By Jackson Heiden
The Grand Rapids Community College men’s basketball team claimed revenge as they took down Kellogg Community College, 96-90, to even the season series.
“I was pleased with the effort,” said GRCC’s head coach Joe Fox. “(We) executed stuff when we needed to. They pushed the ball and got some quick offense, but when they did, we were able to push the ball and get it right back. I was glad that the boys were able to pull it out. They deserved to win and they went out and got it.”
The Raiders came out of their nearly week-long break sluggish as they would find themselves down 25-16 with nine minutes left in the first half. They eventually snapped out of their scoring slump and got right back into the game, decreasing the Bruins lead to one, 30-29.
The teams exchanged buckets for the next few minutes until the game was tied 36-36 with three minutes to go. The Raiders finished out the half strong scoring 10 and walked into the locker room with a 48-43 lead.
“They jumped us early in the first half of the first half,” Fox said. “We needed to take a step back and really adjust and I thought we subbed a few guys in, picked up the defensive pressure a little bit, and were able to keep that away and go on a little run of our own.”
The Raiders came out of the half taking the game by the reins as they maintained a nice six-point lead throughout the majority of the second half, and ended the first 10 minutes with their biggest lead growing to 71-60.
The Bruins’ offense finally woke up from their sluggish second-half start and began to crawl their way back into the game. However, the Raiders’ pesky offense wouldn’t allow them to bring the game any closer than five points as the Raiders held off the Bruins to capture the bounceback win.
“They came out in zone look (to start the second half),” Fox said. “I said we got to be ready for anything, and the boys did a great job adjusting. We did a great job attacking the paint and getting to the basket and I thought that was really the difference in the game today.”
The Raiders were thankful for the return of redshirt-freshman guard Danyel Bibbs as he came off the bench to score 26 along with nine assists and five rebounds. Redshirt-sophomore guard Andrew Moore followed up Bibbs’ impressive return with 19 points. Redshirt-freshman guard Brockton Kohler had himself a double-double as he dropped 18 along with 11 rebounds and three assists. Freshman guard Rico Wade continues his impressive rise as he scored 10. The Bruins found a way to keep sophomore guard Ryel Daye quiet for the first time in a few weeks as he scored only seven grabbing six rebounds along with four assists.
The Raiders’ will continue their homestand and look to take the season series as they face Glen Oaks Community College this Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Gordon Hunsberger Arena.
“They’re just coming off beating the number one team in the conference,” Fox said. “We’re to the point where you just kind of have to throw out records and just talk matchups and individual games.”
