Defense is the key to Grand Rapids Christian’s perfect start
Grand Rapids Christian’s Tyler Davis is defended by Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Carter Meerman on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023 at Cornerstone University’s Holiday Tournament. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Eric Taylor loves how his team is playing so far. But the Grand Rapids Christian boys basketball coach really loves how well his team is playing defensively.
“Really proud of our defense,” he said. “We preach that a lot that you need to be good on defense. You’re gonna make mistakes offensively, but you win championships with your defense.”
The Eagles are 5-0 this season and are outscoring their opponents 58-47, which is pretty impressive considering they play one of the toughest schedules in the state.
Christian has played four teams in the Top 10 in the area and beat them all, including South Christian, Hudsonville, Byron Center and Grand Rapids Catholic Central on Monday night.
“You look at the past few years and the front end of our schedule are non-conference games,” Taylor said. “But it gives you an opportunity to measure yourself where you’re at from a team standpoint. You get to see your players in tough situations and see how they respond. It gives you a good measuring stick on what you need to work on. If we go out and just play teams that we can beat by 20 or 30 points … we think we’re great. But now we have a lot of things we need to work on.”
Grand Rapids Christian’s Jaylan Ouwinga, left, is defended by Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Jack Bowen on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023 at Cornerstone University’s Holiday Tournament. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).
One of the biggest reasons for the team’s success is 6-foot-9 senior Jaylan Ouwinga, who has committed to play at the University of Toledo. He had a dominant game against Catholic Central with 24 points. Taylor would like to see more games like that out of his big man.
“He’s got to develop that mentality (that he had against Catholic Central),” Taylor said. “Playing at that level all the time will make him a much better player. When you’re playing at a high level, guys feed off of that. When you’re one of the best bigs in the state, you gotta go out and show that every day. He’s one of those guys too, in the bigger games - even last year - you’re like ‘wow that kid can play.’ And then you watch us in another and he’s taking the night off. So just being more consistent with his play.”
Taylor has talked to Ouwinga about affecting the game in different ways.
“I think with his versatility,” Taylor said. “Being able to step outside (and shoot the 3-pointer), rebounding and blocked shots … I told him, ‘you can change the game without even scoring. When no one can guard you, you gotta be aggressive.’ So it was good to see that from him (against Catholic Central).”
Christian has one of the deeper teams in the area and it has showed with the likes of senior Quintin Wills and junior Tyler Davis.
“That started last when when we brought TD up as a sophomore to get his feet wet,” Taylor said. “More seasoning and more experience. Same thing with Q. He’s played some big games and got us on some big runs. I thought he did a nice job (on Monday) and opened up the game a little bit.”
Davis has come off the bench and had 13 points against South Christian and 13 more against Hudsonville. Willis had 11 points on Monday against Catholic Central.
