Grand Rapids Christian used its size advantage to beat Grand Rapids Catholic Central 58-50 on Friday night in front of a big crowd at Cornerstone University.
"This is what you play for," Eagles head coach Eric Taylor said. "You spend all summer working hard getting in the weight room, working on your skill development, get a chance to play in front of a great crowd and I thought my guys stepped up tonight."
Grand Rapids Chrisitan led 26-17 at the half and extended that lead to 12 on follow dunk form 6'8" junior Jalen Ouwinga who scored 13 points in the game, but CC cut that deficit to just 3 (38-35) after three quarters.
The Eagles scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter, the final give from 6'6" senior Tyler Porte to take a 14-point lead.
"Just keep the lead," Ouwinga said about the final quarter. "Last three minutes like coach Jimmy (Karrip) said, stay poised, stay under control."
Catholic Central senior guard Kaden Brown scored a game-higg 26 points, senior guard Dono Thames led Christian with a 17 points.
"We knew what we had to do," Thames said. "We wanted to learn from our mistakes from last year and previous games. We did this in practice a lot and I want to thank coach for putting us in position like that."
For more scores, highlights, and the latest news on high school sports in West Michigan, go to the FOX 17 Blitz page.
