Sophomore Jacob Bonnett had an excellent game on Thursday, February 27th against Northview. He and the rest of the boys JV Basketball team defeated the Wildcats by 10 points with a final score of 60-50. The boys were down for the whole first half, but they worked together to slowly gain the lead.

“The most important part of the game was how we responded in the second half,” sophomore Pierson VanGorp said. “At first, it felt like we were getting outplayed and out-hustled, but then we came back and got the team hype.”

To start off the game, sophomore Conner Milton won the tip-off for the Rangers, and the boys started off with possession. The boys played a bit slow out the gate, but they were still putting together some good plays. Early in the first quarter, sophomore Ben Scholler had a strong through pass to Conner for a nice layup, starting the boys off with two. Conner and sophomore Louis Craffey also had many great defensive stops, with Conner rebounding well and Louis stealing many passes. By the end of the first quarter, the boys were tied at 15-15.

In the second quarter, the Wildcats started out stronger once again, quickly gaining back the lead with a score of 21-15. Jacob had a great scoring game, making many corner threes and driving to the basket to draw fouls and convert layups. Jacob also worked back on defense, blocking shots and stealing the ball back for the Rangers. They ended the first half down with a score of 29-26.

“The things we did well in the game were rebounding and driving to the rim to get fouls,” sophomore Rhosias Arius said.

Coming back in the second half, the boys seemed to have found a new spark. They tied it up at 29-29 within the first few minutes with a great first effort. Ben had a nice three, and Joe Murdock had a solid layup from a far pass down the court. Pierson and Ben both made a couple of threes, allowing the Rangers to take the lead. They ended the third quarter up 45-36.

“Tonight we just played as a team and had each others’ backs the whole way,” Jacob said.

The final quarter for the boys is when they really hit their stride. They continued their lead and did not let Northview come close again. Pierson started this quarter with two threes that gave the team energy for the final minutes of the game. Both Joe and Jacob took charges, getting in their opponent’s head. Joe had some of the last few points and ended the game with an easy layup.

After this, the boys went on to play both Grandville and Unity Christian for the last two games of their season.