CSR (Women's Basketball Defeats Albion in MIAA Tournament Semis - To Face Hope in Finals Saturday)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR FEB. 22, 2007

Women's Basketball Headed to MIAA Tournament Championship Game

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 70, Albion 54
(Written by Drew DeVries '08)

GRAND RAPIDS - In a game closer than the final score would indicate, the
Knights had their hands full with the visiting Britons of Albion but prevailed
70-54 in an MIAA Tournament semifinal game Thursday night.

Calvin will face rival Hope on Saturday in the MIAA Tournament championship
game slated to start at 3:00 p.m. at the Calvin Fieldhouse.

With the victory, Calvin (25-1) matched its highest single season record for
wins in a season while also matching its highest win streak total of 22 games.

In similar fashion to its first round tournament game, Calvin opened up
scoring with Marcia Harris (Grand Rapids/Grand Rapids) tallying the first four
points. The Knights connected on their first three shot attempts and led
Albion 6-2 early on. But Albion was able to stay right with its counter part
and tied the game at eight apiece.

That's when the Knights once again went to Harris who scored eight of the
first twelve points for the Knights. Harris was a key component once again to
the Calvin victory finishing with 18 points.

"Marcia just keeps getting a ton better each game," said Coach Ross. "We were
able to play behind her in the first half and she was definitely key to this
win."

After a Rachael Willet (Rockford/Rockford) triple, Calvin led 18-11 and looked
as if it might run away with the game. Once again, however, Albion was able to
settle down and climb back into the game. The Brits went on a 6-0 run and
later a 5-0 run to get within one point of the Knights trailing 23-22 with
under seven minutes to go. Throughout the first half, Albion did a nice job
responding to Calvin's offensive attacks with Emi Guimond doing the damage for
the Brits scoring 13 first half points. At halftime, the Knights held only a
six point lead at 32-26.

The Knights began the second half on a 7-0 run over the first two-and-a-half
minutes but Albion slowly started clawing back and trailed 41-33 with sixteen
minutes left. Albion intensified its defense and was able to force Calvin
turnovers. Albion got within six before Kristi Brummel (Byron Center/South
Christian) nailed a triple for her first shot of the game to gain an
eleven-point lead.

But Albion refused to go away and went on a 7-0 run to stay alive and trailed
only 56-51 with under five minutes to go. In the end, Calvin's many weapons
proved to be too much as it then outscored Albion 14-3 over the final four and
a half minutes with two key buckets coming from Lisa Winkle (Grand Rapids/South
Christian) that gave the Knights a double-digit lead.

"We were patient on offense when we had to be," said Ross. Brummel made a
great pass to Lisa in the lane down the stretch and our defense created a lot
of fast break opportunities."

Lisa Winkle picked up her fourteenth double-double of the season and the 44th
of her career, scoring 12 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. Guimond for
Albion was its highest scorer finishing with 18 points.

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Thu Feb 22 22:54:25 2007