Senior Andrew Tebeau and the Ranger offense put together one of the hottest offensive first quarters of their season. After an 18-5 run to start the game, FHC clung on to that lead to pick up a huge win over the Pioneers of East Grand Rapids 54-45.

After 6 points from Andrew and 5 points from sophomore Jimmy Scholler in the first quarter alone, it looked like FHC was moving their way towards a blowout. The second and third quarters, however, were a different story.

“Boy. that was a battle,” head coach Ken George said. “In typical fashion, we had a really emotional and energetic start which I’m just so thankful for with this group. They get so excited to play, I feel like we just explode out of the locker room. But man, I don’t feel like we scored for a really, really long time and I think that’s a big credit to them. I think they’re a good defensive team with a lot of pieces. I just think they’re good.”

Despite getting outscored 9-7 in the second quarter, the Rangers still went into the locker room at halftime up 30-20. The third quarter allowed for the Pioneers to come within one.

FHC then turned to its senior shooting guard Ty George for big plays down the stretch. Like he has proven all year, Ty came through. With FHC only up by 5 and just over 1:20 in the fourth, Ty went to the corner and knocked down a huge three to put FHC up eight. He added 4 more points from the free throw line to his 11 total with under a minute to play.

“I thought Ty’s corner three was huge,” George said. “He struggled all night and really hasn’t done that all year. He hasn’t had a game where he looked out of sorts, but then to make a really big shot at the end– I was really proud of him.”

FHC’s defense was sound all night long and kept the Rangers in the game when their offense was struggling. The Rangers finished with 32 defensive rebounds, 10 blocks, and 9 steals. Senior Ryan Dunn and sophomore Mitch Wilkinson were huge to the team’s defensive success.

“I thought we were missing a lot of shots in the second and third quarter,” said Ryan, who finished with 4 blocks and 2 steals. “We needed a lot of big stops on defense to keep us in the game and keep our lead. They were able to move the ball to the middle of our 2-3 zone, so we needed to make big plays. I think that’s what our blocks were.”

Sophomore Jimmy Scholler and junior Daniel Deindorfer both had major contributions to Friday night’s win, combining for 11 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 assists.

With now their 11th straight win under their belts, the Rangers move into their second round of conference play this upcoming week against the Northview Wildcats and the Greenville Yellow Jackets.

The Rangers also have the first round of the district in the back of their minds. With their first-round draw being EGR, it was a big test tonight to see where they measure up for later in the year.

“I think this win shows that we’re a great defensive team,” Andrew said. “Sure we have a fast-paced offense and that helps a lot, but it shows that we can get it done. East is a great team, and when we can hold them to 45 it’s exciting. Now we know what we’ve got coming towards us in the first game of districts and it’s not going to be easy.”