CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR MARCH 1, 2008
Men's Basketball Season Ends in MIAA Tournament Finals;
Derek Griffin Closes out Calvin Career
Season Ends For Calvin in MIAA Tournament Final
MEN’S BASKETBALL FOR 3-1-08
Hope 88, Calvin 72
(written by Bruce VanBaren ’09)
HOLLAND - Calvin’s bid for a second straight MIAA tournament championship game
upset over Hope, came up short as the Knights fell 88-72 before a record crowd
at the DeVos Fieldhouse Saturday night. Hope’s third victory over the Knights
this season makes the Dutchmen the first MIAA regular season champion to win
the tournament championship since the Knights did it 2001.
“I thought we were going to win, I really thought we were,” said senior Derek
Griffin, who led the Knights with 23 points in his final game. “But Hope’s
good, they were the better team.”
Griffin who was shut out for the first time in his career in the teams’ last
meeting at Hope, hit three of four three-pointers to spark the Knights in the
first half, giving them a 25-14 lead ten minutes into the game. But Hope used a
Zach Osburn put-back on the final basket of the first half to take its first
lead since the opening minutes after Calvin had led by as many as 13 points.
The Dutchmen used two steals to spark a 12-2 run out of the locker room and
never looked back.
“I thought we came really ready to play,” said Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek.
“Last time we could tell right away that we were in for a long night. Tonight
we were able to deliver the first punch, but the last few minutes [of the first
half] Hope dominated us on the offensive boards.” Calvin fell to Hope 76-59
just over a week ago and lost 79-76 to in the teams’ first meeting at the
Fieldhouse.
After going 2 of 10 from three-point range, the Dutchmen hit three
three-pointers over the final four minutes to take a 38-37 halftime lead. After
starting out 6 of 23 from the field, Hope hit 5 of 10 shots to end the half and
erase Calvin’s lead. Hope also picked up 11 first half offensive rebounds and
held a 23-17 rebounding edge.
“You have to give Hope a lot of credit, they were the better team tonight,”
said junior Caleb Veldhouse (Sioux Falls, SD/ Sioux Falls Christian) who had 13
points. “We started off really good in the first half and in the last seven
minutes we kind of let them get the rebounding edge and they grabbed a lot of
offensive rebounds and that really hurt us.”
“We just had to make some shots,” said Hope coach Glen Van Wieren. “They came
out really, really hard and we had to make some shots to get back into it and
get some stops and get some boards.”
The Dutchmen were money at the free throw line, hitting 11 of 11 from the
stripe in the first half. They used seven straight free throws to spark a 9-0
run to cut the Calvin lead to only four with five minutes to play in the first
half.
It was also the second straight night Hope used a last second basket to take a
halftime lead and wouldn’t look back. In last night’s semi-final win over
Adrian, Derek Van Solkema’s buzzer beating three-pointer put the Dutchmen up at
the half and they never again trailed.
“I thought Osburn’s tip in [to end the first half] was a really big
psychological basket,” said Van Wieren. “We worked so hard to get it close; to
be trailing [by 13] and then to go into the half leading by one, I thought was
really a boost.”
“That didn’t impact us,” said Vande Streek. “It was pretty even-steven. We
started out the half playing well and Hope finished playing well.”
But Calvin wasn’t the same team in the second half. Hope hit nine of its first
12 three-pointers as seven Dutchmen hit 14 triples on the night. Tyler Wolfe,
who led all scorers with 25 points, hit three as did Ryan Klein and Ty Tanis.
Klein’s three-pointers came early in the second half as 15 of his 19 points
came in the second half.
Van Solkema and Marcus Vanderheide were held without a field goal in the first
half, but both hit huge three-pointers in the second half. Van Solkema’s first
field goal was a three-pointer that capped Hope’s 12-2 run to start the second
half and Vanderheide sandwiched Calvin’s first three pointer of the second half
with two of his own. The Knights were only 1 of 10 from beyond the arc in the
second half, compared to Hope who was 9 of its first 12.
“I thought in the second half, defensively we weren’t good,” said Vande Streek.
“They took it to the basket and would dish. And guys hit shots [for Hope].”
Jesse Reimink and Vanderheide joined Wolfe and Klein in double-figures, each
with ten points. Sophomore John Mantel (Chelsea/ Chelsea) joined Griffin and
Veldhouse in double-figures for the Knights each with 13 points. Sophomore Josh
Engelsma (Grandville/ Covenant Christian) had a game-high 10 rebounds, but
couldn’t reach double-figures for the seventh straight game, finishing with 7
points.
Calvin is now 7-4 all-time at DeVos Fieldhouse and 2-4 against Hope. The
Dutchmen now claim a 91 point all-time series scoring lead after the 16 point
victory Saturday night. Hope increases its all-time series lead to 86-83, a
series spanning 84 years and 169 games.
Hope has won the last four meetings, dating back to last year’s NCAA III
tournament second round game.
The tournament selections will be named on Monday morning. Hope is ranked first
in its region and expected to host the first and second round games next
weekend. Calvin ends it season with a 16-11 overall record and ended its
conference season last week with a 9-5 record.
DEREK GRIFFIN CLOSES OUT CALVIN CAREER
(written by Bruce VanBaren ’09)
3-1-08
HOLLAND -- Derek Griffin ended his season as he started it and as he had the
last three games, leading the Knights in points. The senior captain led Calvin
with 23 points in tonight’s MIAA tournament championship game and ended his
Derek Griffincareer averaging 25 points in three MIAA tournament games.
“Derek had an outstanding game and it was a great run throughout the tournament
for him to go out his senior year," said Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek. "All
of the tournament games he played really well.”
In Wednesday’s tournament opener Griffin lit up the Fieldhouse in the final
game ever played there with a career-high 35 points, the most scored by a
Calvin player since Jeremy Veenstra scored 34 against Hope in January, 2001.
“The last two years have been great with Griffin,” said junior guard Caleb
Veldhouse. “It’s not the way you want to end your two years with him, losing to
Hope both times. But he’s a heck of a player and he’s a great person too.”
Griffin transferred to Calvin his junior year from Muskegon Community College
and has led the Knights in scoring the most times over that two-year stretch.
He led the Knights in scoring 12 times a year ago and eight times this year.
“He’s a great competitor and it’s been a privilege to play with him the back
court,” said Veldhouse. “You don’t get to play with players like him all the
time. Especially after my freshman year, we weren’t sure who was going to come
into the back court [to replace Andy Draayer and Kyle Trewhella] and its been
just a great acquisition for our squad and Calvin.”
“It’s been the most fun I’ve ever had,” an emotional Griffin described his
career. “All [of my teammates] are like brothers to me. That’s the hardest part
[about ending my career], because I’m friends with everyone on the team.”
Last year, Griffin was emotional for a far different reason- he was cutting
down the DeVos Fieldhouse nets after upsetting the Dutchmen to get into the
NCAA tournament. In a must win MIAA tournament championship game, Griffin hit
the game winner with seven seconds left on a floater in the lane.
And that wasn’t it, he hit a clutch three-pointer with the Knights trailing
74-73 with a minute and a half remaining, his third of the night.
“You want to talk clutch baskets,” said Vande Streek a year ago. “We designed a
play to get him that three-point shot and he hit it. That’s huge. And then to
hit that shot at the end. It doesn’t get any more clutch than that.”
“To hit that shot in this building, it’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Griffin
of what he called the best moment of his basketball career. He scored 24 points
in that game, a night after his 21 second half points put Calvin past Tri-State
and into the tournament title game.
He ends the year with an identical average as he did a year ago: 14.8 points
per game. He scored in double figures 22 of 27 games this year, including
hitting the 20 point plateau in seven games this year.
Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Sun Mar 2 00:20:37 2008
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