All it took for the Grand Rapids Christian Unified Basketball Team to get cooking from the perimeter was a return to the friendly confines and soft rims of the Quest Center.  The Eagles road a hot shooting night to more than double their scoring output (24 points) from Friday’s OT game at Kenowa Hills.  The result was a 51 to 42 victory over the Bulldogs from Grandville. The first period 14 point offensive assault was spearheaded by a variety of quality assists via the partner duos of Payton Holtz / Andrew Schepel and Hannah Grace Wildschut / Micah Small.  Some sweet setups for the baseline diva Faith Kelly and newest hot shot Joash Mallick sandwiched a much needed three point bucket by rifleman Isaac Muller.  The extra shooting practice led by Coach Slotsma during focus time is really starting to show dividends for the team. The remainder of the first half showcased the lightning speed of our middle school 50 meter sprint specialist Yang Feng Wildschut.  Receiving crisp outlet passes from teammates Kiera Porte and Ella Wolters, YF quickly navigated the 94 feet as if he had grease on his sneakers and finished nicely at the cup.  The Eagles took a 10 point lead into the half.  However, basketball is a game of runs and the Bulldogs countered with a big third period of their own knotting the game at 36.  Luckily for the Eagles, we were able to deploy “the closers” line consisting of Adia Sikkema, Jake Koetje and the Big Guy Max Damstra.  Working in a three foot semi-circle of the hoop, Damstra cleaned up bucket after bucket.  Sprinkle in another top of the key triple by Muller and the Eagles turned out the lights with a 9-0 spurt to take the 51-42 victory.  After the game, overheard in the Eagle huddle was a quote from Coach Muller’s fourth grade Southern Little League Coach – “this team might be small and slow but we are also 4 and 0.” The Eagle team would like to thank the large flock of fans today that helped us set a new 3:00 tip off attendance record with 304 spectators.  Looking forward to our first prime time match up next week against the Holland Christian Maroons.  Go Eagles! 

On an afternoon that the weather was taking a break from the cold and snow, the Grand Rapids Christian Unified Basketball team ventured out to northwest Grand Rapids to take on Kenowa Hills High School.  The temperature inside the Knights gymnasium, however, was cold enough to freeze the rims shut as both teams struggled to find ways to put the ball in the basket.  Fortunately for the Eagles, Mr. AutoMAXic Damstra came up with some clutch buckets at the end of regulation and again in overtime to help secure a 24 to 22 victory.   The Eagles found some early success in the first period by going with a guard-oriented offense consisting of Joash Mallick, Yang Feng Wildschut, Isaac Muller plus partners Aida Sikkema and Jake Koetje.  Each athlete accounted for a mid-range jumper – certainly a lost art in the game today that the Eagle Unified Team is trying to help recapture.  Then, in a move to keep the Knights off guard, Christian countered with an aggressive offensive rebounding line up with Max Damstra, Faith Kelly, Kiera Porte, and Ella Wolters pounding the boards off of a variety of high-volume attempts by Muller.  The half time score was an electric 10 to 10 tie.   The highlight of the third period was the play of the dynamic duo from Rockford Christian – the Lovell brothers.  Once again younger brother Deacon was able to navigate the opposing defense and with the assistance of Hannah Grace Wildschut and Payton “killer crossover” Holtz, they were able to set up older brother Wyatt with a number of Rich Berry style shots.  It took only a few attempts and Wyatt was again in the score book and the Eagles had a two-point lead.  But that advantage was short lived, as the game went through five lead changes over the rest of the contest.  With the Eagles down two and only 20 seconds to play, the ball found its way to Damstra right within his six foot sweet spot range.  Max calmly knocked in the game tying shot and the desperation three point attempt by the Knights uber athletic point guard was off the mark forcing the three minute overtime period.   During the important pre-OT team huddle, the athletes were able to convince Coach Muller to insert Micah Small and Andrew Schepel with the athletes in an all out effort to secure a third consecutive road victory.  With thirty seconds left Schepel outletted to Small who found a streaking Damstra for a soft bank shot and the game winner.  This was the second OT victory in three years against the well-coached Kenowa team.   The Eagles now move on to their home opener on Tuesday, January 30 at 3:00 PM against Grandville High School and are looking forward to some home rim advantage.  Go Eagles!

Even though a majority of the schools in West Michigan were shut down due to the slushy conditions on Tuesday, the Grand Rapids Christian Unified Basketball Team plowed their way out to Holland High School and then cleaned up on the court for a hard fought 28 to 21 victory over the Dutch.  The contest resembled last week’s Calvin versus Hope match up with neither team finding much touch from the perimeter.  The Dutch then flexed their muscle early and often on the glass and jumped out to a 13 to 7 lead.  But a fiery halftime speech got the GRC partners – Adia Sikkema, Payton Holtz, Hannah-Grace Wildschut, Ella Wolters, Keira Porte, Jake Koetje, Micah Small, and Andrew Schepel – amped up as they were able to motivate the rest of the team to turn it up a notch. The comeback effort was spearheaded by Max “the Bissell” Damstra.  Max has figured out that a missed shot by his teammate (one to whom shall remain nameless) is as good as a pass and spends his time corralling board after board and softy putting back the bunnies for easy points. Another double-double on the books for the big guy.  His fellow forward Joash Mallick is turning out to be the assist man on the team – and in fact passed up some easy looks for attempts at an assist.  Joash is spending time tonight with Isaac Muller reviewing the Huddle video of the game to explain the entire concept of the teammate to teammate pass.  Speaking of film study, Holland had definitely done their homework on the deadly shooting of Faith Kelly as they sent defenders flying at her to attempt and disrupt her feathery jumper.  Luckily our partners figured out that moving screens ARE legal in Unified Basketball and began to create a shooting wall around Faith to allow her to launch a few baseline beauties and swish them through.  Due to the early national television tip time of 3:00 our Junior High weapons of Yang Feng Wildschut and Wyatt Lovell were not able to attend. The Eagles wrap up the third game of their West Michigan road trip this Friday at Kenowa Hills High School with a start time of 4:30 PM.  See you there.  Go Eagles!

The self-proclaimed “everybody’s favorite GRC sports team” returned to the court for its third season of action.  On Friday afternoon, the Grand Rapids Christian Unified Basketball team traveled into the bowels of Byron Center to take on our archrivals at South Christian High School.  Though the Eagles were outnumbered in terms of fan support by a 20:1 ratio (and that was even with the Girls JV that skipped practice to come support the Unified Team), they were able to show their veteran experience and pick up a valuable road-victory by the score of 51 to 30.  The steady senior leadership of starting forward Faith Kelly showed off early in the contest.  This is not Faith’s first rodeo operating along the left baseline.  She floated in a variety of soft jumpers assisted by partners Adia Sikkema and Jake Koetje.  The Eagle offense also found some new energy from first-year athlete Joash Mallick.  Opposing teams will learn quickly that Joash not only can navigate nicely around the hoop but he will also (loudly) let you know about it.  We assured partner Keira Porte that she will be able to hear again by Monday as she was the closest in range to Joash.  The Eagles exited the first quarter with a 12 to 4 lead. Then to start the second quarter, the Eagles pulled out the surprise attack on the Sailors – the Junior High line.  This mix contained the elusive GR Middle School ball handler Yang Fang Wildschut, his doting sibling Hannah-Grace, the very tall Micah Small, Rockford Christian Middle School energy creator Wyatt Lovell, and his wylie brother Deacon (a 4th grader).  This group was able to maintain the lead and each player notched a bucket in the already full scorebook. The second half of the game belonged to the dynamic duo of Max Damstra and Isaac Muller.  The 1-2 scoring punch generated a kaleidoscope of buckets with easy-made assists for partners Payton Holtz and Andrew Schepel.  The ball still seems to stick to the palm of Muller on far too many occasions but Damstra showed his well-balanced patience collecting numerous put-backs for bucket after bucket.  The only thing better than the final score was the postgame homemade cookies delivered by Faith – who is always looking out for her teammates. The Eagles hit the road again next week traveling to Holland High School on Tuesday (1/23) and Kenowa Hills on Friday (1/26).  If you want to grow as a team, you gotta win on the road.  Go Eagles!