Onekama Basketball at Bear Lake Jan 6, 2006

BEAR LAKE – by Greg Gielczyk. Bear Lake overcame bad first half to snare a big 54-48 victory over Onekama in a pivotal Western Michigan D League game Friday night.

The Lakers took sole possession of first place in the league with a 3-0 record, and are 7-2 overall. Onekama fell to 3-1 in the conference, and 5-1 overall.

Onekama jumped out to a 17-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Portagers led, 27-13, at the half. Bear Lake cut the deficit to 36-33 after three periods, and then outscored the Portagers, 21-12, in the fourth period.

J.J. Randall scored 19 points for the Lakers. Clayton Setser added 15, Anthony Reedy contributed 13 and Josh Groenwald three, Nick Swisher two and Cam Smith two.

Reedy pulled down 11 rebounds to lead the Lakers. Setser hauled down nine rebounds. Groenwald pulled down six. Groenwald dished out eight assists, and Randall two.

Onekama was led in scoring by Tayler Fraly with 16 points. Nate Griswold added 10, Ryan Brown nine, Nate Milarch six, Joey Mitchell five and Trevor Miller two.

"The kids played well in the second half," Bear Lake coach Bryan Groenwald said. "We were terribly cold in the first half, and then Jerry (Brown, the Portagers' coach) went into a control offense because he had a little foul trouble. "Jerry's kids played their guts out. We made a defensive adjustment in the second half, and they had trouble with it. "The Portagers played with heart and intensity. They're a great bunch of kids."

Groenwald had great praise of his players, though. "I'm not going to short-change my kids," Groenwald said. "They were down for three quarters. "You want to talk about intensity ... those young kids have got it. Right across the board, from sophomores to the seniors, those kids played their guts out.

"Both teams played hard. It was tough."

Onekama did have some foul trouble after getting out to a nice lead. Brown felt it was a determining swing in momentum. "We had to change our style of play a little bit, and run some time off the clock to get into halftime without too much damage," Brown said."But, we were not in good shape with fouls.

"Then in the second half, it went basically from bad to worse with the foul situation. And, we didn't adjust real well to their half-court trap, their hustle and their speed."

Brown was proud of the Portagers' effort, and how they handled the adversity in the second half. "You drop a game this deep in the season, and you're not used to it, it can get ugly and sour real quick," Brown said. "I was really proud of all of my boys, and they way they behaved like men as the game wrapped up, and afterwards."

Onekama is at home on Tuesday, Jan. 10 for a non-league game against Frankfort. Bear Lake is off now until Friday, Jan. 13, when the Lakers visit Baldwin in a Western Michigan D League game.

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