Grandville Bulldogs - WKTV Journal

Grandville at East Kentwood Boys Basketball (WKTV Friday Night Highlights/1-30-26/Gerrit Nickel)

Bill Rohn — who served as a trial lawyer for 40 years at the Varnum law firm in Grand Rapids — calls himself a “newspaper junkie.“ Bill edited his high school and college newspapers. He also has covered sports for Midwestern newspapers such as The Grand Rapids Press, The South Bend Tribune, and The Niles Daily Star. He is a co-host of WKTV Friday Night Highlights. Bill holds a B.A. degree in Political Science from GVSU and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Notre Dame.

By Bill Rohn
Wyoming-Kentwood News Today Contributor
Friday Night Highlights Host
greer@wktv.org

The East Kentwood boys team remained unbeaten in the OK Red, finishing the month of January with weekend wins over Grandville and Grand Haven.

The Falcons, 13-1 overall and ranked second in numerous statewide polls, continued their winning ways with a come-from-behind 54-52 win Friday over a tough Bulldog squad. After that, EK’s players went home, got some sleep, and returned to their gym 16 hours later to outpace Grand Haven, 73-44.

“We owed Grandville because they beat us twice last year,” said EK Coach Mike Thomas following Friday’s win over the Bulldogs.

Early on, it looked as though Grandville might make it three in a row over the Falcons. The Bulldogs confronted EK with a flexible zone defense, causing Thomas’ kids to miss from the outside. EK hit only two of 15 first quarter shots, which helped the Bulldogs to a 10-4 lead.

Grandville continued its pressure behind the shooting of Anthony Richardson and Brendan VanderHart, taking a 31-19 halftime lead following a 14-point run late in the second quarter.

But the Falcons weren’t finished.

“At halftime, I told the kids I thought we were OK on defense,” Thomas said. “Grandville was getting buckets on turnovers and getting the ball quickly down the floor, so we worked on that. I just told them to settle down at halftime.”

Richardson also told his team to keep “pushing“ the ball down the court. And in the second half, EK solved the Grandville zone. A third-quarter surge, led by RJ Chapman‘s nine points and 6-9 Andrew Kenyi’s rebounding and scoring, pulled Kentwood close. Grandville led 44-40 entering the fourth quarter.

“Winning is hard, but we’ve got some very good athletes and the idea was to keep the pressure on against that zone in the second half,” Thomas explained.

East Kentwood’s push produced a 46-44 lead with six minutes to play, and then a 54-52 lead with five seconds remaining. The visitors then missed a last-second shot, following an intentionally missed free throw, sealing the Falcon win.

Kenyi led the Falcons with 15 points, followed by Chapman, 13. Grandville’s Carter Wade nailed four three-pointers and totaled 13 points. Teammate Anthony Richardson led Grandville with 15.

East Kentwood’s Andrew Kenyi from an earlier game. (WKTV/Greg Chrapek)

The Saturday matinee: Grand Haven at East Kentwood
Early play included a sluggish first half, which saw EK lead 30-26 at halftime. The Falcons then turned it on in the third quarter, outracing Grand Haven 22-5, for a 52-31 lead.

Fourth quarter play featured more of the same, as the Falcons cruised to a 73-44 win and clean 5-0 conference record. Kenyi led the winning effort with 16 points, while Samuel Makaug energized a small crowd with nine points and two slam dunks in a row.

Grandville dropped to 2-2 in OK Red play and 10-3 overall, while Grand Haven fell to 1-4 in the Red, 12-5 overall.

East Kentwood now prepares for a Feb. 3 home rematch with Rockford, currently only one game behind the Falcons in conference play. Earlier this season, the Falcons beat the host Rams in overtime by one.

By Micah Cho, WKTV Sports Intern

ken@wktv.org

The East Kentwood Falcons take on the Grandville this week in WKTV’s featured game of the week as the Bulldogs (2-2) will be traveling and facing a streaking Falcon team as well as a fired-up East Kentwood homecoming crowd.

East Kentwood High School is known for its loud and engaged Homecoming crowds. (WKTV file)

“Anytime you have homecoming, you’re going to have a big crowd,” said head coach Anthony Kimbrough of what is waiting his 3-1 East Kentwood squad. “It’s an exciting week leading up to the game. As a coach, it’s kind of a hectic week for me, but the kids seem to handle it well.

Coach Kimbrough says the secret to his team’s success, and now 3-game winning streak, is simple — the players are responding well to the fundamental system he has implemented.

“We just got back to basics,” said Kimbrough. “The kids are playing some really good fundamental and assignment football. Just doing everything right in the key moments of the game.”

Falcons Head Coach Anthony Kimbrough. (WKTV)

East Kentwood is coming off of a blow-out win against West Ottawa, a team that was down 35 points at halftime to the Falcons. The only loss East Kentwood has had to endure this season was a season-opener loss to an undefeated Mona Shores team, falling only 10 points short.

Grandville, however, has won the last three times these teams have met, beating East Kentwood 28-14 last year. Kimbrough expects to see the same competitive Grandville team as last year. East Kentwood comes in at 2-0 in OK-Gold standings, but Grandville is 1-0.

“They’re a physical and tough team that believes in their system and runs their system really well. They’re well coached and they play hard. So we’re in for a battle Friday night.”

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