CSR (Basketball Teams Sweep Olivet At Fieldhouse in Men's/Women's Basketball)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR JANUARY 18, 2006

BASKETBALL TEAMS SWEEP OLIVET AT FIELDHOUSE

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 76, Olivet 56

In a game that Calvin absolutely had to have, the Knights came up big, defeating Olivet 76-56 Wednesday night at the Calvin Fieldhouse in a meeting of second place teams in the MIAA.

The victory keeps Calvin (13-2 overall, 7-1 MIAA) one game behind league-leading Hope (15-1 overall, 8-0 MIAA) while Olivet (10-7 overall, 6-2 MIAA) drops two games behind the Flying Dutch. Hope defeated Alma 76-69 Wednesday night to remain alone in first place.

Calvin's victory came on the heels of a 64-54 defeat to Hope the previous Saturday.
Olivet was bidding for its first victory at Calvin since 1992. Calvin was also in danger of dropping back-to-back conference games at home for the first time in five years.

Ranked 17th in the latest D3hoops.com Top-25 poll, Calvin held control for most of the first half, rolling out to a 26-10 lead with 9:22 left in the first half. Olivet answered with a 10-3 run over the final three minutes of the first half however to claw to within eight at 35-27 at the halftime break.

Calvin's lead then shrank to one at 39-38 three-and-a-half minutes into the second half. Olivet had a chance to take the lead but misfired on a layup attempt. Calvin proceeded to rip off a 19-6 scoring run over the next six minutes to regain control of the game and take a 58-44 lead with 10:32 left on the clock. Junior Lisa Winkle (South Christian HS) and freshman Kelly Trewhella (Rockford HS) combined for 10 of Calvin's 16 points in the six-minute spurt.

Calvin held a double-digit lead the rest of the way to roll on to the win.

Lisa Winkle had a huge game for the Knights, collecting her 22nd collegiate double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds while also swatting away seven shots and collecting four assists. Trewhella also had a big evening with a career-high 14 points off the bench including a 3-for-5 showing from beyond the three-point arc.

Sophomore point guard Lindsey Peuler (Grandville HS) was next with nine points while senior Sarah Winkle had eight points. Sophomore Charis Larson (Grand Rapids Christian HS), freshman Kristi Brummel (South Christian HS) and sophomore Erica Boonstra (Chicago Christian HS) added seven points apiece. Larson had a solid all-around game with four rebounds, two assists and two steals. She was also primarily responsible for holding Olivet's Audrey Graham to just four second half points after Graham had scored 15 in the first half, en route to a game-high 19 points.

Graham was the only Comet to reach double-digits in scoring with junior Jennifer O'Neil chipping in with nine. Olivet's Stephanie Smith was held to five points after scoring 35 points on the strength of an MIAA record nine three-point field goals in a Saturday victory over Alma.

Calvin shot 51.7 percent overall including 40 percent from three-point range. The Knights also held Olivet to just 37.5 percent shooting including just 35.3 percent in the second half. In addition, Calvin held a 43-26 rebounding advantage.

Calvin returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Kalamazoo at 3:00 p.m. as the second half of the MIAA regular season gets underway.

OTHER MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES WEDNESDAY
Hope 76, Alma 69
Kalamazoo 67, Tri-State 59
St. Mary's 55, Albion 51

MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 1-18-06

Hope 8-0
Calvin 7-1
Olivet 6-2
St. Mary's 5-3
Alma 3-5
Kalamazoo 2-6
Tri-State 1-7
Adrian 0-8

MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 73, Olivet 71
(Written by Annalise Venhuizen '08)

GRAND RAPIDS * The Knights fought a nail-biting fight this evening against conference opponent Olivet College (5-11, 1-4 MIAA). After trailing the Comets for most of the match, Calvin (11-5, 4-1 MIAA) won a narrow victory that came down to the last second, defeating Olivet 73-71.

Tying four times within the first nine minutes of play, Calvin and Olivet remained close in scoring. However, after a tip-in by junior Josh Meckes (Bay City/Saginaw Valley Lutheran) put Calvin within one, 17-18, a Comet 11-3 streak that included three Olivet three-pointers gave Olivet a 29-20 lead. The Comets extended that lead to ten, 34-24, off another three-point goal by De'Andre Pruitt, who sunk yet another three with 1:30 left in the half to reestablish that 10-point lead. Olivet connected on seven three-pointers in the half. Calvin senior Kyle Trewhella (Rockford/Rockford) closed the half with two made jumpers, allowing the Knights to edge within six points of the Comets at 41-35.

Olivet (5-11 overall, 1-4 MIAA) opened up the second half with five straight points, giving the Comets their largest lead yet, 46-35. Over the next seven minutes, however, Calvin staged an amazing offensive comeback that was capped off by a three-pointer from the hands of freshman Caleb Veldhouse (Sioux Falls, SD/Sioux Falls Christian) that tied the score at 52-52. The score tied two more times, at 56 and 60, before Calvin would take its first lead since the 15:00 mark in the first half.

Again, it was a Veldhouse three-pointer that gave the Knights the boost. With 5:30 left to play, Calvin led 63-30. Veldhouse was the solo scorer for the Knights in the next 2:30, putting up two free-throws and two jumpers: enough to keep Calvin's lead. That lead deteriorated into the eighth tie of the game when, with only 1:30 left in the game, Olivet tied Calvin at 69 on a free throw by Robert Banks. Junior Kyle Snoeyink (Grandville/Calvin Christian) sunk two free-throws to put Calvin up 71-69 with under a minute to play. Olivet's Greg Ravy then tied the game for the ninth time at 71 with a made lay-up after grabbing a rebound off his own miss. Twenty-three seconds were left on the clock. After a strategic Calvin time-out, Veldhouse again stepped up big for Calvin, sinking a step-back jumper from 18 feet with 1.6 seconds left in regulation time, giving the Knights the close 73-71 victory.

Veldhouse led Calvin with 20 points, connecting on four three-pointers. Snoeyink followed with 14 points and nine rebounds and Trewhella had 12 points.

For the Comets, De'Andre Clement and De'Andre Pruitt scored 17 points apiece, and together sunk seven three-point shots.

Calvin has now won its last 16 meetings with Olivet which was bidding to defeat the Knights at the Calvin Fieldhouse for the first time since 1986.

The win allowed Calvin to remain tied for second place in the MIAA with Hope, while Albion remains undefeated in MIAA play. Calvin will face first-place and third-ranked Albion on the road Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.

OTHER MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES WEDNESDAY

Albion 64, Kalamazoo 58
Tri-State 77, Alma 70
Hope 77, Adrian 51

MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 1-18-06

Albion 5-0
Calvin 4-1
Hope 4-1
Tri-State 3-2
Kalamazoo 2-3
Alma 1-4
Olivet 1-4
Adrian 0-5

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Wed Jan 18 23:35:06 2006