CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 20, 2010
Men's Basketball Claims Overtime Thriller Over Alma To Capture Outright MIAA
Title;
Women's Basketball Holds on For Narrow Victory at Olivet
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 78, Alma 73 - OT
Calvin is the MIAA’s best free throw shooting team, and on Senior Day at the
Van Noord Arena the Knights hit key free throws late in the game to force
overtime and seal the victory against a white-hot shooting Alma team that shot
better from three-point range than anywhere else on the floor.
After only leading the Scots by a point at halftime the Knights trailed for
much of the second half, and after a furious comeback in the final minutes of
the game, Brent Schuster hit two free throws with six seconds left in the game
to tie, forcing overtime.
“I thought we defended well and I just think they [Alma] played really well,”
said Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek. “I give our guys a lot of credit to just
hang in there, battle through, and get the win.”
In overtime Calvin hit 14 of 16 attempts from the charity stripe, scoring as
many points in those five overtime minutes as they did the entire second half
with 22 points in both.
And the win not only gave the Knights sole possession of the regular season
conference title, it also gave players the kind of morale boost that is
extremely important moving into playoff crunch time.
Schuster led the Knights with a career high 18 points and a couple of big
blocks, and junior Danny Rodts scored 9 of his 15 overall points in overtime.
Senior John Mantel hit 7 of 12 free throws and finished with 9 points and 7
boards. Paul Campbell put on a great show in his last regular season game with
a career-high 12 points, and Veltema finished with 10 points of his own as
well.
“The two free throws by Brent [Schuster] obviously don’t get any bigger in a
game like this,” said Vande Streek on Schuster’s clutch shooting.
“You don’t have a chance to continue the game if you don’t make them both, and
him coming out and hitting a little fader at the start of overtime was huge to
give us the lead.”
In the first half, Calvin gave up an early lead with Alma shooting very well,
connecting on nearly 60 percent of its shots from the field. Calvin did manage
to capture the lead though as they led by one at the break, but then Alma
poured it on in the second half, getting up by as much as 10 in the second half
on a nice dunk by sophomore Terry Brown.
With a minute-and-a-half to go in the second half, the Scots led 56-53 and
looked to be in prime position to close the game out. But Calvin played good
defense in the closing seconds and hit three free throws [including Schuster’s
two to tie] and forced an additional five minutes of overtime play.
With adrenaline levels already running high, overtime maintained the
excitement and the scoring finally arrived as Calvin hit 3 of 4 shots total and
14 of 16 free throws ,and Alma shot a scorching 6 of 9, including 5 of 6 from
three point range.
With the Scots hitting virtually every three-pointer they attempted in
overtime, the free throws Calvin hit to tie the game and force overtime, and
the free throws they hit in overtime [including six straight makes by Danny
Rodts] were the difference between a Calvin win or loss.
“We want to defensively play really good defense and not foul and offensively
we really try to get the ball to the basket so we are shooting free throws,”
said Vande Streek of his team’s success at the charity stripe. “So it is
something we really emphasize and we are just blessed to have some guys who
have good touch and are able to knock them in.”
“To have two in a row and I think seven in the last twelve years is just
wonderful,” commented Vande Streek on repeating as MIAA champions. “It’s a
great compliment to our guys and how hard they’ve worked and how hard they’ve
played.”
Calvin finishes the season at 12-2 in the MIAA and 17-8 overall, the sole
2009-10 MIAA champs. They now face the MIAA tournament where they get home
court advantage and guess what, a first round match-up against the Alma Scots
on February 24th. If that game turns out to be anything like Saturday’s
firefight, then it’s definitely a must-see.
OTHER MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES ON SATURDAY
Albion 64, Adrian 46
Hope 58, Trine 53
Olivet 85, Kalamazoo 55
FINAL 2010 MIAA REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS
Calvin 12-2
Hope 11-3
Adrian 9-5
Albion 8-6
Olivet 8-6
Kalamazoo 5-9
Trine 2-12
Alma 1-13
MIAA FIRST ROUND MIAA TOURNAMENT PAIRINGS
#8 Alma (4-21) at #1 Calvin (17-8)
#7 Trine (8-17) at #2 Hope (18-7)
#6 Kalamazoo (6-19) at #3 Adrian (14-11)
#5 Albion (14-11) at #4 Albion (13-12)
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 65, Alma 62
ALMA - The Calvin women's basketball team escaped Alma with a 65-62 victory
Saturday afternoon. Ranked 11th nationally in one poll and 10th in another,
Calvin trailed 59-56 with 3:20 left to play but a bucket inside by freshman
Carissa Verkaik (Holland Christian HS) and a clutch triple by freshman Leah
Mattson (Cadillac HS) moments later gave the Knights a 61-59 advantage with
1:57 left on the clock.
Verkaik then blocked an Alma layup attempt, grabbed the rebound and was
fouled. Verkaik proceeded to hit a pair of free throws to put the Knights up
63-59 with 46 seconds left. Alma was able to hit a free throw with 27 seconds
remaining and followed with a layup seconds later to trail just 63-62. Calvin
senior Amber Benthem then proceeded to hit two free throws with 11 seconds
remaining to put the Knights up by three. Alma proceeded to put up a triple in
the closing seconds that was off the mark, allowing the Knights to avert the
upset.
Calvin led 30-29 at halftime and led by as many as seven points but could
never pull away as the Scots (6-19 overall, 5-11 MIAA) hung tough in the second
half, connecting on 51.9 percent of their shots over the final 20 minutes.
Calvin shot 40.4 percent overall including 44.4 percent in the second half.
Calvin was led in scoring by Verkaik who tallied 18 points to go with eight
rebounds and three blocked shots. Senior Brook Van Eck had 11 points and four
rebounds while freshman Allison Wolffis (Muskegon-Mona Shores HS) had 12 points
and seven rebounds off the bench. Benthem also had eight points and four
assists.
Alma was led in scoring by Lauren Hasler with 16 points while Sydney Beckwith
had 15 points. Kathryn Bigelow also had six points and 10 rebounds for the
Scots.
With her 18 points on Saturday, Verkaik claimed the 2010 MIAA scoring title,
finishing with 296 points, 51 points ahead of Beckwith who claimed the
runner-up spot. Verkaik also finished the MIAA conference season with 60
blocked shots for a season average of 3.75, breaking the previous MIAA
single-season record of 2.9 shared by Ann Terpstra of Adrian (1998) and Andrea
MacDonald of Calvin (2003).
Calvin will now prepare to host a first round MIAA Tournament game Tuesday at
7:30 p.m. against Olivet at Van Noord Arena. Calvin will enter the game as the
number-two seed while Olivet is the number-seven seed.
MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCORING CHAMPIONS FROM CALVIN
Sharon Boeve (1983)
Kim Bartman (1992)
Robyn Fennema (2000)
Carissa Verkaik (2010)
OTHER MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES SATURDAY
Hope 58, Adrian 56
Trine 73, Kalamazoo 52
Saint Mary's 62, Albion 47
FINAL 2010 MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS
Hope 16-0
Calvin 14-2
Saint Mary's 9-7
Adrian 7-9
Trine 7-9
Albion 6-10
Olivet 6-10
Alma 5-11
Kalamazoo 2-14
FIRST ROUND MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT PAIRINGS
#8 Alma (6-19) at #1 Hope (24-1)
#7 Olivet (7-18) at #2 Calvin (22-3)
#6 Albion (11-14) at #3 Saint Mary's (14-11)
#5 Trine (12-13) at #4 Adrian (11-13)
Received on Sat Feb 20 22:35:21 2010
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