By John Jarvi
Local Sports Journal
GRAND HAVEN — The Grand Haven Buccaneers played an aggressive second half on offense and defense and came away with a 53-34 victory over Traverse City Central’s Trojans in a non-league boys basketball game Monday night.
The Buccaneers never trailed after jumping off to a 3-0 lead on a three-point basket by Connor Grimes, but they had to survive a sluggish second quarter. After leading 19-6, the Buccaneers went in at halftime with only a 26-20 lead.
“We had a great start in the first quarter, and we had a lot of energy coming out at the half,” said Steve Hewitt, the Grand Haven coach. “We just need to be more consistent all the way through.”
Hewitt also liked some improvements in the Buccaneer offense. Noah Lein had four of his five assists in the third quarter in helping Grand Haven build a 47-29 lead after the third quarter.
Adam Abraham had seven of his 17 points in the quarter and showed some more improvement overall on offense. He dropped in seven of his eight field-goal tries and had six rebounds.
“Within the last 10 days, Abraham’s in a comfort zone and very assertive,” Hewitt said. “We’re finding him on offense, too.”
Grimes backed up Abraham by scoring 13 points while Lein and Isaak Newhouse each had six points. Korey Searle had four points and three steals for Grand Haven, now 6-8 overall.
The Buccaneers led in rebounds 29-20 and have a very short turn-around period. Grand Haven plays at Grandville against the Bulldogs in an OK Red Division make-up game Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The Buccaneers are 2-4 and the Bulldogs 0-5 in OK Red play.
Traverse City Central dropped to 4-11 for the season with its loss at Grand Haven. The game featured a familiar foe for both teams as they played each other in the old Lake Michigan Athletic Conference days years ago. Max Knoblock had nine points and Mitch Wynkoop seven points for the Trojans.
