CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR JAN. 27, 2010
Men's Basketball Completes First Half of MIAA Season Unbeaten With 73-59 Win
at Alma;
Women's Basketball Picks Up Key Road Win at Saint Mary's to Remain in MIAA
Title Hunt
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 73 - Alma 59
(written by sports information student assistant Derek Niece)
ALMA - Calvin has only swept conference play once in its history, that season
happening back in 2000. Here in 2010 the Knights won their seventh consecutive
league game Wednesday night on the road against a tough Alma squad.
The Knights relied once again on the clutch shooting of their perimeter
players, connecting on 10 of 21 attempts from beyond the arc.
Senior Matt Veltema (Grandville, MI) led all scorers with 24 points as he hit
on 6 of 7 shots from three point land, and Danny Rodts (Niles, MI) was the only
other Knight to achieve double digits on the night. The rest of the scoring
came from a variety of players. Tommy Snikkers scored 9 and grabbed 7
rebounds, Brad Schuster contributed 7 of both points and rebounds, and John
Mantel scored a solid 6 points and took down 6 boards as well.
In the first half the Scots led by two in the first couple minutes, their
largest lead of the night, before Calvin settled in and took control of the
wheel in this contest. The Knights led by as much as eight in the first half
but a late surge of offense by the Scots brought the halftime score to 29-28 in
favor of Calvin.
“It’s a struggle every time,” said Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek in a
postgame radio interview, “and we get everybody’s best game.”
“They rise to the occasion when they play us and I thought that Alma played
very well tonight,” he continued. “We stayed with it and came out with a win
and that’s what we were hoping for.”
The second half was back and forth with Alma showing that even at 0-6 on the
year in conference play, it could still play tough against teams favored to
win. Alma later trimmed the Calvin lead to three with just over eight minutes
to play, but the Knights then connected on five straight three-pointers on
offensive possessions to mount a 15-4 run that brought them to a comfortable
63-49 advantage.
“Matt [Veltema] really rose to the occasion and hit some big shots that I
thought came as a result of some pretty good stops on the defensive end,” said
Vande Streek on Veltema’s big scoring night.
Alma was unable to muster any other sort of resurgence in the game and they
would fall by an eventual score of 73-59. The Scots were led by Kevin Ginther
with 21 points, Isaac Thaler with 13 and Terry Brown with 10.
From the stat sheet, Calvin shot an excellent 53 percent from the field to
Alma’s very respectable 40 percent, and the Knights out-rebounded the Scots
32-22. Another big number was a 19-9 advantage that Calvin held in points
coming from the bench, showing off the depth of the Knights’ roster.
With the win, the Knights move to 12-6 overall with a perfect conference mark
at 7-0. Alma falls to 3-15 and 0-7 in conference play.
“I’m really pleased that our play has continued to get better this season,”
said Vande Streek of the fact that his team is undefeated through the first
half of conference play, “but I think we still have some things we can get
better at which is a good thing.”
Calvin continues its road trip this Saturday as they travel to Holland to face
off against rival Hope College for the third time this season. Calvin and Hope
have split the two games played against each other so far this season.
“This Saturday will definitely be a big game for them [Hope] and I’m sure our
guys will be ready,” said Vande Streek of the upcoming game Saturday.
“Hopefully we can survive the first few minutes, which is a big thing
playing at Hope.”
“They come out with such great emotion that it’s easy to be down ten right
away,” he continued, “so hopefully we get off to a good start and it’ll be a
battle to the end.”
That game is set to kick off at 3 p.m.
With his six three-pointers, Veltema moves past Jim Timmer and into fifth
place on the Calvin career list for three-pointers.
Saturday's game at Hope will feature the 175th meeting between the two teams
with Hope holding an 88-86 series lead. Saturday's game will mark the third
meeting of the year between the two teams with Hope winning a non-conference
game 79-76 on November 28 and Calvin winning a conference game 84-75 on January
6. Both prior games were played at Calvin's Van Noord Arena with Saturday's
game marking the first of the season between the two teams at DeVos
Fieldhouse.
Saturday's Calvin-Hope men's basketball game will be telecast by West Michigan
PBS affiliate WGVU-TV 35/52. The WGVU telecast (video) feed will be streamed
live on Saturday at The Rivalry Web site at: http://www.calvinhope.com or
http://www.hopecalvin.com
Calvin Three-Point Field Goal Career List
1. Andy Draayer (2002-2006) - 222
2. Caleb Veldhouse (2005-2009) – 215
3. Chris Knoester (1990-1994) -188
4. Todd Hennink (1987-1991) – 183
5. Matt Veltema (2006-2010) – 174
6. Jim Timmer (1986-1990) – 169
7. Derek Griffin (2006-2008) – 153
8. Sam Hargraves (1995-1998) 143
8 Aaron Winkle (1996-2000) 143
10. Kevin Broene (2001-2004) 132
11. Nate Karsten (1996-200) 119
12. Ryan Stahr (1993-1995) 118
13. Matt Rottman (1989-1994) 117
OTHER MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES WEDNESDAY
Adrian 51, Albion 50
Kalamazoo 63, Olivet 57
Hope 78, Trine 60
MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 1-27-10 GAMES
Calvin 7-0
Hope 5-2
Adrian 4-3
Albion 4-3
Kalamazoo 3-4
Olivet 3-4
Trine 2-5
Alma 0-7
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 67, Saint Mary's 57
NOTRE DAME, IN -- The nationally-ranked Calvin women's basketball team picked
up an important 67-57 victory at Saint Mary's Wednesday night to remain in the
MIAA title hunt. Ranked 10th in both the d3hoops.com Top 25 poll and ESPN/USA
Today Coaches poll, Calvin is now 17-2 overall and 9-1 in the MIAA, remaining a
half-game behind Hope which improved to 9-0 in league play with a 56-30 win
over Trine on Wednesday.
In its win over Saint Mary's (10-8 overall, 5-5 MIAA) Calvin took a 35-27
halftime lead only to see the Belles charge back to within two at 40-38 at the
13:31 mark. Calvin responded with an 13-1 scoring run fueled by five points off
the bench by sophomore Jill Thomas that gave Calvin a 53-39 advantage.
Saint Mary's later closed the gap to eight points on three occasions but could
get no closer as the Knights went on a quick 6-0 run just inside the
five-minute mark to build a double-digit lead it would hold the rest of the
way.
Freshman Carissa Verkaik led all scorers with 17 points to go with nine
rebounds and three blocked shots. Senior Brook Van Eck was next with 14 points
and five boards including 12 points in the first half. Kurncz had 10 points and
six rebounds with all 10 of her points coming in the second half.
Thomas was also huge with 10 points off the bench including a pair of
three-point field goals - one of which banked in as the shot clock was expiring
in the second half.
Senior point guard Emily Ottenhoff was also superb, scoring seven points,
grabbing a career-high eight rebounds to go with four steals, three assists and
only two turnovers in 31 minutes of action while going head-to-head against
reigning MIAA Defensive Player of the Year Liz Wade of Saint Mary's.
The 5-5 Wade did have a big game for the Belles, scoring seven points and
grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds to go with five steals. Anna Kamrath led Saint
Mary's in scoring with 14 points while Patsy Mahoney and Kelley Murphy had 10
points apiece.
Calvin shot 42.4 percent overall while holding Saint Mary's to 34.8 percent
shooting. Calvin also held a 44-35 rebounding edge and connected on 13 of 14
at the free throw line while Saint Mary's was 7 of 13 at the charity stripe.
Calvin returns to action on Saturday when it travels to Kalamazoo at 3 p.m.
OTHER MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES WEDNESDAY
Hope 56, Trine 30
Olivet 61, Kalamzoo 47
Adrian 58, Albion 45
MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 1-27-10
Hope 9-0
Calvin 9-1
Adrian 5-5
Olivet 5-5
Saint Mary's 5-5
Albion 4-6
Trine 4-6
Alma 2-7
Kalamazoo 1-9
Received on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:06:51 -0500
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