By Greg Chrapek
WKTV Contributor
greer@wktv.org
It took a while for the East Kentwood basketball team to find its groove during Tuesday’s non-league game against visiting Kalamazoo Loy Norrix, but once they did, the Falcons rolled like a team in mid-season form with a 73-51 win.
East Kentwood took the early lead in the game, but the Knights kept things interesting in the first half. Loy Norrix came into the game with a perfect 4-0 record and showed why it’s one of the top teams in Southwest Michigan as it trailed 16-9 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter continued to be somewhat of a defensive struggle and at halftime the Falcons were up 30-22.
“We kind of got off to a slow start in the first half,” said East Kentwood Coach Mike Thomas. “It is exam week and you can kind of tell. The guys have been studying all week and practicing all week. This was just one of those games to where it was hard to get going. It was hard catching the ball, putting the ball in the hole in the first half.”
Thanks to a deep and versatile roster, the Falcons made some adjustments at halftime that enabled them to change the flow of the game. Kentwood came out of halftime with more energy and began to pull away, taking a 41-26 lead midway through the third.
“We made some adjustments in the second half,” Thomas said, “and put in more of an energy group in there. A smaller, energy group and it kind of helped us get going.”
East Kentwood finished the third quarter with a flurry as the smaller, quicker group was able to produce several turnovers that led to breakaway dunks on the other end of the floor.
“That was the goal at halftime,” Thomas said. “We went smaller. We put in Ja’Kari Lovelady and we put Jaxson Tabor in as the five man. Then we kept our big three in RJ Chapman, Jeremiah Cook and CJ Reynolds in and that kind of opened things up.”
East Kentwood finished the third quarter with a 54-32 lead. While the 24 points Kentwood scored during the third quarter was impressive, the Falcons were even more happy with their play on the defensive side of the court as they limited Loy Norrix to 10 third-quarter points.
“We were able to get stops,” Thomas said. “That created some easy dunks and layups and stuff like that. That’s kind of how we want to play. We want to make everything tough for you. Even though our offense was struggling, I thought our defense was there. You know, 20 points at the half is really good for us. We always talk about that. Even when we are not scoring, we have to always have our defense going because it’s always going to be the savior for us.”
Kentwood maintained the 20-points margin during the fourth quarter as it put the game on ice for its third win of the season against one loss. East Kentwood’s other two wins came against Traverse City West (83-57) and Detroit Renaissance (73-44) with the lone loss being a 41-40 decision against Warren Fitzgerald.
Offensively, the Falcons benefitted from a balanced attack. CJ Reynolds led the team in scoring with 19 points, followed by Jeremiah Cook, 12 points; Samuel Makaug and RJ Chapman, 10 apiece, and Lovelady, seven.
Junior Demetrius Bennett led Loy Norrix with 16 points.
“That’s our goal,” Thomas said. “We want to have four to five guys in double figures. Our goal is to share the ball, share the rock. Draw two (defenders) and kick it. It doesn’t matter who shoots it as long as we are doing our job of drawing two and kicking, keeping the ball moving and great shots are going to occur for our team.”
The Falcons hit the road and rack up the miles to close out 2025. East Kentwood plays West Bloomfield at Saginaw Valley State on Friday, at the Motor City Roundball Classic in Ferndale on Dec. 28 and the next day will play Flint Carman-Ainsworth at the Romulus Summitt Academy Christmas Showcase.
