CSR (Women's Basketball Picks Up Road Win at Saint Mary's)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR DECEMBER 5, 2007

Women's Basketball Remains Unbeaten In League With Win at Saint Mary's

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 67, Saint Mary's 52

NOTRE DAME, IN -- Calvin buckled down on defense and also won the battle of the boards in defeating Saint Mary's on the road Wednesday night by a score of 67-52. Ranked 23rd in the latest D3hoops.com Top-25 poll, Calvin (5-2 overall) remains unbeaten in MIAA competition at 2-0 in league play.

Calvin took a 28-16 halftime lead behind a first half defensive effort that limited the Belles to just 20 percent field goal shooting. Saint Mary's finished the game with just a 27.9 percent field goal clip overall while Calvin held an overall rebounding advantage of 47-40. Calvin was able to stretch its lead to as much as 22 points at 42-20 with just over 13 minutes remaining before the Belles (2-4 overall, 0-1 MIAA) whittled the lead down to 11 points with just over three minutes to play. Saint Mary's got no closer however as the Knights pulled away for the win.

"Any time you can come down to Saint Mary's and get a win it's a big positive," said Calvin women's basketball coach John Ross. "This is a difficult place to play at and Saint Mary's always comes at with a lot of intensity. I thought we matched that intensity and then some in the first half. Our defense in particular was excellent."

Calvin was led in scoring by junior Marcia Harris (Grand Rapids Christian HS) who poured in 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds while junior Sarah Partridge (East Lansing HS) came off the bench to provide 11 points. Senior Nikki Zimmerman (Traverse City West HS), junior Kelly Trewhella (Rockford HS), junior Lauren Roodvoets (South Christian HS) and sophomore Allison Griswold (Lansing Christian HS) all added six points apiece.

Sophomore Brook VanEck (Lowell HS) also came up with a game-high 12 rebounds, hitting double-digits in rebounds for the third consecutive game. Just 5-9, VanEck is averaging 7.1 rebounds a game. "Brook brings a lot of energy to the floor and she really has a nose for where the ball will come off the rim," said Ross. "She loves to play the game and she is off to a great start to her sophomore season."

Calvin shot 39.6 percent from the floor and connected on 23 of 28 attempts from the free throw line for an 82.1 percent clip.

Saint Mary's was led in scoring by Allison Kessler with 15 points, matching her season scoring average. Kessler was just 4 of 18 from the floor however. "I thought we did a good job defensively on Kessler," said Ross. "She's a great player who can go off for 30 points in the blink of an eye so we felt pretty good about holding her to 15 and making her work for her shots."

Calvin will now break for first semester exams and return to action on December 15 when it hosts Alma at 1:00 p.m.

"It was an important to get a win tonight," said Ross. "We needed a pick-me-up and a confidence booster after dropping two tough games last weekend (to Wheaton and to Carthage). It's always a good thing to go into first semester exams with a win and this game gave our entire team a nice boost."

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Wed Dec 5 22:37:47 2007