With a healthy Ambrose in the middle, Reeths-Puffer thriving on the basketball court

By Jon Styf
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – Something changed for the Reeths-Puffer boys basketball team last February.

Travis Ambrose dunks the ball during the Rockets’ matchup with Mona Shores. Photo/Joe Lane

The team came together, its 6-foot-8 big man Travis Ambrose was finally healthy and the Rockets went on a roll. Since Feb. 7 of last year, in fact, Reeths-Puffer has won 16 of 19 games.

That included last year’s regular season loss to regional qualifier Rockford and a playoff loss to eventual state runner-up Muskegon.

This year, the momentum hasn’t stopped as the Rockets have jumped out to an 8-1 start and the No. 12 spot in the MHSAA Division 1 power rankings. Their only loss this season came to Hudsonville on Dec. 15.

“That coincides with when (Ambrose) got healthy,” Reeths-Puffer coach Nate Aardema. “We started winning a lot more games.”

Ambrose knows it wasn’t just his recovery from a double hernia surgery a week before last season.

The team lost some key players, but returned Ambrose and guard Jaxson Whitaker while bonding at summer basketball camps at both Ohio and Grand Valley State.

“Our team is getting better,” Ambrose said. “Whether that is through me or what, we are just improving daily. We’re practicing hard and we’re just getting better.”

Part of that improvement comes from change. Ambrose grew up thinking he was a basketball player, and after leading Reeths-Puffer he and Whitaker were freshmen, he thought that would be what he did in college.

But that changed when he picked up a football scholarship offer and signed to be a tight end at Central Michigan despite not playing football his junior year.

Ambrose drives baseline for Reeths-Puffer. Photo/Joe Lane

Since then, he hasn’t had to worry about showing college recruiters his shooting range and has been able to concentrate on what Aardema says he does most effectively, playing with his back to the basket on the post for the Rockets.

The detailed stats show it with Ambrose holding a 70.2 percent effective field goal rate, shooting 67.7 percent from 2s, 70 percent from the free-throw line and averaging 20.3 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks while playing 30 minutes per game.

What doesn’t show up in the stats, Aardema said, is the way his defense impacts what the other team does offensively.

“He’s blocking three shots a game, but I think he changes or alters at least 10 a game,” Aardema said. “We don’t have a stat for that. It allows us to push up on the shooters more knowing we have him there to protect our backs.”

Ambrose will still wander outside occasionally, shooting 56 percent from behind the 3-point arc while lofting an average of three 3-pointers a game. But his most effective spot is near the hoop, where he averages 13 points a game in the paint.

That will be key over the next month as Reeths-Puffer works its way through the OK-Green schedule with what Ambrose describes as an “athletic, talented team.”

His coach went even further.

“You don’t get too many kids like him in a career and having him and Jaxson at the same time is truly incredible for me as a coach,” Aardema said.