By John Jarvi
Local Sports Journal

GRAND HAVEN — The Grand Haven Buccaneers picked up the tempo on defense as the game wore on and came away with a 45-36 victory over the Grandville Bulldogs in OK Red Division boys basketball action Tuesday night.

The Buccaneers trailed 13-6 after one period and by nine points early in the second period before regrouping and to take control.

Grand Haven rallied in the last 2:15 of the first half to cut the lead to 18-17. The Buccaneers went to a pressure defense in the third quarter and built up a 24-20 lead before the Bulldogs scored their first points of the third quarter.

“When a team gets seven offensive rebounds in the first half like the Bulldogs did, we’ve got to figure a way to come out sharper defensively,” said Grand Haven coach Steve Hewitt. “We just needed to get some consistent stops, and we were able to cut that lead down from eight to one late in the second quarter and get back in the game.”

After having only 20 possessions in the first half, Grand Haven had 20 alone in the third quarter and came away outscoring Grandville 15-7 in the period.

The Buccaneers, now 8-9 overall and 3-5 in league games, got 11 points from Connor Grimes. Ten points from Korey Searle and seven from Adam Abraham.

Grand Haven hit a respectable 15 of 33 field goal attempts for 45 percent although the Buccaneers did not sink a three-point field goal.

Isaak Newhouse had five steals on defense and Searle and Ross Koella had five rebounds each for Grand Haven.

Grandville slid to 0-16 for the season and 0-8 in OK Red play. The Bulldogs’ boys teams have won only one game at the junior varsity level and two at the ninth grade level this season.

Grand Haven closes its regular season by playing three road games in a row. The first will be Friday at Holland West Ottawa. The Buccaneers also will play a make-up game Saturday at Reeths-Puffer.