CSR (Men's Basketball Upsets Hope in 164th Meeting of The Rivalry)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT (PART TWO) FOR FEBRUARY 7, 2007

Calvin Pulls Upset in 164th Meeting of Calvin-Hope Men's Basketball Rivalry

MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 77, Hope 71

HOLLAND -- Nearly one month ago, the Calvin women's basketball team handed the
Hope women's basketball team its first-ever loss at Hope's DeVos Fieldhouse.

On Wednesday night, the Calvin men's basketball team did the same, handing the
Hope men's basketball team its first-ever loss at its home facility, defeating
the Flying Dutchmen 77-71.

Heading into Wednesday's game, the Hope men's basketball team had posted a 28-0
record at th eone-and-a-half year old DeVos Fieldhouse.

Calvin's victory against the sixth-ranked Flying Dutchmen also snapped their
16-game regular season win streak. Wednesday's game also featured the 164th
meeting between the two rivals and after Wednesday's Calvin victory, the series
is tied 82-82.

And certainly not lost in the shuffle was the fact that Calvin (13-8 overall)
maintained a tie for second place in the MIAA standings with Tri-State as the
Knights improve to 8-3 in conference play. Despite the loss, Hope (18-3
overall, 10-1 MIAA) maintains a two-game lead over Hope and Tri-State in the
league standings and a three-game lead over Adrian.

Calvin used a blistering first half to vault into a double-digit halftime lead.
Calvin connected on its first seven shots of the game as well as its first
three free throw attempts to take an 18-4 lead just four-and-a-half minutes
into the contest. Calvin continued on to shoot 48 percent in the first half
while holding Hope to 39 percent shooting to take a 46-35 halftime lead.

Rebounding proved crucial to Calvin's first half success as the Knights held a
28-11 advantage on the glass in the opening 20 minutes.

Hope turned the tables on Calvin on the boards in the second half,
outrebounding Calvin 26-17, helping the Flying Dutchmen climb back into the
game. Torrid three-point shooting by sophomore Jesse Reimink also helped Hope
get back into the contest. Reimink connected on all four of his three-point
attempts in the second half and finished 6-of-6 overall from beyond the arc.
Reimink connected on three of his second half triples in a two-minute span that
pulled the Flying Dutchmen to within a point at 63-62 with 6:51 left to play.

Hope's defense also stepped up down the stretch, holding Calvin scoreless for a
five-minute stretch with the Flying Dutchmen taking their first lead since the
opening seconds of the game on a pair of free throws by senior Stephen Cramer
with 2:38 remaining. The pair of charity tosses by Cramer gave Hope a 67-65
lead but the Knights refused to fold as sophomore Dustin Smith (Hamilton HS)
collected a key steal and fed sophomore teammate Tyler Zoerhof (Holland
Christian HS) for a game-tying dunk on the fast break.

Calvin then got a defensive stop and proceeded to take a 69-67 lead on a layup
by senior Josh Meckes (Bay City). Meckes fouled Hope junior Derek VanSolkema on
the ensuing inbounds pass however and VanSolkema followed by hitting both free
throw tries to tie the game at 69.

Calvin sophomore Caleb Veldhouse (Sioux Falls, SD) was then fouled at the 1:04
mark and nailed a pair of clutch free throws to give the Knights a 71-69 lead.
Junior Derek Griffin (Whitehall HS) followed with two more free throws 30
seconds later. Meckes, freshman Matt Veltema (Calvin Christian HS) and
Veldhouse all added free throws in the closing seconds to help preserve the
Calvin win.

The Calvin victory was its third straight, matching its longest winning streak
of the year. "We've been striving to find consistency with our effort," said
Calvin men's basketball coach Kevin Vande Streek. "This is the third straight
game that we've come out with great effort. Our guys are starting to realize
that when you play with emotion and great effort, good things will happen."

Calvin finished the game with an overall field goal clip of 40.3 percent while
Hope shot just 36.9 percent from the field, marking its lowest shooting
percentage of the season. "We hit some shots in the first half but it was our
defense that got us going tonight," said Griffin in the post-game press
conference. "Our defense has not always been a strength this year but we've
been working hard on our defense every day in practice. If went to keep
improving as a team, we have to keep playing better defense."

Griffin led all scorers with 21 points while also grabbing seven rebounds.
Veldhouse was next for the Knights with 16 points while Veltema tossed in 15
points off the bench for his third straight double-digit scoring game. Smith
also had a strong floor game for the Knights, collecting a game-high six
assists along with seven rebounds and five points. Meckes added seven points,
seven rebounds, a pair of steals and one blocked shot.

Hope was led in scoring by Reimink with 20 points while VanSolkema had 18.

Calvin returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Olivet at 3:00 p.m. in front
of a Calvin Homecoming crowd.

OTHER MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Adrian 63, Olivet 44
Tri-State 75, Olivet 53
Albion 73, Alma 64

MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-7-07

Hope 10-1
Calvin 8-3
Tri-State 8-3
Adrian 7-4
Albion 5-6
Olivet 3-8
Kalamazoo 2-9
Alma 1-10

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Thu Feb 8 00:38:05 2007