GRAND RAPIDS – The Fruitport boys basketball team is in the midst of a six-game losing streak after falling 62-57 to Grand Rapids West Catholic on Tuesday night.

While the Trojans are upset by that fact, their fight and passion remains alive and was very evident on Tuesday.

After leading for most of the game, Fruitport found itself down 59-50, with seemingly little hope, with 1:13 remaining in the game.

But the Trojans kept on battling until the end.

A Grade Anspach three-pointer cut the deficit to six points with 1:03 remaining.

After forcing a West Catholic turnover, Anspach knocked down another three-pointer to make the score 59-56 with 56 seconds remaining.

After two missed West Catholic free throws, junior Ryan Bosch split a pair of free throws to cut the Trojan deficit to 59-57 with 29.4 seconds remaining.

The last-minute comeback was not successful in the end. West Catholic closed the game out by going three-of-four from the free throw line and forcing two Trojan turnovers.

But Fruitport, which has lost by some pretty large margins in recent weeks, never tossed in the towel.

“We cut it to three and had the ball,” said head coach Steve Erny about the fight his team showed in the attempted comeback. “Being down nine after being ahead a lot of the night, it would have been easy to pack it in. But we got a couple stops and they couldn’t stop us. We got an opportunity to claw back, and it really showed the group hasn’t given up and is fighting.”

Fruitport is now 4-8 overall on the season and 0-5 in O-K Blue conference play.

While the Trojans haven’t won since Dec. 22, Erny believes his team is showing positive signs, especially when it comes to supporting one another.

“Some of the players even talked about how the support was visible on the bench,” Erny said. “The energy the bench provided was important for us to stay in the game. Growth is showing, but we have a bunch of hurting guys right now because losing sucks.”

Fruitport jumped out to a 13-10 lead after one quarter, due in part to a strong defense that helped force six West Catholic turnovers.

Bosch led the Trojans with four points in the first.

Bosch was strong once again in the second quarter, totaling six points and helping the Trojans to a 23-20 halftime lead.

Neither team was burning up the net at that point. West Catholic was just 4-for-17 from the field in the second quarter while the Trojans were just 3-for-12.

Coming out of halftime, Fruitport went on a 10-5 run to take a 33-25 lead with 3:55 remaining in the third quarter. Bosch had five points in the third while Kyle Burke added four and Anspach chipped in three points.

But West Catholic ended the third with a 13-2 run and took a 38-35 lead into the fourth.

Bosch finished his strong night with 10 points in the fourth quarter while Anspach’s back-to-back three pointers gave him six points. Their efforts helped the Trojans keep it close all the way to the end.

Bosch, a big post player, had 25 points on the night while Burke finished with 13 and Anspach added 11.

“I thought we did a good job of getting the ball to Ryan,” said Erny about Bosch’s strong game. “Ryan did a good job of posting up, too. They didn’t send a double or anything that could cause him problems. It shows maturity to keep getting the ball to our advantage (a big man in the paint) and I was really happy.”

West Catholic was led by senior Jeremiah Jones, who finished with 26 points.

Fruitport will travel to Hamilton on Friday in search of its first conference win.