FRUITPORT – Nobody on the Fruitport boys basketball team was born when the movie Rocky Balboa debuted in 2006, but the Trojans seem to be living by a famous line from that film:

“It’s not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

The Trojans, who expected to be pretty good this season, got hit pretty good a few weeks ago, with two losses in one week, but since then they’ve been plowing ahead quite nicely.

Their latest win came on Tuesday when they easily dispatched Belding 63-41 in an O-K Silver conference contest at Fruitport High School.

It was Fruitport’s fifth straight victory since the losses to Mona Shores and Spring Lake. The previous four victims were Kelloggsville, Tri-Unity Christian, Lowell and Whitehall.

“It feels like a long time ago now,” Fruitport head coach Steve Erny said about the Dec. 9 and 12 losses. “Sometimes you play certain teams at certain times of the year and those can be tough wins or close losses. Those were tough losses.

“But our guys didn’t lower their heads after that. We’ve continued to improve and play some of our most complete games.”

Sophomore standout Dexter Lillmars admits the practices following those losses were a little more focused.

“That was kind of a low point for us,” he said. “But I think we could have won both of those games. I don’t think we played terribly in either one. I think we were just really focused in the practices after, and it’s helped us move forward.”

It would have been easy for Fruitport to lack focus on Tuesday, on the second day back to school following the holiday break.

But the Trojans locked in, jumping out to a 16-10 lead after one quarter behind eight points from Lillmars.

Fruitport’s team defense was fierce in the second quarter, limiting Belding to seven points as the Trojans extending the lead to 31-17 at halftime.

Freshman Garrett Olson had eight points in the second quarter for the Trojans.

Fruitport broke the game open in the third quarter, outscoring Belding 22-15 to extend the lead to 53-32.

Day Day Williams had seven third quarter points while Olson added five.

Baskets were harder to come by in the fourth quarter, but it didn’t matter at that point. The Trojans had a 10-9 edge over the final eight minutes and claimed their second conference win of the season.

The Trojans showed off their scoring depth in the game, with three players in double figures and one coming a point short.

Lillmars finished with 18 points, Williams had 15, Olson totaled 13 and Hudson Hazekamp scored nine.

Lillmars, who made a name for himself last season as an excellent three-point shooter, continued to show more offensive diversity by scoring different ways.

He finished with four triples and three buckets from two-point range.

“It was a big focus of mine,” Lillmars said about being able to score from anywhere this season. “I worked on it a lot this offseason. But it’s really a credit to our team. We all can attack the paint and kick out, which just gives us all a lot of options.”

The Trojans are now 7-2 overall, and are tied for first place in the O-K Silver with a 2-0 record. They’ll next travel to Comstock Park for a conference clash on Friday.

“It’s a long season,” Erny said. “We talked about how we have high goals for this team. We’ll need consistent efforts like tonight as the season goes on.”