Rockford steals WMA’s Game of the Night at East Kentwood in OT.

We saw Rockford on Tuesday night and we mentioned their early season hype yet acknowledged that the OK Red is tougher than ever. East Kentwood hosted the Rams Friday night and has had the top spot in the Ok Red all season long. An early season win over Muskegon gave the Falcons that lead and short of a tough loss to Grand Rapids Christian at the Cornerstone Holiday Tournament the Falcons have had a dream season to date. The senior laden team at EK plays brutally tough defense and can knock down the outside shot, tonight however the free throw line was costly for the Falcons.

Ryan Majerle led his squad to victory with 29 points and 7 boards.

The first half was a very sloppy affair on both sides with Rockford committing 12 first half turnovers and East Kentwood turning those opportunities into a 12-2 points off turnover advantage. EK led 19-11 with the half winding down behind 3’s by Jeremiah Williams, Christian Craft and Tavon Robinson. The Rams found a way to fight back coming up with defensive stops to take a 6-0 run into half and we had a two point low scoring game at 19-17. Ryan Majerle had been held in check with only 5 points on four total shots. Williams led the way for EK with 9 points.

Rockford looked like a much more confident running team tonight with the return of junior point guard Justin Klein who played sloppy at times but was able to fight through tough on-the-ball defense by Williams all night long. Majerle started to find his way offensively in the 3^rd, a trio of hard to find baskets kept the Rams within striking distance. With 1.9 second left in the quarter however EK had a 2 point lead and were in-bounding under its own basket. A nifty find underneath gave the Falcons an easy lay-in and a 4 point lead entering the 4^th.

Five quick points including Robinson’s second 3 of the night had the Falcons out to a 9 point lead, their largest of the night. Ryan Majerle continued his shooting roll however and helped will his squad back into the game. Two 4^th quarter triples and an and-one had Rockford trailing by four with 34 seconds to play, sophomore guard Chad Carlson who played so well on Tuesday, hit a huge 3 from the corner and we had a one point game. A Rockford foul sent Williams to the line who was 1-4 from the stripe yet was able to knock down the pair with 25 ticks on the clock.

After a huge offensive rebound and with time running out on the Rams comeback attempt Majerle was able to get off a 3 from the right wing and connect with nothing but nylon while also gaining a whistle on the attempt with 1.2 left. We had a tie game with one of the best free throw shooters in the area going to the line with a chance to steal a huge conference win on the road. He missed. We went to overtime and the giant crowd was going crazy.

OT was even harder to gain ground than regulation was with tenacious defense on both ends of the floor. We were tied at 48 with 30 seconds to play following a charge called on Craft; he compounded the mistake by being called for a push on the ensuing in-bound against sophomore Kyle Short who went to the line for 2 shots. The senior split the pair and Rockford came out of an EK timeout preaching “One Stop” as the Falcons drew up one final possession. Jeremiah Williams got a clean mid-range jumper off but couldn’t connect. A scramble for the rebound allowed for the clock to run out and Rockford escaped with a massive road win in league play and remains alive in the Red.

All photos provided via Matt Philpott Photography. To see more action from tonight’s game check out Matt’s Gallery.