CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR NOV. 21, 2008
Men's Basketball Opens Tip-Off Tourney With Win;
Women's Basketball Gets 35 From Harris To Defeat Elmhurst;
Hockey Team To Play for Cob Cup On Saturday at Dordt
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 82, Grace Bible 49
By Chaz Amidon
GRAND RAPIDS – Calvin hasn’t called Grand Rapids Christian High School its
home since the 1964-65 season, just one year before the Knights migrated to the
Calvin Fieldhouse.
Forty-four years later, they returned back to Grand Rapids Christian – their
first time at the Plymouth campus – and routed Grace Bible College 82-49 in
their season opener at the Quest Center, Calvin’s interim court until the
unveiling of the newly constructed Van Noord Arena on Jan. 7.
Junior center John Mantel led the way with a game-high 20 points, while Caleb
Veldhouse and Matt Veltema each poured in 14 as the Knights improved to 9-0
all-time against the Tigers, dating back to the 1995-96 season.
“It was what we needed,” said Veltema, who shot 3 of 7 from downtown.
“It’s all about starting off good, and it’s what we did.”
With the win, Calvin advanced to 14-1 in Tip-Off Tournament play, where the
Knights have claimed six of the last seven titles – including a 2007 victory
over then-No. 1 Washington University, the 2007-08 NCAA-III champions.
“It’s just as big as last year, because last year we had a big problem
with consistency,” said Veldhouse.
After the Tigers jumped out to a quick 2-0 start, Calvin countered with a
deflating 14-0 run that was ignited by a pair of 3s from Trent Salo and
Veldhouse, who notched all 14 of his points before halftime.
Grace Bible’s Paul Nelson would help his team inch back by garnering a 7-0
run himself to trim Calvin’s lead to 18-11, but the Knights ended the first
half on a 7-1 stretch – which included a thundering Mantel dunk – to cinch
a 37-21 lead at the break.
“It’s very reassuring to jump out to an early lead,” said Veldhouse.
“(The offense) feels really good. We’ve got a lot of guys that can
score.”
The Knights engineered a 7-0 run to begin the second half, and a Veltema
3-pointer with exactly 15 minutes left brought the score to 53-28 – a point
where Calvin subs began to trickle in for the remainder of the game.
Danny Rodts scored all of his eight points in the second half, and Nate Sytsma
chipped in six in the final six minutes.
“We’re really deep,” said Veldhouse. “We’ve got some new guys
starting, so the chemistry won’t be as good as it will be by the end of the
year.”
Veltema, who came off the bench to average 6.0 points-per-game in 2007-08,
shot 5 of 10 from the field and was three points shy of tying a career-high 17
points. He played only 15 minutes in reprising his role as a reserve player.
“I like coming off the bench – I like coming in and bringing a little
extra energy,” said Veltema. “Me and Tyler (Zoerhof) and Dustin (Smith)
like to come in and do that.”
Mantel turned in a near-perfect night from the floor, finishing 9 of 10 and
connecting on both of his free throw attempts to overshadow the Tigers’
frontcourt phenom Allen Durham, who brought averages of 20.8 points-per-game
and 13.0 rebounds-per-game into Friday’s match-up.
Durham was limited to 12 points – 10 of which came in the second half – as
the Tigers were bolstered by a 18-point outing from point guard Paul Nelson.
Grace Bible (3-3) headed into the Tip-Off Tournament on the heels of a narrow
81-72 loss to The Citadel, a Division I program in the Southern Conference.
“We have a lot of respect for Grace,” said Veldhouse. “They play really
hard and they play really tough, so we respect them and we wanted to take it at
them as much as they wanted to take it at us.”
Calvin will now host Spring Arbor in the championship game tomorrow at 3:00
p.m. The Cougars squeezed out a 66-61 win over Baldwin-Wallace in Friday’s
5:00 semifinal, where Spring Arbor used a balance scoring attack from Kevin
Ludwig (16 points), Rob Boss (14 points) and Willie Pickvet (11 points) to
outlast the Yellow Jackets in their season opener.
“Today we worry about today, tomorrow we worry about tomorrow,” said
Veltema. “We’re going to come out tomorrow and focus on getting better.”
NOTES: Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek recorded win No. 246 on Friday and now
needs only nine victories to dethrone Ed Douma (1984-1996) as the Knights’
all-time winningest coach…Mantel scored 17 points in Calvin’s season opener
against Grace Bible in 2007 and was eventually elected to the All-Tournament
team…Veldhouse now has 1,319 career points, trailing Duane Rosendahl (1952) as
Calvin’s 10th all-time leading scorer.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 65, Elmhurst 58
MILWAUKEE, WI -- Calvin picked up a hard-fought 65-58 victory in a first round
game of the Wisconsin-Lutheran Tip Off Tournament Friday night. Calvin (2-0)
used a come-from-behind effort to gain the win as Elmhurst (0-1) took a 26-22
halftime lead and then built a 45-38 lead with just 9:48 left to play. Calvin
responded with a 13-2 scoring run over the next three-and-a-half minutes to
take a lead it would never relinquish.
“Elmhurst is a scary team that will give a lot of teams trouble this
year,” said Calvin women’s basketball coach John Ross after the game.
“I am ecstatic to come out of this game with a win because Elmhurs gave us
everything we could handle and yet we found a way to win.”
Senior center Marcia Harris (Grand Rapids Christian HS) led the Calvin effort
with a career-high 35 points on 12 of 16 shooting along with an 11 of 15
showing at the free throw line. The point total by Harris matches the
sixth-highest single-game total in Calvin women's basketball history with Pam
Wubben also scoring 35 points in a 1994 game against Alma.
Harris also bumped her career scoring total to 1,295 points to move past
Sharone Boeve and Sarah Ondersma and into third place on the Calvin career
scoring list.
Harris was the beneficiary of several passes from senior teammate Kristi
Brummel (South Christian HS) who finished with a career-high 10 assists which
ranks as the seventh-best single-game performance in Calvin women's basketball
history. Senior Sarah Partridge (East Lansing HS) also had 10 points for the
Knights while freshman Courtney Kurncz chipped in with nine points. Calvin shot
48.9 percent overall and withstood an Elmhurst rebounding effort that saw the
Blue Jays outrebound Calvin 43-31.
Calvin will face Wisconsin-Lutheran in the championship game Saturday
afternoon at 4:00 p.m. (EST). Wisconsin-Lutheran defeated Finlandia 91-82 in
the other first round game on Friday behind the 32-point effort by Britany
Lindert. Wisconsin-Lutheran is the preseason favorite to win the Northern
Athletics Conference South Division title.
Points (Career)
1,721 – Lisa Winkle, 2003-2007
1,332 -- Kerry Walters, 1995-1999
1, 295 – Marcia Harris, 2005-present
1,288 -- Sarah Ondersma, 1987-1991
1,285 -- Sharon Boeve, 1982-1985
1,261 – Mindi Andringa, 1997-2000
1,194 -- Eileen Boonstra, 1977-1981
1,170 – Kristen McDonald (2001-2005)
1,146 -- Judy Wasmer, 1982-1985
1,103 -- Pam Wubben, 1990-1994
1,007 – Julie Post, 1984-1988
CALVIN ALL-TIME SINGLE GAME SCORING EFFORTS
40 Eileen Boonstra Kalamazoo 2.23.80
40 Kristen McDonald Hope 2.24.05
38 Eileen Boonstra Goshen 2.19.80
36 Cara Mulder Oakland 11.25.94
36 Lisa Winkle Wisconsin-Lutheran 11.19.05
35 Pam Wubben Alma 2.19.94
35 Marcia Harris Elmhurst 11.21.08
Assists (Single-Game)
14 Amy Bierling (2-16-83) vs Kalamazoo
13 Janna TerMolen (1-6-81) vs Alma
12 Kristen McDonald (1-4-05) vs Tri-State
12 Tami Bos (1-9-81) vs Kalamazoo
11 Amy Bierling (12-2-83) vs North Central College
11 Sharon Boeve (2-24-83) vs Michigan-Dearborn
10 Kristen McDonald (12-10-04) at Adrian
10 Chris Sales (2-16-99) vs Olivet
10 Amy Bierling (1-27-83) vs Goshen
10 Missy VanHeukelem (1-26-91) vs Olivet
10 Cheryl Essenburg (1-18-95) vs Albion
10 Sarah Ondersma (1-23-90) vs Albion
10 Kristi Brummel (11-21-08) vs Elmhurst
CALVIN HOCKEY TEAM TO PLAY FOR COB CUP TITLE AT CLASH IN THE CORN TOURNAMENT
Calvin 4, Wisconsin-Platteville 1
SIOUX CENTER, IA – The Calvin hockey team will play for the Cob Cup on
Saturday as the Knights improved to 2-0 in the Dordt College Clash in the Corn
Tournament with a 4-1 victory over a Division II team from
Wisconsin-Platteville late Friday afternoon.
Calvin (9-4-1) has now won eight of its last nine games after opening the year
1-3-1.
Calvin outshot Wisconsin-Platteville 58-24 and received goals from Reed Loney,
Ben Brandsen, Eric Baker and Matthew Zantingh.
Credited with assists were Jeff DeKorne, Adam VanOpstall, Loney, Lucas
Huyser-Wierenga and Zantingh.
Darcy Bults got the start in goal for the Knights and chalked up 23 saves.
Calvin’s roster of 25 features 17 players who are either freshmen or
sophomores. “With such a young team, we’ve had a few ups-and-downs this
year but we’re really starting to go in the right direction,” said Calvin
hockey coach Mike Petrusma. “We’re receiving scoring from all four of our
lines and that is making it difficult for opponents to match up their top
defenders against us which is a good situation to have as a coach.”
Calvin will close out the Clash in the Corn Tournament on Saturday with a game
against the University of Wyoming at 4:00 p.m. (CST). Calvin can clinch the Cob
Cup title with a win on Saturday.
Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Fri Nov 21 23:38:15 2008
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