Growing Reeths-Puffer boys basketball team comes up big late in win over Caledonia

MUSKEGON — The young Reeths-Puffer team is growing rapidly, and the Rockets displayed how much better they're getting Friday night, playing with confidence and making several big plays late in a 52-43 win over Caledonia to open O-K Green Conference play.

And they may owe at least a little of their success to a 20th-century book.

R-P (2-5, 0-1 O-K Green) played with visible confidence throughout, particularly junior Marvin Moore, who took on primary ballhandling duties and scored a game-high 25 points. Moore was one of the team's most experienced players entering the season, but due to the presence of stars Jaxson Whitaker and Travis Ambrose had not had many chances to lead the offense in years past. However, Friday night he looked like a player who'd been in control of his team for years.

Teammate Elliot Schneider said the team recently read the 1989 book Who Moved My Cheese?, a bestselling novel about characters who adjust to change around them, and Moore was inspired by the book.

"Last year, he didn't talk," Schneider said of Moore. "It really ran through Jaxson and Travis. This year, a lot's being put on Marvin's shoulders. I feel like confidence is coming through him, because he's willing to change in practice. He's willing to take on more and more, and he's willing to talk more."

Moore didn't mention any literary inspiration but said his confidence has come through work and earning the trust of his teammates.

"All the hours in the gym and all the trust my teammates have in me," Moore said. "Once I have their trust and they trust me to shoot, I'm going to do my best to do everything for them."

R-P trailed 38-36 after three quarters and dominated the final quarter, outscoring the Scots 16-5 in that span. The Rockets were able to get to the basket repeatedly down the stretch, doing so off inbounds plays, on fast breaks and in the half-court offense.

"The guys have been working hard," R-P coach J.R. Wallace said. "They're doing a good job. It helps to get the victories, then you see the stuff that you've been working on come to fruition."

The Rockets fell behind early, but did a fine job keeping up with the early surge by Caledonia and took a slight lead late in the second quarter on a three-pointer by Zayden Schneider. Both teams had lengthy scoring droughts to end the first half, and the Rockets took a 23-21 lead into halftime. Caledonia had a 10-0 run in the third quarter to grab the lead back, but as it turned out, it was only a preamble for R-P's overpowering finish.

Elliot Schneider opened the outburst by scoring an and-one basket to start the fourth quarter, and contributed two more buckets to the run later, one on a breakaway thanks to a great pass from Brayden Mitchelson and another off an inbounds pass. Those were his only three baskets of the game, but it was a great sign for an R-P offense that's been heavily reliant on Moore and Mitchelson (who had 18 points himself) to date.

Wallace said he was very pleased with his team's effort, especially on the defensive end, calling it the Rockets' best work yet on that side of the court.

"They say that teams take on the characteristics of the coach, and I have a lot of swagger, so hopefully, that's rubbing off on them a little bit," Wallace grinned. "Boxing out, running the floor hard, communicating on defense, those transferable skills that translate into the game of basketball.

"You can teach a lot of guys to do offense, but defense maintains energy, effort and focus. If you're focused and you bring the energy and you put forth the effort, then you can defend. You don't have to be a great five-star player to defend."

Schneider gave credit to Wallace for building an emphasis on defense and said the team has done a lot more running in practice under its first-year coach, which has helped with endurance.

"This year we're sprinting up and down the court hundreds of times a practice, usually more," Schneider said, adding the team has bought in to that extra work. "It's a lot more amped up because Coach expects a lot out of us."