7 rebounds

The Tigers had trouble taking care of the ball in a 74-52 defeat at the Aldrich Athletic Center on Thursday night.  “I give a lot of credit to Cornerstone as they just sped us up and forced us to make some poor passes.”  Said Coach Oldebekking after the game.  “I thought Jake Blauwkamp did a great job, he did a majority of the ball handling and only had one turnover.” “These guys are young and they are learning what they can and can’t do on the court.” “There are always growing pains, but they are improving and are getting better.”

The Tigers were led in scoring by Cameron Cramer who had 15 points.  Tommy Smits hit boards hard bringing down 7 rebounds from his guard position.  The Tigers are back in action Tuesday as they take on Calvin College, game time is 8:00pm in the Spoelhof Center on the campus of Calvin College. 

10-11 from the field

The Tigers held a 38-32 advantage at the break, and built the lead up to as many as 12 points but were not able to hold off the charging Panthers from Davenport losing 68-65.  Holding a height advantage at every position the Tigers cleaned up on the boards, but had trouble matching the three point shooting prowess of the Panthers, who made 13  three pointers for the game.  

“I thought that we did a pretty good job of sticking to the game plan, we got the ball inside, and crashed the boards hard, said Coach Oldebekking, and “we just need to limit our turnovers.” “The mistakes we made tonight are all very fixable, and as these guys get more experience, a lot of them will disappear.”  The Tigers forced Davenport into 24 turnovers, but had 25 themselves. 

Grace was led in scoring by Caleb Cook who had a game high 22 points on an incredible 10-11 shooting from the field.  Cameron Cramer finished with a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.  The Tigers will be right back in action on Thursday as they take on Cornerstone University on the Aldrich Athletic Center at 7:00.  Please come out and cheer on your Tigers

15 points

Grace Bible College JV inaugural season came to an end with an 84-72 loss to Calvin College.  “Calvin College is a great team, probably the best we’ve played all year.” Coach Oldebekking said after the game. “They really took it to us in the first half; however, regardless of how much we were down we kept fighting, and cut into the lead right till the end of the game.”   The lead that coach was talking about was large; the Tigers went into the locker room down 50-27. “That is a tough lead to make up especially against a team like Calvin that makes very few mistakes, in the second half we tried to change the tempo of the game a little to get them out of a rhythm, and seemed to work a bit.”

The Tigers were led in scoring by the birthday boy Zach Schutte who scored 15 points, despite two vicious shots to the nose in the game.  Brad Rosenzweig chipped in with 13 points. The Tigers ended the season with a record of 6 wins and 8 losses. “We may have lost more games then we won this year, but the growth of these young men on and off the court has been really an amazing thing to watch.” Coach Oldebekking said, “The way they carry themselves on the court is what makes me the most proud, their respect for officials, the other team, and each other, shows their great character and was the reason our season was as successful as it was.”  Continue to check in on the website for player updates, and more information regarding your GBC Tigers.

17 points 9 rebounds

The Tigers used up all their magic up in the overtime victory on Thursday as another great comeback fell short, 77-76.  The seesaw battle saw both teams build eight point leads in the game only to see them evaporate.  “I think that this may have actually been one of our best games,” Coach Oldebekking said after the game.  “We had a few defensive lapses but we really forced them to take a lot of long jump shots, the problem is they made a lot of them.”   “Offensively we really wanted to pound the ball inside and get after the offensive glass and I thought we did that, we had 18 offensive rebounds which is a season high.” 

With 35 seconds remaining the Trailblazers had a one point lead, the Tigers fouled and but OCU’s Jay Allen calmly sank two free throws.  The Tigers went down and got a quick two, but again after the foul OCU sank both free throws to seal the game. 

The Tigers were led in scoring by Cody Nisonger with 22 points; he was followed in the score book by Mike Svoboda with 17 points and 9 rebounds.  The Tigers will be back in action January 31^st, in their final game of the season at Calvin College. 

11 points 9 rebounds

Down nine points at halftime the Tigers put together a valiant rally in the second half, but the Knights from Calvin College were just too much, as they pulled away for the 57-50 victory.  The Tigers built a quick 10-4 lead four minutes into the game, but thanks to some cold shooting and solid Calvin defense could only muster 16 points at halftime, as Calvin went into the locker room with a 25-16 lead.  “We normally are a pretty good three point shooting team and we just didn’t get the looks from three we normally get, so at halftime we knew we were going to need a different approach.” said Coach Oldebekking after the game.   “I thought we adjusted well after halftime to their defense, and the guys really dug in defensively and that got us back in the game.”  The Tigers took their first lead of the second half with 3:00 minutes to go at 50-48, but couldn’t muster another basket.

Statistically the game was almost even as both teams shot 39% from the field and each had 37 rebounds. “ There were two main things that attributed to this loss, first we were 0-9 from three point range, but the biggest was we had 28 turnovers, we gave them to many extra possessions  and it ended up being the difference in the game. “

The Tigers were led in scoring by Brendon Coe and Aaron Schutte who each chipped in with 11 points.  The Tigers are back in action January 20^th as they travel to Cornerstone University to take on the Golden Eagles.