March 1, 2001
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Over the past few years, Calvin and Defiance have locked up in several
big games but until Thursday, the two schools had never met in NCAA III
Tournament play.
That all changed Thursday evening as the Knights pulled away for an
89-78 victory over the visiting Yellow Jackets (17-11) in a first round
NCAA III Tournament game in front of more than 4,000 fans at the Calvin
Fieldhouse.
Calvin (23-4) advances to second round play where it will travel to Ohio
Northern (24-2), ranked number-one in the final NABC Division III
Coaches Poll, in a Saturday night contest slated to begin at 7:30 pm at
Ohio Northern's King Horn Convocation Center.
Saturday's game will be the sixth meeting between Calvin and Ohio
Northern in men's basketball including the third in NCAA III Tournament
play. Ohio Northern has won both prior NCAA III Tournament meetings. In
1980, Ohio Northern defeated Calvin 92-90 in a Great LakesRegional
semifinal In 1993, the Polar Bears defeated defending national champion
Calvin 67-56 in a national quarterfinal game in Emory, Virginia. Ohio
Northern continued on to win its first-ever national championship in
men's basketball. Saturday's game will pit a pair of conference
champions as Ohio Northern captured the OAC regular season and
subsequent conference tournament title while Calvin won both the MIAA
regular season and post-season tournament crown.
On Thursday night, Calvin defeated a Defiance team that had chased the
Knights the past two years for the MIAA title. Formerly a member of the
MIAA and now a member of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference
(HCAC), Defiance brought a six-game win streak into Thursday night's
contest.
Calvin opened Thursday night's game with a bang, rolling out to a 15-2
lead four minutes into the contest. Defiance responded with a 20-9 run
over the next eight minutes to creep to within two points at 24-22.
Defiance would later tie the game on two occasions late in the first
half but would never take the lead as the Knights used a layup from
freshman Chris Prins and a three-pointer by sophomore Bryan Foltice to
take a 43-39 halftime lead.
In the second half, Calvin used an 8-0 run to build a 53-44 lead at the
16:03 mark. Defiance answered with a 7-2 run to cut the gap to four at
55-51 with 12:34 to play. Calvin then produced a 16-5 scoring run over
the next five-and-half minutes to take a 71-56 lead. Foltice scored
nine points during the Calvin scoring surge while senior guard Nate
Burgess also connected on a momentum-building triple to help the Knights
build the 15-point edge.
Back-to-back triples from senior Jason Hervey allowed Defiance to cut
the gap to 71-64 with 6:11 to go but Calvin was able to seal the game by
hitting 16-of-19 free throw attempts inside the final six minutes of
play. Defiance hit 16 of its first 18 free throw attempts but went just
1-of-6 at the line over the final 7:21 of regulation.
Foltice led all scorers with 22 points, connecting on 9-of-14 from the
field including 3-of-5 from three-point range. Prins was also huge for
the Knights as he sliced and diced his way for 19 points while grabbing
13 rebounds to rack up his first career double-double. The rebounding
effort was also a career-high for Prins. Sophomore Jeremy Veenstra also
had a double-double effort for the Knights as he collected 12 points and
11 boards for his 14th career double-double. Senior center Josh
Tubergen also had 11 points for the Knights.
Defiance was led in scoring by junior guard Eric Viney who pumped in 20
points while also grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out four assists.
Kill also had a double-double effort with 10 points and a game-high 16
rebounds. Sophomore Mike Kurdziel had 17 points off the bench for the
Yellow Jackets while Hervey added 11 points.
Calvin finished with a 43.8 percent field goal clip (32-of-73) while
Defiance shot 35.1 percent (27-of-77) overall, shooting below 40 percent
in both the first and second half.
-end-
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