TRAVERSE CITY — In the battle of Central Michigan University roommates and teammates turned coaches, Luke Johnson came out on top over JR Wallace as Traverse City Central bested Muskegon Reeths-Puffer in boys basketball action Tuesday.
The Trojans improved to 3-2 under Johnson, who is in his first year as Central’s head coach, and the Rockets remained winless this season at 0-4 with a 75-67 final.
“Five games in. We’re 3-2, and we’ve played some pretty good competition, including (Reeths-Puffer),” Johnson said. “I’m proud of our guys and proud of the way they battled.”
Early on, it looked as if the Trojans would run away with an easy blowout victory as they built a 16-1 lead through the first four minutes of the first quarter.
After a Rockets free throw made it 7-1, Ethan Rademacher converted on a layup and then picked up a steal and an assist on a 3-pointer by Owen Ribel. Jack Potgieter’s layup made it 14-1, and then an easy bucket on the fastbreak from Ribel forced Wallace to call a timeout and rally his team.
Zayden Schneider connected on a three for the Rockets’ first field goal of the game, and Reeths-Puffer battled back from there to make it 23-15 in the final seconds of the first before Brendan Slack connected from long, long distance on a buzzer-beater trey for the 11-point advantage.
The Rockets opened the second quarter on a 7-0 run to throw a scare into the Trojans, but Central maintained a comfortable cushion and led 33-25 halfway through the second. But another Rocket run would put the Trojans behind going into the locker room as Reeths-Puffer ended the quarter with 14 unanswered points for a 39-33 lead at the half.
“They came out and punched us in the face in the second quarter, and we were a little bit stunned,” Johnson said. “We didn’t defend the way we normally defend. We didn’t take care of the ball. But we continued to gut it out in the second half, getting good stops and taking good shots.”
Central opened the third with its first points in nearly five minutes on a Rademacher layup, and then back-to-back threes from Rademacher and Cassius Feeney gave the lead back to the Trojans at 43-41.
The Trojans and Rockets traded the lead back and forth in the final half of the third quarter. Marvin Moore put Reeths-Puffer up 47-46 with 1:35 left in the frame, but a 9-2 run from the Trojans on 3-pointers from Ribel, Hudson McLean and Brendan Slack gave Central the momentum heading into the fourth with a 55-49 lead.
“We did a great job as a team coming back from that second quarter,” Rademacher said. “We had the momentum in the first quarter, and they punched us in the mouth — so we punched them back.”
Another trio of triples pushed the Trojans ahead in the fourth quarter as Slack, Ribel and Rademacher all dialed long distance for a 64-56 lead. A jumper from Feeney put the Trojans up 10 at 68-58, and Central was able to fend off the Rockets’ comeback attempt down the stretch to pull out the eight-point win.
“Great team ball. Everything started clicking,” Rademacher said of Central’s performance in the second half. “We have great potential. We’ve been playing together all our lives, and I think we can make a good, long run come March. We’re just going to keep showing teams why we deserve some credit.”
Five Trojans finished in double figures in the win.
Ribel led Central with 18 points, four rebounds, one assist and one steal. Slack tallied a baker’s dozen with two boards. Feeney had a dozen to go along with five assists, two rebounds and two steals. Rademacher had 11 points, four rebounds, five dimes and three steals. Potgieter scored 10 with eight rebounds and three assists.
“Every opportunity to step on the court is a chance to grow and continue to get better,” Johnson said. “We saw some things tonight that we didn’t do a good job of, and we’ll go watch some film, break that down and hopefully continue to get better.”
Johnson said the Trojans are “young and inexperienced” now, but he expects that to change as the season progresses.
“I’ve had these guys for all of 20 practices and about a month,” he said. “We’ll continue to grind things out and improve.”
Central hosts Bay City Central on Friday in their final game before a two-weeklong break until Jan. 3. The Trojans don’t begin play in the Big North Conference until the new year when they host crosstown rival Traverse City West on Jan. 10.
“It’s going to be competitive,” Johnson said of the Trojans’ Big North slate. “There’s a lot of parity. I don’t think the league, overall, scores a lot of points. So there will be some opportunities for teams to squeak one out here or there in a low-scoring game.”
Rademacher and the rest of the Trojans seem confident in their ability to win the Big North after Cadillac took the title last season.
“Last year didn’t go as planned, but we can turn things right back around this year,” Rademacher said of the Big North. “We can hang with all of those teams. Last year was a fluke, and we’re coming for everyone.”