CSR (Women's Basketball Defeats Elmhurst/Men's Basketball Falls to Cornerstone)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR NOV. 27, 2009

Women's Basketball Defeats Elmhurst at Olivet Classic;
Men's Basketball Falls to Cornerstone in Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame Classic

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 79, Elmhurst 66

OLIVET -- The Calvin women's basketball team improved to 4-0 with a 79-66 victory over Elmhurst (IL) Friday evening in a first round game of the Olivet Thanksgiving Classic. The final outcome was not indicative of how close the game was throughout as the Knights and Blue Jays were tied at 35 at halftime and Elmhurst held a 60-58 lead with just over six minutes remaining.

Calvin then mounted a 14-4 run over the next four minutes to build a 72-64 lead and take control of the game. The run was ignited by a pair of free throws and a subsequent field goal by Van Eck and a three-pointer by freshman Courtney Kurncz (St. Johns HS).

The Knights were led by the inside tandem of freshman Carissa Verkaik (Holland Christian HS) and senior Brook Van Eck (Lowell HS) with Verkaik scoring a career-high 26 points and grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds to notch her third double-double of the young season while Van Eck had 20 points and five rebounds. Verkaik also blocked four shots while Kurncz blocked three.

Fresh off a deep run in the NCAA III women's soccer tournament with the Calvin women's soccer team, senior Emily Ottenhoff also had a strong season debut for the Knights, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds off the bench.

Lyndsie Long had 19 points for Elmhurst (2-3) while Meghan Merklein had 15 and Megan Ney 11.

Calvin shot 19 of 22 (.864) at the free throw line while Elmhurst (2-3) was 14 of 19 at the charity stripe. Calvin shot 45.0 percent overall from the field while Elmhurst shot 41.8 percent.

Calvin will face Siena Heights in a second round game tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

The first meeting of the Calvin-Hope men's basketball rivalry will come early this year. Unfortunately for both teams, it will come in the consolation game of the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame Classic on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. Both teams suffered defeats to Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference opponents on Friday in first round play with Aquinas defeating Hope 71-59 and Cornerstone defeating Calvin 77-65.

In its loss to Cornerstone (6-2), Calvin jumped out to a 19-10 lead in the opening eight minutes but was outscored 28-9 the rest of the first half to fall behind 38-28 at the break. Cornerstone stretched its lead to 18 points early in the second half but the Knights (1-2) fought back to close to within 10 at the 14:14 mark and later whittled the lead down to eight at 73-65 with a minute left to play.

Calvin was unable to get any closer however as the Golden Eagles hit four free throws in the final seconds of play to seal the win.

Senior Matt Veltema (Calvin Christian HS) led Calvin in defeat with 15 points while freshman Tom Snikkers (Unity Christian HS) had a career-high 13 points off the bench. Junior Brad Schnyders (Unity Christian HS) also had 12 points while senior John Mantel (Chelsea HS) added eight points and eight rebounds.

Turnovers and free throw shooting both proved to be troublesome for Calvin as the Knights were just 16 of 27 (.593) at the line and committed 18 turnovers.

Cornerstone was led in the win by Matt Kingshott with 15 points. Cornerstone shot 45.5 percent overall while Calvin shot 35.9 percent from the field. Calvin did outrebound the Golden Eagles 43-38.

Calvin will now prepare to face Hope on Saturday in what will be the 173rd meeting between the two teams. Hope leads the all-time series 87-85. For more on the series, please visit the rivalry Web site at: http://www.calvinhope.com
Received on Sat Nov 28 00:02:21 2009