Rangerball’s fourth game of the season took place on Friday, December 16 when they took on East Kentwood at home. Following a hard-fought loss to Forest Hills Eastern, the team knew they would have to bring their all to triumph over East Kentwood, a highly-ranked team in the OK Red Conference. Bring it they did—but unfortunately, the boys fell 72-60.

The Rangers and Falcons are both known as skilled basketball teams, making for a neck-and-neck battle the entirety of the game. Neither team can say they jumped out to a quick lead, as the first quarter ended with the scoreboard reading 14-14. Both sides stayed consistently high scoring, especially early on.

As the second quarter commenced, East Kentwood gained a slight edge on the boys at times, with them leading 19-16 at the beginning of the second quarter, then 35-31 as halftime began. Rangerball’s efforts managed to keep the scores close for the entirety of the first half. The second quarter greatly echoed the first, with the score remaining close and a high scoring percentage.

But the second half of the game was slightly less fortunate for the Rangers—they wouldn’t obtain a lead over the Falcons again. The score went from 35-31 to 58-50 following the third quarter, with the Rangers effectively preventing a huge lead by their opponent, yet continuing to trail them.

The same goes for the fourth quarter. As the Rangers’ prominence on the scoreboard climbed, so did the Falcons’, but a few more shots made by East Kentwood in the third quarter allowed them to stay ahead for the rest of the game. As the buzzer rang, the score read 72-60 to close Rangerball’s home opener game.

There is no doubt losing in the home opener game is heartbreaking for much of the team, but at the same time, there are positives that can be taken away from this matchup.

“We showed much improvement from our game against Eastern earlier this week regardless of the loss. East Kentwood is a tough team, but we definitely played at a higher level, especially on defense,” comments junior Jonas VanderWoude.  “We’ll just take what we’ve learned from this and take it into our next games.”

Now, Rangerball’s record sits at 1-3 in the early weeks of the season. Winter break will only give them a chance to further improve their teamwork and skills, in hopes of succeeding at the Cornerstone Holiday Tournament on Wednesday, December 28, against Covenant Christian High School.