CSR (Women's Basketball Bows to Adrian in MIAA Tournament)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 26, 2008

Women’s Basketball Bows Out of MIAA Tournament In 1st Round

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Adrian 59, Calvin 58

GRAND RAPIDS -- It was nearly déjà vu for Calvin against Adrian in tonight’s
first round MIAA tournament game at the Fieldhouse, but junior Marcia Harris’
(Grand Rapids/ Grand Rapids Christian) last second shot was blocked as the
Knights ended their season with a 59-58 loss.

Just two weeks prior, Calvin defeated Adrian 65-64 at the Fieldhouse on a
last-second shot. On Tuesday, Calvin's last-second shot at victory was denied.

“It’s not easy to swallow,” said Calvin coach John Ross who has gone to
the MIAA tournament finals each of his previous four years. “We just didn’t
come out with fire.”

Calvin ends its season with a 15-9 record while the Bulldogs move to 10-15 and
advance to play Albion in the semi-finals on Thursday. Calvin was the #3 seed
and the Bulldogs are the #6 seed in the tournament.

It was the first time Calvin lost in a first round MIAA tournament game at the
Fieldhouse and the first time since 2003 that the Knights exited in the first
round. It was also the third straight time Calvin and Adrian met in the first
round.

The Knights stormed back from a 15 point second half deficit. A Kristi Brummel
(Grand Rapids/ South Christian) three-pointer with just over five minutes
remaining cut the deficit to eight points and ignited the Knights.

 Adrian turned the ball over 11 times over the final eight minutes of
regulation during which they didn’t score. Adrian’s Kim Olech scored the
final Bulldogs basket with 8:13 left, but had the equivalent of that on the
final possession, blocking Harris’ shot at the buzzer to seal the Adrian
win.

“We tried to get it inside and if I was triple teamed then I would find the
open player,” said Harris. “I was kind of off-balance to begin with. I
didn’t know if I could get a shot off much less check and see if I could
pass. Unfortunately the last second shot didn’t work this time.”

“We didn’t lose this game in the final minutes,” said Ross. “You
can’t give up 40 points in the first half and win. The defense just
wasn’t there.”

The Bulldogs shot 50% in the first half and hit four of six three-pointers to
take a 40-32 halftime lead. Calvin shot 41% in the first half and only 37% on
the night. The Bulldogs had ten more turnovers than the Knights and took seven
less shots, but still did not trail in the game.

“Our offense was fine this year,” said Ross. “We just weren’t clicking
defensively. To win you have to have a championship defense.”

Harris led all scorers with 23 points and also had nine rebounds. She scored
in double figures 23 of 24 games this season. Sarah Partridge (East
Lansing/East Lansing) was second with eight points. For the Bulldogs, Megan
Bouwens led three players in double digits with 13 points. Anita Stamps came
off the bench to score 11 points and Olech added ten.

The Bulldogs also out-rebounded Calvin 39-33 and the Knights hit just eight of
19 from the free throw line.

The loss marks the end of the careers of two seniors: Nikki Zimmerman
(Lowel/Lowel) and Wendy Zigterman (Western Springs, IL/ Timothy Christian).
Zimmerman transferred from Grand Valley State last year and Zigterman played
three years on Calvin’s varsity.

“Wendy and Nikki put in great years here and we’re really going to miss
them,” said Harris.

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Tue Feb 26 22:48:53 2008