After a close call against the Greenville Yellow Jackets Tuesday night, the boys JV basketball team had a quick turnaround to take on the Cedar Springs Red Hawks Thursday night at home. The Rangers took an enormous 77-32 win thanks to a huge 9-0 run to start off the game and a great shooting night. Sophomores Chris Battiste and Dallas Hopson provided most of the offense during the 9-0 run, which killed the Red Hawks’ momentum early in the game.

FHC used its size to their advantage against Cedar Springs early on. Sophomore Matthew Mahoney, along with Chris, dominated Cedar’s big men and had them flustered in their defensive sets. The deep bench for the Rangers also played a huge factor in the first half, as sophomore Isaac Ghareeb rebounded very well and sophomore Jason Downey had some key fast-break layups. Just as the Red Hawks had a glimpse of hope by knocking down a couple shots, Dallas and fellow sophomore Cam David hit some big shots to extend the Ranger lead, and FHC went into halftime up 39-16.

The big men of FHC continued to dominate at the beginning of the second half and led the way for the Rangers to slowly shut the door on the Red Hawks. Sophomore Peyton Bush provided some great defense and scoring off the bench for FHC. Thanks to the scrappiness of sophomore Maguire Mahacek, the Rangers were able to get more offensive possessions and keep on scoring. The 77 points is the Rangers highest offensive output of the season.

This win puts the Rangers at 5-4 on the season and 2-1 in the OK White conference. FHC’s next game is against the Lowell Red Arrows on Tuesday at home. Lowell played tough against the Rangers last year, but with huge contributions from new players on the team, the Rangers look to defeat the Red Arrows for a third consecutive time and improve to 3-1 in hopes for an OK White conference championship.