ZEELAND — After dropping its first two games of conference play, it looks like the Reeths-Puffer boys basketball team is starting to find its stride.
The Rockets picked up their second straight overall and league win on Tuesday night, grabbing a 50-42 victory at Zeeland East in O-K Green conference action.
The game was tight throughout, with the eight-point final margin representing Reeths-Puffer's largest lead of the entire game.
“It’s tough to win in our league,” said Reeths-Puffer coach Nate Aardema. “Anytime you do, you’ve got to feel good about it. There’s certainly stuff we’d all like to do better, but overall it was a real positive night.
R-P's Travis Ambrose goes high for a dunk. Photo;/Tyler Lirones
“It was one of those nights where the shots didn’t go in, but you have to control the controllables. Our effort was good and our chemistry, I thought, was good.”
Zeeland East cut the R-P lead to one point, 40-39, with 1:59 to play, but a quick 6-0 spurt gave the Rockets a seven-point lead with 45 seconds remaining.
Jaxson Whitaker had a lot to do with the final point burst. He scored with 1:32 to play, got a steal following a time out and scored a layup with 1:06 to play, then snagged a rebound and knocked down two free throws with 45 seconds left.
Reeths-Puffer's Jaxson Whitaker (5) races toward the basket. Photo/Tyler Lirones
“It’s certainly nice to have guys (like Whitaker) you can count on to take over, not even necessarily by design," Aardema said. "I trust him with the ball in hand.”
Reeths-Puffer led 14-13 after one quarter. Whitaker and Travis Ambrose both scored seven points in the opening period.
The Rockets scored the first points of the second quarter and led 16-13, but then didn’t make a basket for the final 7:35 of the half.
Zeeland East led 19-18 at halftime after nailing a three-pointer in the final 10 seconds.
Reeths-Puffer used a 15-10 third quarter edge to pull ahead 33-29 headed into the fourth. Whitaker had six points in the third while Ambrose added four.
R-P's Brayden Mitchelson (24) tries to work his way past an opponent. Photo/Tyler Lirones
The teams traded baskets for most of the fourth. Zeeland East cut the lead to two points on several occasions and one point at the 1:59 mark, but Whitaker’s late scoring spree helped secure the win.
An Ambrose dunk just before the buzzer capped the game to give R-P an eight-point win.
Whitaker scored a team-high 21 points while Ambrose had a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds. Antrel Jones and Brayden Mitchelson had four points each and Tayte Vanderleest added two.
With back-to-back wins, Reeths-Puffer is now 5-4 overall and 2-2 in the O-K Green. Aardema thinks his team is only getting better as the season progresses.
“I think we have a good team,” the coach said. “Our best basketball is ahead of us still. We didn’t expect to be 5-4, we didn’t expect some of the early trials and tribulations. But I think we’ve got a good team. We show it in stretches, the key is to show it in longer and longer stretches as we go.”
