By Bill Rohn
WKTV Contributor
greer@wktv.org
“Well, I told them it was time to get back to playing our brand of basketball.”
Those were the halftime instructions of Lee Coach Gerard Oray after his team had underperformed against Grand River Prep on Tuesday. And that’s what Lee’s players did, outscoring the Titans 46-17 in the second half en route to an 83-49 win.
The victory, which improved Lee‘s season record to 9-2, was especially sweet because the Legends played without starters Dere’on Brown and Jaden Potts, who missed the game with concussions. Lee also was coming off a loss only 24 hours earlier to Lansing Eastern.
“I was worried about whether we had time to overcome that,” Oray said.
At halftime, it looked as though Oray’s concern might be justified. Lee started fast, taking a 20-12 first quarter lead, but the Titans came back quickly and led 24-23 following solid defensive play and seven second quarter points from Malachi McKnight, who had 13 points in the first two quarters.
The Legends found their rhythm and led 37-32 at halftime following two late buckets by JR Metcalf, but Lee’s coaches were still not satisfied.
“We needed to play our game, moving the ball around, playing harder, and staying together as a team,” Oray explained.
Lee got the message, scoring 27 third quarter points compared to nine by the Titans, before adding 20 more in the final stanza. The Legends also rattled Grand River with a ball-hawking defensive effort.Lee’s offense benefited from a balanced attack, featuring 13 different scorers. Metcalf led all scorers with 18 points. The winners also got nine points apiece from Zeke Scott and Cash Anscomb to go with solid rebounding by Scott and Braelin Huff.
Grand River Prep was paced by Antwan Bland, with 16 points, and Malachi McKnight, who finished with 15. However, the visitors were plagued by second half foul trouble, causing their offensive leaders to often sit the bench during third and fourth quarter action.
Where do the Legends go from here? Oray was optimistic after the game.
“We’ve just gotta keep playing our brand of basketball and we’ll see whether we can win our conference title and then do well in the districts at tournament time.”
Grand River fell to 3-8 on the season with the loss. The Titans women’s team defeated the Lee women 37-15 in the first game of the evening.
