NORTH MUSKEGON – Kyle Beebe did not foul out of the game on Thursday, and because of that simple fact, the Ravenna boys basketball team remains in the thick of the West Michigan Conference title race.
Beebe came back into the game against North Muskegon with four fouls and about four minutes left in the fourth quarter of a very tight contest.
His Ravenna squad had already squandered a large lead, North Muskegon’s Troy McNamus was hitting his shots, and the Norse seemed to have the momentum.
But Beebe is a football quarterback by trade, knows how to handle himself in pressure situations, and did so very well when it mattered the most.
[1]First he tossed in a three-pointer with a minute left, giving the Bulldogs a very important 52-50 lead. That forced the Norse to start fouling, and Beebe ended up at the line twice as the clock ran down.
He hit all four of his shots, then his teammate Grant Becklin added two more with three seconds left, and the Bulldogs escaped with an exciting 58-53 victory over the Norse in an important conference game.
Beebe said his three-pointer came almost from a sense of desperation, because North Muskegon was defending well and the Bulldogs were struggling.
“We were trying to get the offense going, they were doing a good job of switching (defensively), so I just caught it, found a little bit of room and just let it fly,” said Beebe, who finished with a game-high 28 points, including four triples.
Beebe admitted he was nervous at the free throw line with the game hanging in the balance, but said he turned his mind to automatic practice mode.
“It was nuts in here, and I was pretty nervous, but we shoot 20-plus free throws per day, so I was just thinking back to that,” he said.
The victory gave the Bulldogs revenge for an earlier loss to North Muskegon, but more importantly kept them on pace in the conference championship race.
The Bulldogs remain tied for first place with Whitehall with an 8-2 league record. North Muskegon, which came into the game hoping to stay close in the race, fell to 6-4.
“(North Muskegon’s) Coach Rypstra and I were just talking about that, how literally for both clubs, this was a huge game for our seasons,” said Ravenna Coach Courtney Kemp. “If we come and struggle and don’t play well, it tips us the other way in the conference. If we come and play our game, it keeps us in the hunt.”
Kemp said he wasn’t surprised when the Norse rallied back from a 15-point deficit and nearly stole the win.
“That was just North Muskegon playing like North Muskegon can,” the coach said. “They made adjustments and kind of slowed the game down, and then it became a game of runs. They answered ours and we answered theirs.”
[2]In the first half it appeared that Ravenna would not have to battle very hard at all to get the win.
North Muskegon had an early 6-2 lead, then the Bulldogs got hot with a 17-6 run, capped by Travis May’s triple at the buzzer, and Ravenna led 18-10 after one quarter.
The second quarter was almost even, with the Norse having a 15-14 advantage and Ravenna leading 32-25 at halftime.
Beebe lit up the scoreboard with 19 points in the first half while May added eight.
Neither team scored for more than three minutes into the third quarter, until Becklin hit a layup with 4:46 remaining, putting Ravenna up 35-25. That bucket sparked a 7-0 run, and the Bulldogs looked ready to run away with the game with a 40-25 lead.
But that was when Troy McManus, North Muskegon’s leading scorer, finally found his shooting range, and it was a whole new ballgame.
McManus hit two straight three-pointers, Sam Gallo nailed a layup and McManus scored another bucket, giving the Norse a 10-0 run and leaving Ravenna with a slim 40-35 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Jason Bogue opened the fourth with a bucket, then McManus added two more, and suddenly the Norse had a 41-40 lead with 6:16 left in the game.
The contest became a basket-for-basket battle the rest of the way.
May hit a triple for Ravenna with six minutes left, then Beebe hit two free throws, giving Ravenna a 45-41 lead. McManus answered with a three, then Gallo scored a layup with 3:29 left, and the Norse led 46-45.
[3]May hit another three-pointer with three minutes remaining, giving Ravenna the lead again. Then Champ Young hit a bucket, tying the game at 48-48 with 2:46 left.
McManus ignited the home crowd with a steal and layup with 1:29 remaining, giving the Norse a 50-49 edge. Then Beebe hit his big three with a minute left, followed by four free throws, and Ravenna got out of the gym with a win.
Coack Kemp noted that most of the guys who scored the points down the stretch are seniors, have been through the wars, and know how to handle themselves.
“I thought our composure was much better this time,” Kemp said when asked to compare the game to the earlier loss to North Muskegon. “We’re very blessed to have the seniors that we have.
“Kyle Beebe got that fourth foul and came out, the game starts to get away from us and we put him back in, and he doesn’t miss a beat. He had to go back in a little sooner that we were hoping, but any time you can get Kyle back in there, you’re in good hands.”
May finished with 14 points for Ravenna while Becklin totaled 11.
McManus finished with 25 points for North Muskegon, after scoring only five in the first half. Bogue added nine points while Champ Young had seven points and five rebounds.
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