HOLLAND — A rough stretch continued for the Fruitport boys basketball team on Tuesday as the Trojans dropped an O-K Blue conference game against Holland Christian.
The Maroons dominated the second and third quarters en route to a 62-36 win.
Fruitport trailed by just three points after one quarter, but a disastrous second quarter left the Trojans trailing by 20 at halftime.
“At the end of the first quarter, we’re down 9-6 and I thought we had a lot of opportunities to score, whether it be missed layups or good looks that didn’t go down,” Trojan head coach Steve Erny said. “I think in that second quarter we got sloppy with the ball, we got a little worn down.”
Erny said Holland Christian’s size, with 10 players on the roster 6-foot-2 or taller, was a challenge for his team.The Trojans were also without regular starter Nathan Carlisle, who was out with an illness.
“None of that is an excuse for losing in the way we did,” Erny said. “It was certainly a down night overall, but our energy or whatever was low. We’ve got to come back tomorrow, we’ve got to get better.”
While the Trojans have lost three straight games to fall to 5-4 on the season, and 0-2 in the conference, Erny said his team has shown competitive spurts. It’s just a matter of playing that way for a full four quarters.
“We’ve shown we can compete with good teams for stretches,” he said. “We’ve had maybe two or three pretty good quarters and then we have a really bad stretch. With this young group, we’re trying to find a way to be consistent.
“We have good players on this team. We just have to continue working on playing hard, playing together, playing smart. I like our group.”
Holland Christian led 9-6 after one quarter and used a 20-3 edge in the second quarter to lead 29-9 at the half. The lead grew to 48-21 after three before the Trojans outscored the Maroons 15-14 in the final quarter.
Grade Anspach led Fruitport with 14 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter. DayDay WIlliams followed with eight and Trevor Rusnak with five.
The Trojans return home to host Hudsonville Unity Christian on Friday. [4] [5]