By Gabe Amy
Grand Rapids Community College men’s basketball team remains tied for first place in the conference following a 94-81 victory against Kellogg Community College.
GRCC would get a late start to their offense trailing 0-7 in the first minutes of the game, Kellogg Community College leading the Raiders by as much as 11 points in the first. The Raiders would battle back to only be down by one point going into the half.
The Raiders would come out of the half carrying the momentum they found in the second half of the first. The score would be tied four times in the first five minutes of the second half of Wednesday’s game before Ty Thomas would knock down two free throws giving GRCC the lead for the remainder of the game.
Sophomore Forward Matt Richards had a double-double, leading all players with 15 rebounds and scoring 17 points, tying his career-best scoring. Head Coach Joe Fox applauded Richards performance.
“He’s just super talented, and the one thing he doesn’t get to do in our offense much is create for other people, but he does a really good job of moving the ball,” Fox said. “We haven’t had to have him do it much, but he’s been great on both ends of the floor.”
Fox also gave praise to Freshman Wing Jared Demoff, who had a career-high five blocks to accompany 11 points and 8 rebounds, along with talking about how effort on the court doesn’t always translate to the stat sheet.
“Jared Demoff, if you just go by scoring, has had a tough stretch lately, but he’s been playing really well, and today it kind of all clicked together,” Fox said. “You got to see it on the defensive end, he was finishing on the offensive end. So I was just super impressed with him today.”
Sophomore Wing Nate Kiel scored 14 points, 10 from the free-throw line, also tallying five rebounds and four assists. After the game Nate spoke on how the team improved after Monday’s loss.
“I think we just took care of the ball a lot better, and our defense was way better today,” Kiel said. Kiel looks ahead in how he plans to prepare for Friday’s face-off.
The Raiders are currently neck and neck with Lake Michigan College, both teams with a record of 6-2 in conference play. Third-place division rival Lansing Community College, currently one game back with a conference record of 5-2 is expected to join both teams at the top after they host Glen Oaks Community College Thursday night, with Feb. 5, creating a three-way tie in the division.
Regardless of the outcome of Lansing’s game, GRCC will be hosting an extremely important matchup Friday, Feb.6 as they host Lake Michigan College.
A battle that will decide who will sit atop the division. Friday’s game will be the second time LMC and the Raiders clash this week after being defeated on the road Monday, Feb. 2 101-86. The summary of that game here.
The Raiders have another program doubleheader Friday against Lake Michigan College, the women’s game set to tip-off at 5:30 p.m. and the men to follow at 7:30 p.m. Those who bring non-perishable goods will get $1 off their admission ticket per item and limit five items for the $5 ticket.
