CSR (Women's Basketball Falls to Hope in MIAA Showdown)

Calvin Sports Report for January 20, 2010

Women's Basketball Falls to Hope in MIAA Showdown
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Hope 73, Calvin 58
(written by Calvin sports information student assistant Mitch Blankespoor)
In a showdown of nationally-ranked teams vying for first place in the MIAA
standings, Hope defeated Calvin 73-58 in women’s basketball Tuesday night
inside Hope’s DeVos Fieldhouse. Calvin falls to 14-2 overall and to 6-1 in the
MIAA while Hope improves to 15-1 overall and 7-0 in MIAA play.
Calvin entered the game ranked eighth in the coaches' top 25 poll and ninth in
the most recent d3hoops.com Top 25 poll. Hope came in ranked fourth in the
coaches' poll and fifth in the d3hoops.com poll.
Tuesday's game was play in front of 3,177 fans at Hope's DeVos Fieldhouse.
Hope came out with pressure defense and forced two quick turnovers, a theme
that would continue throughout most of the game. Calvin (14-2, 6-1 MIAA) stuck
with the Dutch through the first five minutes of the game. With the score
knotted at 7, Hope decided it was time to make a run. Hope locked down on
defense. After a 9-2 run, Calvin head coach John Ross had seen enough. He
called a timeout to show down Hope’s run, but Hope kept on pressing. Hope
ended the half on a 19-9 run to give the Flying Dutch a 35-18 halftime lead.
The Hope defense forced Calvin into 18 first half turnovers. Despite shooting
41% in the first half, Calvin only took 17 shots. Hope on the other hand
grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and shot 37% from the field but took 41 shots.
Determined not to let Hope get the best of them, the Knights came out with
some heart in the second half. Calvin began to chip away at the Dutch lead
with some good half-court defense. The Knights would cut Hope’s lead to 10
points with just over nine minutes left in regulation. That would be as close
as Calvin would get the rest of the way.
Senior Brook VanEk led the Knights with 15 points in a losing effort. Senior
Amber Benthem added 9 points. In her return to Holland, Carissa VerKaik had 14
points, six rebounds and five blocked shots. Hope had four players in double
figures.
Meredith Kussmaul came off the bench to lead the Dutch with 14 points. Erika
Bruinsma, Philana Greene, and Jenny Cowan had 12, 11, and 10 points
respectively. The story of the game came was turnovers and offensive rebounds.
 Hope grabbed 17 offensive rebounds to Calvin’s seven. Calvin doubled Hope’s
turnovers 24-12. Calvin was not just throwing the ball away. 18 of Calvin’s
24 turnovers were Hope steals.
“We had one other game that we turned the ball over 30 plus times, but got
ourselves out of it with some great shooting. The offensive rebounds are what
killed us. You cannot do that against any good team or you are going to
struggle.” Calvin head coach John Ross said after the game. “You also have to
remember that we have a very young team. We start three seniors, our only
three seniors. We are playing a lot of young kids that have never even seen a
Calvin-Hope game let alone play in one. This is a very tough place to play.
There has only ever been one team to beat Hope here, and that was an amazing
team. I was happy we did not lose our composure like we have in the past few
years.”
Calvin returns to action this Thursday when it hosts the Alma Scots.
OTHER MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES Tuesday

Olivet 53, Trine 43
Saint Mary's 67, Adrian 57
Kalamazoo 68, Alma 52

MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 1-19-10 GAMES

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

**For a feature story on Calvin senior Brook Van Eck written by sports
information student assistant Derek Neice, please visit the Calvin Web site at:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/news/comments/brook-van-eck-nearing-500-rebound-mark-after-performance-in-loss-at-hope-we/
Received on Wed Jan 20 00:37:33 2010