By Justin Stulpe
The Grand Rapids Community College men’s basketball team got back into the win column after a tough road stretch with a win over Southwestern Michigan College on Feb. 12, 85-73. The Raiders built a commanding lead over the course of the first half that they would never surrender in order to pick up a home win that stopped a 1-5 skid in their last six games.
Both the Raiders and Roadrunners came to play in the opening minutes of the contest, with both teams flexing their ability to score and play intense defense from tip-off. Despite early pushback from SMC, GRCC took their first lead with 16:45 in the first half and did not look back from that point on, building upon that lead on the way to outscoring SMC 48-31 throughout the first 20 minutes of action.
A deciding factor for the first half was the shooting from GRCC, who opened the game knocking down shots from all spots on the floor, posting a 58.3% percent shooting clip in the first half. A big contributor to this first-half shooting clinic was freshman guard Marshaun Flakes, who scored 19 in the first frame, with impressive moves allowing him to display his 3-level scoring prowess.
The torrid shooting pace from the Raiders trounced the initial hot-start from the Roadrunners, who ended up shooting a middling 40.6% from the field and a dismal 1-10 from 3-point land. GRCC’s two-way dominance that supplied the 17-point lead going into the break was the determining scoring run that SMC was not able to respond to for the rest of the game, as GRCC would stave off every comeback attempt that the Roadrunners would throw at them the rest of game.
Both teams struggled to get going offensively throughout the entirety of the second half, with both teams shooting considerably worse from the field than they did in the first half. SMC started to cut into the Raider lead with a 18-9 scoring run over the first nine minutes of the half, but every time the Roadrunners would look to be finally getting some real momentum to challenge for the lead, GRCC would drain dagger jump shots to halt any momentum that SMC built up. Notably, sophomore guard Jack Agema sank three dagger 3-pointers that iced the game, dashing any chance of a comeback for SMC.
Despite the Raiders getting outscored in the second-half 42-37, many of those points for SMC were free-throws in garbage time when the outcome of the game was already decided. Although the numbers suggest that GRCC was outplayed in the final 20 minutes of game time, when the game was still in reach for the Roadrunners, the Raiders anchored down and held firm to collect a much-needed win to start off the final home stretch of the season.
Head coach Joe Fox said that getting back to their winning ways against a conference opponent, especially at home, is massive.
“Everyone is good, so it’s fun to get back on the winning side…it’s good to get a win at home and defend home court,” Fox said.
Flakes was yet again the leading scorer for the Raiders, but also impacted the game in all aspects throughout the contest to help propel the team to victory. In addition to his game-high 27 points, he posted both six rebounds and assists, along with a pair of blocks and steals in a dynamic two-way showing. Freshman guard Tyran Thomas also chipped in highly impactful minutes for GRCC, scoring 20 points, grabbing seven rebounds and swiping three steals to lead either team. Agema continues his red-hot shooting pace with 13 points on 60% from deep, while also dishing out five assists and two steals.
The Raiders relied on their starters to do a lot of the heavy lifting in this matchup, with the starting five of Flakes, Thomas, Agema, freshman guard Benjamin Koubek and freshman forward Ethan Bennett accounting for 85 percent of the team’s scoring output, while also tallying 70 percent of the minutes played.
SMC was led by a duo of players with double-doubles, with the leading scorer being sophomore forward Prince Adams, who posted 27 points, 13 rebounds, eight of which being offensive and four blocks. Sophomore forward Aries Hull scored 18 while also pulling down 17 rebounds, being a dominating paint presence for the Roadrunners despite the loss. Rounding out the double-digit scorers for SMC was freshman forward Davion Goins, who chipped in 11 points, five rebounds and three assists.
With the win against SMC, the Raiders moved to 18-7 on the season and 9-2 at home. Even with their ability to pick up big wins on home court, their next game against Marian University-Ancilla is yet another test that GRCC will have to show up and show out for in order to split the season series against the Chargers.
Fox notes how important of a game Ancilla is and how despite dropping the first game against them, they know what they need to do to give them the best chance to win.
“We played really well down there (at Ancilla), they just had a little bit more in the tank than we did…but we played a really good game. They have some really good players so we have to try to take their number one guy and go from there,” Fox said.
GRCC and Marian University-Ancilla will square off at Ford Fieldhouse on Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. in hopes of getting back to a winning record in conference play. The first matchup between these two teams resulted in an 89-84 Ancilla victory and this upcoming matchup is bound to repeat the playoff atmosphere of the first contest with a lot on the line for both teams.
