By Justin Stulpe
The Grand Rapids Community College men’s basketball team dueled with Lansing Community College in a clash where both teams aimed to regroup and get back into the win column. With both teams entering the contest after losing multiple games in a row, LCC took home the victory over GRCC, 93-88 in a close battle that included 15 lead changes.
The first half was characterized by smothering defensive showings by both teams that led to inefficient shooting performances for both GRCC and LCC. The clamps that each team put on each other to put up a less than stellar team shooting percentage, including the Raiders shooting 33% from the field and 31% from three, while the Stars did not fare much better by posting a 14-35 shooting clip from the field and 25% from beyond the arc.
Notably, the volume and efficiency of free-throw shooting for each respective side was indicative of how the course of the game would play out and turned out to be a major factor in the five-point loss for the Raiders. In the first 20 minutes of action, GRCC shot a respectable 8-12 from the free-throw line, but both the number of attempts and conversion rate paled in comparison to LCC, as the Stars shot 13-17 from the charity stripe. With the teams being deadlocked in a stalemate to try and generate half-court offense, the extra five made free-throws from LCC helped them hold a mere one-point lead heading into halftime.
Coming out of the break, the two teams remained neck-and-neck, with no team holding more than a seven point lead the entire second half. This back-and-forth clash epitomized a classic rock-fight type of game, with six instances having the score knotted up in the final 20 minutes alone. Both teams were eager to pull away by building and maintaining a sizable lead, but neither team would give way to allow that to happen.
GRCC rebounded from their rough first-half shooting performance, shooting over 51% from the field and 45% from 3-point land to keep pace with LCC throughout the frame. In conjunction with their improved offense, the Raider defense anchored down in the half-court, allowing the Stars to shoot just 15-39 overall, to go along with an ineffective 1-9 from deep, an 11% clip that should have allowed the Raiders to complete the comeback in waning moments of the contest.
However, in this type of basketball game, the team that executes the small things just a little better than their opponent usually comes out with a hard-fought win. That being said, the determining factor turned out to be the aforementioned team free-throw shooting performance, in which the impeccable 19-21 display of shooting prowess propelled LCC past the Raiders. Not only did GRCC put LCC at the line a lot, but the Raiders did also not execute their own free-throw attempts well in the second half, going a measly 9-14. Even with the much-improved shooting splits from half-to-half, the achilles heel that has plagued GRCC throughout the season ultimately prevented a much-needed win against a LCC team that was below .500 coming into the game.
Despite the loss, there was still plenty to build off of for GRCC, as the offense that came alive in the second half was driven by a well-balanced scoring attack from many different Raiders.
The tandem of freshman guard Tyran Thomas and sophomore guard Jack Agema paced the squad with 16 points each, with Thomas adding six rebounds and three assists, while Agema provided much-needed guard play off the bench in 26 minutes of action. Sophomore guard Mason Wilcox posted a season-high 14 points and four made 3-pointers off the bench to go along with two steals in his best performance of the season. Rounding out the double-digit scorers for the Raiders were sophomore guard Bashir Neely and freshman forward Ethan Bennett, with Neely posting 12 points and three dimes, while Bennett scored 11, came down with five rebounds, and tallied four blocks as the interior defensive anchor for GRCC.
Freshman guard Zander Woodruff poured in a game-high 31 points to lead the charge for LCC, while also snagging eight boards and a pair of blocks and steals. Woodruff was part of a duo that accounted for over half of the Stars’ points, with freshman forward Zane Kemp notching 19 points, nine rebounds and three assists. No other Stars player scored in double-figures, but the team received impactful minutes from freshman guard DeAire Lee, who scored four points, grabbed nine rebounds, totaled four assists and two steals.
During the toughest stretch of their schedule, GRCC is now 1-3 in their last four away games, and have fallen to 16-6 on the season with four consecutive losses. Including dropping four in a row after winning 13-straight games, the Raiders have now dropped four straight against LCC over the last three seasons but will get their chance at revenge at home on Feb. 25 to conclude their season.
Up next for GRCC is their second matchup with Kellogg Community College, where the Raiders outdueled the Bruins 92-83 in their first matchup earlier in the season at Ford Fieldhouse. GRCC will now go on the road in hopes to complete the season sweep on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in what is projected to be another highly entertaining matchup. The Raiders will try to get back to their winning ways and improve their conference record to 4-4 and regain some momentum to close out the stretch of five of six road games.
