Last week, North Muskegon’s boys basketball team rescued victory from the jaws of defeat in an unbelievable, last-second rally at Montague.
Friday night, the unbeaten and Division 3 sixth-ranked Norsemen faced a big-time road challenge against Grand Rapids Covenant Christian. They added another impressive win to their sparkling resume, their 18th victory in as many tries this season.
In a hostile environment, North Muskegon used a big third quarter to earn a 62-54 nonleague victory over Covenant Christian.
“It was a great game in front of a packed homecoming gym at Covenant Christian,” North Muskegon coach Chuck Rypstra said “We had a hard time dealing with the speed of the game early and rushed some shots as they were able to jump out front.
“We settled down in the second quarter and although they outscored us, I felt we got our legs and understood how hard we had to play. In the second half, we got some of those same shots that we had in the first half to go down and the third quarter was the decisive one.”
North Muskegon trailed 18-13 after the first quarter and 30-24 at halftime, but the Norsemen regrouped at the break and blitzed the Chargers with a 23-7 third-quarter surge.
The Norsemen withstood the Chargers in the fourth quarter and finished off the impressive road win.
“We were able to hold the lead although they made major runs at us in the fourth quarter,” Rypstra said. “We hit free throws and had some timely baskets when they had to press out on us.”
North Muskegon’s Adam Dugener led all scorers with 26 points. Jaxon Lisinski had 13 points and three steals for the Norsemen, while Lamarkis Graham finished with 10 points. James Young totaled seven points and five assists, while TJ Byard had four points and five rebounds for the balanced Norse squad.
For Covenant Christian (11-7), Ben Elzinga finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Carter Scholten scored 17 points.
A week ago, Covenant Christian lost at undefeated, Division 2 fifth-ranked Whitehall, 67-59.
