North Muskegon rallies for win over Muskegon Heights

LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON HEIGHTS–The North Muskegon boys’ basketball team rallied for a 57-54 win over the Muskegon Heights Tigers on Monday evening in a non-conference battle played at the Heights.

The Norse and the Tigers finished deadlocked in a 12-12 tie at the end of the first quarter.

Muskegon Heights carried a 30-27 lead into the halftime break by outscoring North Muskegon 18-15 in the second quarter.

“In the second quarter, we again got ahead, but Heights had a great couple of minutes,” said North Muskegon coach Charles Rypstra.

The Norse picked up their offensive tempo in the third quarter and tightened up the defense on Muskegon Heights. The result was North Muskegon gained control of the contest with a 16-9 scoring advantage in the third period to take a 43-39 lead into the fourth quarter.

North Muskegon head coach Charles Rypstra (Photo/Leo Valdez)

“The third quarter was our best quarter as we moved the ball around nicely and got some easy baskets,” Rypstra commented.

The Tigers managed to hold the upper hand in the final eight minutes by a 15-14 scoring margin but the Norse held on for the three point win.

“In the last quarter it was back and forth till Lisinski hit a big three with about three minutes to go. We held on the rest of the way with some good free throw shooting,” Rypstra said.

“Jaquan Matthews (from Heights) was his normal self as he hit seven 3’s and everyone was from deep and contested.”

Four players scored in double digits for North Muskegon led by Sam Gallo with 13 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Troy McManus and James Young each tossed in 12 points and Jaxon Lisinski chipped in with 11 points. Young also grabbed five rebounds.

Muskegon Heights was led by senior Jaquan Mathews who had a game high 29 points

North Muskegon (10-2, 4-2) is off until next Monday when they will travel across town to Oakridge.

Muskegon Heights (1-8) will host Muskegon Catholic on Friday evening.