West Ottawa basketball crushes Grand Haven with Rockford showdown looming

PARK TOWNSHIP - The West Ottawa basketball team has to be the best 9-10 program in the state.

Since Jan. 20, the Panthers are just 3-4, but they consist of a one-point loss to No. 2 East Kentwood, a two-point loss to No. 3 Rockford and a five-point loss to 17-2 Ann Arbor Huron.

On Tuesday night, West Ottawa destroyed a good Grand Haven team 80-56. It was never close.

“It shows what we’re capable of doing,” senior Quentin Edwards Jr. said. “We’re playing to our maximum potential. It shows we are prepared for the big games around the corner in districts. We had to set the tone today.”

Edwards scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the third quarter. He also had six rebounds and five steals.

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“I think I played pretty good,” Edwards said. “I was more aggressive crashing the boards hard.”

The Panthers jumped out to a 20-7 lead in the first quarter and led 38-16 at halftime.

“Especially coming off a one-point loss to Kentwood and a two-point loss to Rockford,” West Ottawa coach Jared Redell said. “Responding after those two, it was nice.”

Sophomore JT Gill had 17 points, Makai Campos 15, Jay Watson scored nine and Darien Watson had 10 points and 13 rebounds.

“When we have the mentality of, ‘I don’t care who scores,’ we’re a good team,” Redell said.

Edwards transferred to West Ottawa for his senior year after three years at Allegan High School, where he had more than 1,000 career points.

“He’s really spent the year trying to fit into a role with these guys,” Redell said. “He has the ability really score the ball. He’s actually shooting over 50 percent from the 3-point line. He just doesn’t take a lot of threes.”

Nolan Portenga and Harper Huntington led Grand Haven (13-7) with nine points each.

West Ottawa travels to Rockford on Friday to play the Rams for the second time this week.

"It feels good,” Stewart said of the win. “It gives us some momentum going into Friday when we play Rockford.”

Buccaneers in a spiral

Grand Haven was 12-1 before losing to West Ottawa on Jan. 21.

Since then, the Buccaneers are 1-7. To make things worse, their best player got hurt on Tuesday night.

Will Plummer, who is averaging more than 20 points per game, hurt his ankle in the second quarter and never returned to the game.

"Grand Haven’s a really good team,” Redell said. “Hopefully we’ll see them in districts. They obviously didn’t play their best game. They were frustrated, you could tell.”

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: West Ottawa basketball defeats Grand Haven in OK Red Conference battle