and probably do some things that they’re not used to doing.”
Sophomores DeMarkus Stuckey and Michael Miller contributed to that “big lead” by sinking eight 3-pointers.
Stuckey led the team in points with 30, including four 3-pointers. Miller added 12 points of his own on the night, all of which came from 3-pointers.
“We know this Stuckey kid can really play and I thought he kind of controlled the game for the first half and that set the tone for the rest of the game,” MMCC coach Kaleb House said.
Sophomore Calvin Ward, despite injuring his ankle in the first half, later returned to the court to finish the game.
“He did a nice job of finding some people when he would flash to the high post,” Carnegie said of Ward. “He turned and found some guys on the block for some easy layups which is nice when one of your forwards is as good a passer as he is.”
The Raiders went into halftime leading 44-33, adding one more point to their lead by the end of the game. GRCC shot 47 percent from the field compared to MMCC’s 35 percent.
Despite the win, Carnegie feels that there is always room for improvement.
“We gotta finish our shots, we gotta finish some plays and we have to battle through fatigue better than we did tonight,” Carnegie said.
GRCC plays Delta College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in University Center, Michigan.
John Rothwell contributed to this story.
