Grand Haven boys hoops bounces back with Drawbridge Classic win over Spring Lake

SPRING LAKE — Sometimes the jolting reality of an early season loss can be a blessing in disguise during a long-winded basketball season.
The Grand Haven boys basketball team took a 64-50 loss to Mona Shores on Tuesday and used it as motivation heading into its Drawbridge Classic showdown at Spring Lake on Friday night.
A few inspired practices on Wednesday and Thursday left the Buccaneers refocused and hungry when the game tipped off Friday night, as they used a 22-point surge in the third quarter to pull away for a 64-54 win over the Lakers.
Friday’s result gave Grand Haven its seventh straight win in the head-to-head series, and its biggest margin of victory since 2021.
“I think Tuesday definitely refocused our guys,” said Grand Haven head coach Greg Immink. “I think it showed them that when we’re focused and we’re ready to play, we can play some pretty good basketball. I thought (tonight) was really a good step forward for our team.
“We’ve got a young team. We don’t have a ton of experience, at least not in major roles or leadership, so it was a good lesson for us to learn from Tuesday. If that’s what it takes for us to improve as a team, that’s the way it’s going to be. Obviously, you’d rather learn the lessons while you’re winning, but sometimes it takes a loss like that to refocus. I thought the last couple days of practice, we did that and it showed in how we played tonight.”
Senior guard Will Plummer finished with 19 points to pace Grand Haven (5-1), while junior Amani Bruesch-Frierson added 11 points, senior center Nolan Portenga had nine points and junior Gavin Davis had eight points.
“Will has really expanded his game this year,” said Immink of Plummer, a Calvin University commit. “Over the last couple of years, the only thing he’s been asked to do is just shoot the ball. He’s done that marvelously, but he’s really expanded his skills off-the-dribble, defensively, and rebounding. He’s just become a much more complete player.”
The Grand Haven student section helped bring the energy Friday night, as many of the Buccaneers supporters tailgated in the Spring Lake High School parking lot from 3 p.m. until tip-off of the boys varsity game at 6 p.m.
“It helped a lot with our energy,” said Plummer of the crowd on Friday night. “It felt like a home-court advantage for us almost. We had way more energy than Spring Lake did and we decided to press up (on defense) because of that.”
MORE: Images from Friday night’s game between Grand Haven and Spring Lake
Grand Haven held a narrow 27-21 lead at halftime but forced seven turnovers by Spring Lake in the third quarter, as they pulled ahead by 20 points entering the fourth quarter of play. The Lakers eventually cut into the deficit in the final minutes of regulation as both teams played their reserves down the stretch.
“They came out and really turned up the physicality in that third quarter,” said Spring Lake head coach Bill Core. “We finished the game with 17 turnovers and almost half of them came in that third quarter alone. We felt fortunate only to be down by six points at halftime and then the flood gates kind of opened up after that because we basically gave up uncontested layup after uncontested layup and a two-possession game turned into a 20-point game just like that.”
Sophomore Jacob Ayers finished with 13 points, six rebounds, and four assists to lead Spring Lake, while John Westhoff added eight points, Max Feltner had six points and seven rebounds and Jack Brown, Maddux Kipling and Landon O’Donnell each had six points.
The Lakers were without senior standout Ayden Ayers for the majority of Friday night’s game, as the playmaking guard for the Lakers battled an illness that has kept him inactive since last Friday.
“Today is the first time I’ve seen him in a week,” said Core of Ayers. “He’s been out sick for the past six days. He came yesterday and watched and listened to the scouting report and went to half a day of school. He went to school today and told me he could give me a possession or two if I needed it.
“We tried to get him in there since he’s a senior and this is a big game for him but you could just tell that he couldn’t do it. I feel for him because he’s a three-year starter for us and a floor leader out there and he really wanted to compete in this one.”
Spring Lake falls to 3-2 overall on the season but just like Grand Haven earlier this week, Core expects a bounce-back effort from his squad when they return to the court in 10 days for the Lake Michigan Cup tournament at Grand Haven High School.
“I told our guys that it’s a rivalry game and I know they wanted to win it really badly, but it’s just one game,” said Core. “If we learn from this and we work harder in practice to push each other and take care of the ball and we don’t make those same turnovers in the future – this one loss might be worth a couple wins later on.
“We’ll bounce back. Grand Haven is a good team and they’re going to win a lot of games. We’ll take a few days off and then it’s back to practice. We’ll have three games that week after Christmas with the (Lakeshore Cup) at Grand Haven on that Monday (Dec. 29) and Tuesday (Dec. 30) then we jump into conference play at Holland Christian on Jan. 2.”
Spring Lake (3-2) faces Onekama on Dec. 29 at 4 p.m. in the opening round of the Lakeshore Cup tournament at Grand Haven. Grand Haven (5-1) clashes with Freeland on Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. in the Cornerstone University Holiday Showcase.