MUSKEGON TWP. - The way Reeths-Puffer girls basketball coach Rodney Walker looks at it, Friday’s home game against West Ottawa was kind of like a post-holiday scrimmage to help his team shake off the rust of a long layoff.
And the rust was evident for the Rockets, who had not played since Dec. 30. They came out very cold from the floor, fell behind by double digits midway through the first quarter, and ended up falling to the ,Panthers 52-39 in non-conference action at R-P’s Dan Beckeman Arena.
“We only have nine players, which makes it tough to practice and prepare,” Coach Walker said. “Our only scrimmage is really when we play the games. Tonight was a night to look at some of the things we have to work on and iron out.”
Raquel Walker makes a move to get by a defender. Photo/Mitchell Boatman
The loss was the second in a row for the Rockets, who are now 5-3 on the season. West Ottawa, like Reeths-Puffer a very young team with talented underclassmen in the lineup, improved to 6-2.
From a positive angle, the Rockets have their first two-game losing streak eight games into the season, which is a big improvement from last year, when they lost their first five games right out of the gate.
And despite their shaky play, which left the Rockets trailing by seven points after one quarter, 14 at halftime and 15 through three quarters, they continued to battle to the end and pulled within nine points midway through the fourth.
Now they are ready for O-K Green conference play, which begins on Tuesday when the Rockets will challenge themselves against against a very good Muskegon squad on the road.
R-P's Grace Tindall waits for a teammate to get open. Photo/Mitchell Boatman
While the Rockets have shown vast improvement from last season, when they were 5-17, slow starts have been an issue in several games this winter. Most of the time they have overcome them, but on Friday they didn’t.
R-P missed its first eight shots from the floor while West Ottawa made four of its first five and led 10-0 just over four minutes into the game.
From another positive angle, however, if you could take away that early 10-point deficit, the Rockets would have only lost by three, which means they were more than capable of competing with the tough visiting squad
“We haven’t been a good come-from-behind team,” Walker said. “When we are up, the energy is different. We are still pretty young. It’s coming. We did a good job defensively in the second half, and when we play good defense and create turnovers, that becomes our best opportunity to score.”
R-P head coach Rodney Walker watches the action. Photo/Mitchell Boatman
Three-pointers were a definite factor in the outcome. West Ottawa canned eight triples while the Rockets had four, which accounted for a 12-point swing.
R-P only had one player score in double figures – sophomore Raquel Walker, who finished with a game-high 26 points – but only two other Rocktes scored any points at all. Grace Tindall had eight points while Ashlyn David added seven.
Raquel Walker also had eight rebounds and four assists. David snagged five rebounds.
West Ottawa also had just one player in double figures – Jana Honeycutt with 19 points – but seven of her teammates put up at least two points.
Mariyana Spears holds the ball as the Rockets set up the offense. Photo/Mitchell Boatman
“They killed us on the (offensive) boards, getting a lot of second and third shot opportunities,” Walker said. “And quite frankly, I thought their energy was much better than ours in the first half.”
With their post-holiday warmup out of the way, the Rockets are excited to test themselves against the Big Reds in conference action on Tuesday. Muskegon is 6-1 on the season.
The two teams spit a pair of games last season.
“Here we go,” said Walker, who once coached Muskegon before coming to R-P. “They are extremely good, but we’ll be ready.”