It will have been 11 days since the boys varsity basketball team last played when it takes the floor in Greenville, as FHC travels to face the Yellow Jackets in an OK White conference game tomorrow night. In the Rangers’ last game against East Grand Rapids, they scored a season-high 91 points in a 17-point win. The Rangers defeated the Yellow Jackets 62-47 in their first meeting of the season.

In the first game between these two teams, both struggled mightily offensively, and the Rangers held Greenville to 31% shooting from the field. The Yellow Jackets come into this game at 4-9 with a record of 1-5 in the OK White. The lone win for Greenville in conference play was an 11-point victory over Ottawa Hills. The Yellow Jackets have played both Northview and Lowell very competitively in addition to notching a non-conference win over Forest Hills Eastern.

The Yellow Jackets are led by a dynamic guard-center duo in junior Kane Brown and senior Gavin Cossou. The two combined for 40 of the Yellow Jackets’ 47 points against the Rangers. Juniors Logan Phillips and Zane Bigelow, as well as sophomore Grant Thwaites, give Greenville a very athletic starting five. 

Gavin Cossou did a very good job of removing FHC’s senior big man Dan Deindorfer as a threat last time, drawing 4 fouls down low on Dan. On the other end, Gavin Cossou made life very difficult for Dan, who only scored 6 points. Senior forward Jake Ball really stepped up for the Rangers with Dan being saddled with foul trouble and having a hard time scoring on Cossou. Jake scored 9 points and, more importantly, grabbed a single-game season-high 12 rebounds. Jake helped lead a 44-31 rebounding advantage for the Rangers in the first game. If Dan has a better game against Greenville and senior forward Tate Hallock rebounds the ball like he has been lately, expect the Rangers to once again dominate the glass.

Kane Brown also had a very good game against the Rangers in the first matchup. He scored 21 points and was able to get to the rim at ease. Junior point guard Jimmy Scholler struggled against the Yellow Jackets in the first matchup. Despite scoring 19 points, Jimmy had 6 turnovers. The Rangers will be helped defensively in this matchup thanks to senior guard Josh Wise. Josh played sparingly in the first matchup against Greenville, as he was still recovering from an ankle injury. Josh is no doubt the Rangers’ best on-ball defender, and head coach Kyle Carhart will look to have Josh guard Kane Brown to slow him down.

A big key to this game will be the Rangers’ bench play. In the first matchup, the Rangers only mustered 6 bench points. With the emergence of sophomore forward Jacob Ervin to go along with seniors Tate, Tom Tomsheck, and Jay Shields, the Rangers figure to have more production from the bench. If the Rangers can get 15 or more points from their bench, they will have a great chance at sweeping Greenville.