The Grand Rapids Community College men’s basketball hosted the Olivet College JV in their first game of the year and won in a back-and-forth battle that saw a last second victory for the Raiders.
“We have four or five guys who have not played in over a calendar year, either redshirted last year or graduated in 2022 so I knew there would be some pregame jitters when the game started,” head coach Joe Fox said. “I was very impressed with the team and they did a nice job, especially facing one of the best players we’ll see all year.”
The Raiders had a sloppy start to the game as they turned the ball over three times in the first minute. They continued to have a slow start in the first five minutes as they continued to turn the ball over and missed a few 3-pointers.
Sophomore guards Tristan McRoberts and Joe Francis gave life to the Raiders as McRoberts made some hustle plays along with a few layups while Francis had back-to-back dunks which led to a Comet timeout.
GRCC’s defense started to step up for a portion of the half as they forced turnovers and pushed the ball in transition. Tristan McRoberts continued his impressive half with a handful of assists along with another layup in traffic.
A few freshmen made an impact as soon as they came in including forwards J.D. DeGroot and Dominic McRoberts. They rebounded well on both sides while getting a few put-back layups.
Olivet went on a run of their own as guard Aaron Hunter had 20 first-half points including a few 3-pointers. The Raiders’ defense went stagnant allowing multiple easy buckets while the offense went cold for the final minutes of the half.
Heading into halftime, the Raiders trailed 45-42.
“I think we played a lot of guys early and I think the flow was messed up a little bit,” Fox said. “We’ll continue to go to our bench this year because we have a great bench with good freshmen.”
Starting the second half, the Raiders struggled to bring in rebounds which gave the Comets multiple second chance points. Tristan McRoberts continued his dominant start as he had multiple layups to start the half.
However, the Raiders’ deficit gradually increased as they could not get a stop and also received a technical foul as a player talked back to an official on the bench.
Nothing seemed to go the Raiders way, as a few 3-pointers from the Comets pushed the lead to 11. The Raiders didn’t go away as a Tristan McRoberts pass to his brother Dominic McRoberts led to a 3-pointer and continued an 8-0 run for the Raiders.
Freshmen guards Jovante Jones and Darrell Belcher became key two-way players for the Raiders as they helped the defense while giving the Raiders some help on offense. Francis started to take over towards the end of the game as he displayed his ability to get to the free throw line.
The rebounding for the Raiders continued to get better as the game neared the end but missed free throws kept the Comets in the game. Francis showed his clutch gene as he had a go-ahead bucket with 40 seconds and then the game-winning layup with .5 seconds remaining. GRCC narrowly defeated the Comets 92-90.
“The work we put in every day has given us a lot of chemistry and we knew we’d get the job done,” Francis said. “We practiced game situations when it’s close like tonight so we got trust in one another to finish games and score the ball regardless of who it is.”
Francis led the Raiders in scoring with 30 points, two steals, and shot 48% from the field. Tristan McRoberts also had a nice debut as he had a double-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists.
Dominic McRoberts had a near double-double with seven points and seven rebounds while Jones gave great minutes off the bench with 10 points, three steals, and three rebounds.
For the Comets, Hunter finished the game with 32 points while shooting 76% from the field.
The Raiders had 16 fast-break points compared to the Comets two, while also having 60 points in the paint compared to the Comets 38. Free throws plagued the Raiders all night as they shot 12/26 (46%) but still managed to come away with the victory.
“Perseverance allowed us to win since we kept our heads down and continued to get stops on defense,” Willman said. “We turned our defense into offense. Our grit also impressed me because we could’ve given up at half but we came out with a chip on our shoulder and did what we had to do to win.”
After the victory, the Raiders move to 1-0 on the season and travel to Des Plaines, Illinois to face Oakton College on Friday, Nov. 3. at 7 p.m.
When asked what the team could improve on heading into the next game, Fox said. “The main thing the team can work on is defense and free throws.”
