Skip Hunter

The SWC Eagle boys opened Red Rock Conference basketball season play by hosting the Red Rock Central Falcons. In the past the Falcons have proved to be a pretty salty opponent. Their opening record was not so good, but the game has to be played. The Falcons could not keep up with the Eagles as the home team won, 71-35.

After the JV game, which the Eagles also won, the pep band took the stage for a while. Its nice to hear its stirring tones once again. When warm-ups were over, the band played the national anthem and the opening tip was enacted. The Eagles won the tip and the game was on.

The Eagles started slowly; Cody Van’Hof made 1 of 2 from the free throw line. Then is was Micah Schaap with a steal and a score. After a made RRC free throw, the Eagles executed a nice inbounds play. Dawson Rieck passed into Schaap who got the ball to Rieck beyond the arc. The junior splashed home the trey. Cole Walhof left-handed a ball into the bucket, and then scored after a steal. He scored his third consecutive bucket using a Carter Van Hulzen pass to make the score 12-1.

Each of the starters had at least 1 point, 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 1 steal. This shows the balance of the 21-22 squad.

RRC picked up a pair of buckets before Jarett Kuipers came off the bench and scored using a Schaap feed. Rieck knocked down another trey using a pass from Kuipers on a nice inside-outside play. Van’t Hof made a steal and passed to Walhof for a bucket. After RRC made a 4-point mini-run, Rieck hit his third trey using a Walhof pass. Then it was VanHulzen hitting from deep, using another Walhof feed. Rieck swiped the ball and passed to Schaap to give the Eagles a 27-9 advantage with 7:44 left on the first half clock.

The visitors scored from long-range, but the Eagles came back with 2 made charity tosses by Rieck who was the Eagle’s high scorer with 17. SWC continued to add points; Jacob Uilk scored from beyond the arc using an Aiden Schaap pass. When Van Hulzen made a nice cut to the bucket, Kuipers got him the ball for a lay-up. Owen Vogel got into the scoring column using an M. Schaap assist.