Cougars find a way to escape the Jungle at FHC.

February 28, 2011 Comments { 0 }

by Justin Arbogast

In a nice late season Monday night match-up of non conference opponents, Grand Rapids Catholic Central entered “The Jungle” that is Forest Hills Central and the Rangers were on the prowl. GRCC entered coming off of an OK Gold Championship while FHC finished third in the OK Black behind Grand Rapids Union and Holland. We’ve seen FHC take Christian to the end as well as fare very well against other great teams of the area so we know they have the ability to beat quality teams. Catholic however just seems to find a way to gut out games, much of that credit goes to a veteran team but Coach Dan Farrell deserves a lot of credit for how this team has played all year.

The Rangers jumped out to an early lead and appeared to have no intention on looking back. The Ranger trio of Steve Wittenbach, Jake Boles and Jonah Lakatos each found 6 1^st quarter points as FHC jumped out to a 20-13 lead after one. Catholic struggled to find outside shots and the penetration game was stalled by the big men of FHC. The inability of senior Cougar Brandon Penny to knock down outside shots early didn’t help GRCC but he was able to play tough defense leading to 8 points and 7 boards for the game.

A nice 8-2 run to start the 2^nd quarter brought Catholic within one only to see the lead slip away as FHC followed with a 10-4 run of their own. Sloppy FHC passing and poor shot selection allowed CC back into the game but the Rangers still held a home halftime lead of 32-29. Wittenbach carried much of the offensive load in the 1^st half along with Boles who knocked down 3 first half triples.

Coach Ken George’s Rangerball was holding tough in the second half until the 3:19 mark of the 3^rd quarter where Catholic took their first lead since we had a 4-2 game early. Conor Hogan played his game to perfection in the second half as he was able to knock down Catholic’s first three of the night early in the 3^rd quarter. Hogan has a unique ability to get inside despite his size and draw fouls while still getting a good shot attempt up. He spent much of the second half at the free throw line and made all but one.

We had a 45-43 Catholic lead entering the 4^th quarter and the FHC fans were starting to come alive. A pair of big three’s by Boles and junior Michael McCullough gave FHC a brief lead at 50-49 and with under a minute left in the game FHC held a 55-54 lead. Catholic ran some clock looking for the right shot backing out three different times as the play they wanted just wasn’t there. Just then Zeke Mojica-Skinner was able to catch the Ranger defense sleeping and tossed an easy pass to Hogan who drilled a three with :30 left giving CC a two point lead.

FHC brought the ball up the court and found Wittenbach on the block and had what looked to be just the play they had called, until in a flash Hogan dropped down and ripped the ball away from Wittenbach just after he caught it, Hogan was able to then call timeout on the baseline in what was one of the best 15 seconds of play I’ve seen out of a High Schooler maybe ever. The clock read 14.2 with the Cougars gripping on to a 2 point lead and the ball. Mojica-Skinner was able to inbound and FHC had to foul sophomore Jon Marosi with 5.6 seconds left. The young fella was able to hit both ends of a one-and one to give GRCC the 59-55 road victory, proving just how tough and gritty this Cougar squad is this year.

Hogan finished with 22 points and three 3’s. Wittenbach had 20 points and 7 boards, while Boles had 12 on four 3’s. In JV action is should be noted that the very strong FHC team took home a 60-40 victory, FHC will graduate only 3 players this year so 2011-12 looks bright for Ken George and gang.

All Photos provided by the amazing David Chandler Photography, Click the link to see more action from tonight’s game.