CSR (Men's Basketball Falls to Hope/Women's BBall Tops Alma)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR JAN. 26, 2008 (PART ONE)

Men's Basketball Edged by Hope;
Women's Basketball Wins at Alma

MEN’S BASKETBALL FOR 1-26-08
Hope 79, Calvin 76
(written by Drew DeVries ’08)

GRAND RAPIDS - It seems like every time this storied rivalry takes place
between Calvin and Hope, the game comes down to the last seconds. No exception
this afternoon as Hope squeaked out a victory at the Calvin Fieldhouse when
last second efforts by the Knights fell short.

The 79-76 win by the Flying Dutchmen broke the all-time series tie as Hope now
leads Calvin 84-83. With the loss, Calvin now finds itself two games behind
MIAA leading Hope tied for second place. But Calvin head basketball coach Kevin
Vande Streek knows his team faces an uphill battle.

"The pressure was really on us today with this game being at home," said Vande
Streek. "Now being down two games in the conference, it's not over but it will
definitely be tough."

The remainder of the season will be tough for the Knights just as guarding
Hope players Marcus Vanderheide and Tyler Wolfe was this afternoon. Wolfe hit a
couple early three pointers and then watched as his teammate Vanderheide went
off for 20 first half points on 10-of-13 shooting.

"We knew going in that Marcus was a tough match-up," said Vande Streek. "We
tried to guard him individually and tried to double up on him. But if he wasn't
scoring, he was able to find the open guy."

Even with the first half efforts of Vanderheide, the Knights still held a
44-36 advantage at halftime. Calvin constructed a 27-18 lead ten minutes in
behind strong play by its guards. Caleb Veldhouse (Sioux Falls, SD/Siux Falls
Christian) and Derek Griffin (Whitehall/Whitehall) each poured in eleven first
half points while Dustin Smith (Hamilton/Hamilton) added 10.

But each time Hope fell behind, it found a way to climb its way back into the
game. Typical of the season thus far, Calvin gave up offensive rebounds as Hope
was able to get second chance opportunities.

"We struggled defensively," said Vande Streek. "And we're just not doing a
good enough job rebounding." Hope got its own rebound on its first five misses
of the game.

Hope then took a 32-31 lead with three minutes left but the final couple of
minutes was all Calvin. The Knights finished the half strong on a 13-4 run.

The second half, however, was a different story. Hope exploded on offense
shooting 63% in the half. Calvin led by ten in the beginning, its biggest lead
of the game, but Hope consistently found ways to stop the Knights and have runs
of its own to get back in the game. The Flying Dutchmen went on a 13-2 run to
lead 61-59 halfway in and after a 11-0 Calvin run, Hope proceeded to go on an
8-0 to regain the lead 74-72 with just under four minutes to play.

"We thought Calvin would have runs," said Hope head basketball coach Glenn Van
Wieren. "But we were going to have more. We had some great runs and in the
second half, we played about as good as we have all season. We were able to get
a lot of inside stuff and at the same time, challenged every Calvin shot."

The inside game Van Wieren referred to was his team's 52 points in the paint
compared to 34 by Calvin.

Yet in the end, Calvin still had a chance to send the game to overtime. Calvin
trailed 79-76 with under a minute left with Hope in possession of the ball. The
Knights opted to play good defense and try to stop Hope. Calvin came up with a
stop and with twelve seconds remaining, would have one more chance. Veldhouse
took the ball up the court, missed his first three point attempt, got the
rebound, and threw up another. But it bounced off the rim and Hope found itself
ahead when the clock ran out.

"This was a great win for us," said Van Wieren. "We really rode our seniors as
we didn't sub much in the second half. Down the stretch we rebounded well and I
was pleased with how we challenged Calvin's shots. We kept Caleb to a tough
shot at the end."

Veldhouse led the Knights with 20 points and John Mantel (Chelsea/Chelsea)
finished with 14. Griffin and Smith both had 13. With his 20-pointe effort,
Veldhouse moved past Dan Davis and Kyle VanderBrug and into 11th place on the
all-time Calvin scoring list, building his career total to 1,135 points.

After the loss, Vande Streek stressed his team's lack of consistency. "This is
typical of how we've played," he said. "We have stretches of being very good
and then stretches of not being very good. You can't go three or four minutes
without scoring against a good team like Hope. Consistency is a big issue. We
have great guys and guys that are talented but consistency has been our
nemesis."

Vanderheide finished with a game high 30 points while Wolfe added 26.
Vanderheide’s 30-point effort marked the first 30-point performance in a
Calvin-Hope men’s basketball game since Jeremy Veenstra amassed 34 points in
a 95-85 Calvin win on January 20, 2001.

Calvin (9-7 overall, 4-2 MIAA) will look for answers in consistency when
Olivet comes to town Wednesday for a game time of 7:30 at the Fieldhouse.

For a column on the game written by Calvin Sports Information Student
Assistant Bruce VanBaren, please visit the Calvin web site at:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/releases/2007_08/MBCalvinHopeColumn12608.htm

A photo gallery of the game courtesy of Calvin alum Dave DeKorne can also be
found on-line at: http://dekorne.net/2008calvinmbball/hope/
 
OTHER MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES WEDNESDAY
Albion 73, Tri-State 64
Adrian 78, Alma 64
Olivet 85, Kalamazoo 80

MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 1-26-08
Hope 6-0
Albion 4-2
Calvin 4-2
Tri-State 4-2
Adrian 2-4
Kalamazoo 2-4
Alma 1-5
Olivet 1-5

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 63, Alma 50

ALMA -- Playing once again with a shortened bench because of injuries, Calvin
fought off a challenge from Alma Saturday afternoon, claiming a 63-50 victory
at Alma's Cappaert Gymasium.

Calvin is now 11-6 overall and 6-3 in the MIAA. The Knights have won four
games in a row, matching their longest win streak of the year.

"We're really beat up with injuries right now," said Calvin women's basketball
coach John Ross after the win. "At this point, we'll take any win we can get.
We're extremely pleased to come out of here with a win."

Calvin led 32-23 with 1:10 left in the first half, only to see Alma score the
final five points to trail just 32-28 at halftime. "We didn't have a good
finish to the first half," said Ross. "To our credit, we put that in the
rearview mirro at the start of the second half."

Calvin opened the second half with an 11-5 scoring run to build a 10-point
lead at 43-33 with junior Kristi Brummel (South Christian HS) capping the run
with a three-point shot. Alma (5-10 overall, 2-6 MIAA) closed to within six at
44-38 but the Knights responded with a 7-2 spurt to take control as the Scots
never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Junior Sarah Partridge (East Lansing HS) continued her strong play for the
Knights with 17 points on 5-for-7 shooting while junior Marcia Harris (Grand
Rapids Christian HS) had 15 points and six boards and sophomore Brook VanEck
(Lowell HS) 10 points and six rebounds.

Sophomore Allison Griswold (Lansing Christian HS) and Brummel added six points
apiece with Griswold connecting on one triple and Brummel two trifectas. Calvin
was 8 of 21 (.381) from three-point range as a team.

"Griswold and Brummel hit some big shots off the bench for us," said Ross.
"They seemed to come up with a big bucket whenever Alma was making a run."

Calvin held a 35-26 rebounding advantage and held Alma to 34.0 percent field
goal shooting. Alma was led in scoring by Meagan Hoblet who tallied 16 points.

With the win, Calvin remains tied for second place in the MIAA standings with
Albion. The Knights travel to Albion on Wednesday night for a 7:30 p.m.
contest.

OTHER MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES SATURDAY
Hope 82, Saint Mary's 73
Olivet 88, Kalamazoo 66
Albion 74, Tri-State 58

MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 1-26-08 GAMES

Hope 9-0
Calvin 7-3
Albion 7-3
Olivet 5-3
Saint Mary's 4-5
Adrian 3-6
Alma 2-6
Tri-State 2-6
Kalamazoo 1-8

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Sat Jan 26 19:13:11 2008