The Grand Rapids Community College Women’s Basketball team took to the Gordon Hunsberger Arena floor to face off against the Oakland Community College Raiders Thursday night and went into the holiday break with a win, 67-51. The win in the last game of 2017 moves their season record to 7-3.
GRCC came out of the gates displaying crisp passing and sound play on the offensive end of the floor and opened up a five-point lead early in the first quarter, a lead which they would never relinquish.
After building the lead, GRCC began playing sloppy, giving the ball away on consecutive possessions and fumbling passes and handles near the basket.
“It wasn’t much of a disconnect,” GRCC Head Coach Dave Glazier said in a post-game interview. “Credit to Oakland, we knew they were going to play Man (man-to-man defense), kind of a 3-2, almost really a 2-1-2, or a 2-3. It’s just a matter of a couple of points where we didn’t recognize it as well as we should have.”
Both teams showed a lot of heart and passion throughout the game.
“I think we were tired tonight,” Glazier said. “End of exams, some bodies are sick. The first half effort wasn’t where we wanted it to be, but second half-wise, it was much better. It was a good conversation at halftime and it led to a lot of good things. A lot of kids got some minutes, and they proved some stuff. We talk about it all the time, can you take it from practice to the game, and earn the trust we’re looking for, and we had a number of kids do that tonight.”
OCC had to play a Gus Macker style game as they only had six players dressed.
“We kind of prepped them for that,” Glazier said. “I went and watched them play a couple of weeks ago and they only had seven dressed. We talked about it a lot at the beginning, keep the tempo up, get those easy fast-break points and not let them get back and settle. That didn’t work as well as we had hoped, that’s where our second half adjustments, being more efficient. I think you saw they got tired, and when you keep getting easy buckets, it’s going to wear on them.”
Despite having a small roster and a short bench, Glazier understood the higher difficulty of the situation each team found themselves in.
“It’s difficult because you don’t want to look past,” Glazier said. “Just because they’ve lost numbers, doesn’t mean you can look past them.”
The Raiders return to action after the New Year on Thurs., Jan. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in the Ford Fieldhouse.
