MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer fought hard to get within two points of Mona Shores down the stretch of Tuesday night's O-K Green Conference rivalry showdown, but some unfortunate turnovers in the final minutes kept the Rockets from getting over the hump in a 42-38 defeat.
Shores led by nine points at halftime, 25-16, and was up 31-23 in the final seconds of the third quarter before the Rockets (5-5, 0-2 O-K Green) chipped away at the lead the rest of the game. Raquel Walker drove for a layup to end the third, and a couple of key buckets by Ashlyn David and Abrianna Do got the score to 34-32 with 3:20 to play.
Mona Shores freshman Gabriela Koziak knocked down a huge three-pointer, though, to help keep the Rockets at bay, and R-P's fast-paced offense gave the ball away a couple of times on key possessions late.
"I told the girls tonight, it's a learning lesson," R-P coach Rodney Walker said. "When you lose, it's
always learning. I just think that once we get all our offense down pat
to where we're not turning it over - and really, it wasn't our offense
where we turned it over; we'd turn it over in transition, trying to move
a little
too fast versus coming down and running offense - I
think once we clean that up, we'll be in great shape."
The Shores trey sinking the Rockets was bitter irony, because it was R-P's long-distance attack that kept it in the game early on. David and Grace Tindall each knocked down treys in the first quarter as the Rockets took a 10-9 lead and Addison Mitchelson had one in the third quarter as her team refused to go away even amid tough defense from Shores.
Walker said he'd have liked to see Tindall get more cracks at shooting from long distance due to her success throughout the season so far.
Reeths-Puffer's Ashlyn David tries to drive around Mona Shores' Maddie Russell during Tuesday's game at R-P. The Rockets lost, 42-38.
"I think Grace didn't
get enough shots tonight, and that's really one of our main three-point
shooters," Walker said. "Just getting something set up for her to get some shots off
is where I thought if we could do that, we'd have been able to compete a
little harder."
Mona Shores also took advantage of its size advantage to get some important second and even third-chance baskets. Maddie Russell was a force in the paint, seemingly always either rebounding it on the offensive glass or facilitating a teammate doing so.
"We gave them second and third shots, while they limited us to one shot," Walker said. "That was part of our game plan, was to make sure that
we could limit them to one shot. We knew it was going to be a grueling grind of a game when it comes to them down low because we don't
necessarily have the size to match up, but we still did a
good job of fighting down there."
Despite Russell's efforts - her 10 points led the Sailors - R-P played tough defense most of the game. The Rockets held Shores scoreless the first 3:30 of the game, and it took over five minutes for the Sailors to make a field goal. As R-P struggled to find good shots for stretches of the second and third quarters, its defense kept it close.
Raquel Walker led the Rockets with 14 points and made a couple of tough plays on both ends of the court. Coach Walker, her dad, said the next step for Raquel is keeping "her teammates involved" in those big moments.
"I think we're doing a great job of doing what we need to do in order to win games," Walker said. "She's just got to stay connected to the things we're trying to do down the stretch."
