Even with the West Coast’s best big man on the bench with a knee injury, Kentridge vs. Kentwood lived up to the hype.
With Kentwood’s Josh Smith in street clothes and Kentridge’s Gary Bell “held” to 23 points after scoring 55 on Tuesday, it was Kentridge senior Craig Rasmussen who led the Chargers to a 65-57 victory on Friday night at Kentwood High.
Rasmussen scored 14 of his career-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, draining four 3-pointers during a three-minute span as Kentridge pulled away.
“I’d been in a slump the last few games, but I caught fire tonight,” Rasmussen said. “I’ve been staying after practice for another half hour.”
The extra work paid off. Rasmussen was 6-for-7 on 3-pointers, and he finished 1-of-2 from inside the arc to go a combined 7-for-9 from the floor.
It was a great feeling for the 6-foot-3 senior.
“You get pumped. All the crowd is yelling for you – you get sky-high,” Rasmussen said.
Kentridge coach Dave Jamison had seen it all before.
“Once he feels it, they’re going in – and all of those were right in the middle (of the rim),” Jamison said. “He can do that. He’s done that since he came into the program. When he was a sophomore on JV, he’d have games where he’d just go nuts.”
Rasmussen’s hot hand was a nice sight for Kentridge fans who saw top shooting guard recruit Gary Bell score a league-record 55 points on Tuesday in a loss to Auburn-Riverside.
Jamison called a team meeting after Tuesday’s game.
“We’ve got other kids who can play,” Jamison said. “I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any doubt about where we were headed and how we felt about each other as a team.”
Against Kentwood, Bell scored 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting. He also pulled down six rebounds and dished out five assists.
Bell is being recruited by most Pacific-10 Conference schools, plus Portland.
California assistant coach Jay John was in attendance Friday.
Kentwood (2-3, 2-3 SPSL North) has now lost two of the three games it has played without Smith, a 6-foot-10 UCLA recruit.
Smith – who served as team water boy during timeouts – said that he plans to resume basketball activities on Monday.
Kentwood coach Michael Angelidis was noncommittal.
“We don’t know. I’m not a doctor,” Angelidis said. “Different people heal faster.”
Smith’s questionable status made preparation difficult for Kentridge (4-2 overall, 4-2 SPSL North).
“We weren’t exactly sure he wasn’t going to play,” Jamison said. “I thought he was going to pull a Willis Reed on us and run out there and start playing.
“We didn’t really know how to prepare for them without Josh,” he added. “They ran a few plays tonight that we’ve never seen before.”
Kentwood senior Tre Tyler picked up the scoring slack, pouring in 18 points.
Junior forward Jason Boyce added 15 points, and Mikell Everette scored 11.
“I thought we played 27 minutes of great basketball and then in a span of three minutes, we just didn’t defend as well, and they hit some really big shots,” Angelidis said.
Kentridge led 44-43 when Rasmussen connected from the left corner with 5 minutes, 7 seconds to play.
Rasmussen hit three more treys during an 16-6 scoring spurt that saw Kentridge take a 62-49 lead.
preps.thenewstribune.com
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