CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR FEB. 15, 2012
Women's Basketball Captures Outright MIAA Regular Season Title;
Men's Basketball Toppled by Trine;
First Day of MIAA Swimming & Diving Championships in the Books
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Calvin 73, Saint Mary’s 52
(By Mark DeHaan)
Calvin College was able to send its seniors off with the outright MIAA regular
season championship as the Knights defeated the Saint Mary's College Belles
73-52 in their final home game of the regular season on Wednesday night.
Playing in pink, breast cancer awareness jerseys, Calvin was able to fend off a
pesky Belles team on Senior Night.
Senior Courtney Kurncz scored the first five points for the Knights to give
Calvin the early 5-0 lead. Playing strong defense and forcing Calvin into a
number of early turnovers, the Belles would not go away as they cut the deficit
to one at 11-10 with ten minutes remaining.
Junior Carissa Verkaik, eight points away from moving into second on the
Calvin career scoring list, did not score her first points of the night until
5:49 left in the opening half as Calvin pushed its lead to 19-14.
A 6-0 run by Saint Mary's gave the Belles their first lead of the night at
20-19, but an 8-0 response by the Knights closed out the half as Calvin grabbed
the advantage, 27-20. Calvin shot 2-for-13 from three-point range in the first
half while committing eight turnovers to a stingy Belles defense, allowing
Saint Mary's to stay in the contest.
Out of the break, Calvin opened up a 36-22 lead, capped by a Verkaik layup
that put her at 1,551 points in her career, moving her past Marcia Harris and
into second on the career scoring list.
Minutes later, a pair of layups by Saint Mary's junior Jessica Centa cut
Calvin's lead to 39-33 with just over ten minutes remaining.
Over the next three minutes, six points and three steals by freshman Kayla
Engelhard fueled a 14-0 run that put the game out of reach for the Belles as
Calvin pushed its lead to 53-33.
With a minute remaining and up 71-49, Calvin Head Coach John Ross subbed out
his three seniors to a standing ovation by the Calvin crowd.
The clock then ran down as the Knights held the 73-52 advantage to earn the
victory and the outright MIAA regular season championship.
“We've worked really hard all year, and the last few years, especially with
this senior group. To win it on senior night, to pull them out all at the end –
from where we were three years to just be at this point – it’s an awesome
feeling,” said Ross. “I'm so happy for Leah, and Court, and Jill – it’s just
been a great ride and we want to keep it going.”
Leading Calvin on offense was Verkaik, who scored 21 points and added 14
rebounds, five blocks, and five assists. With her 14 rebounds, Verkaik also
moved past Eileen Boonstra and into second place on the Calvin career
rebounding list, boosting her career total to 767. Kurncz scored ten points and
added four rebounds, four steals, and three assists for a solid senior night
performance. Also scoring ten points for the Knights was junior Julia Hilbrands
and Engelhard.
The Belles were led on offense by senior Kelley Murphy who scored 12 and added
five boards. Senior Patsy Mahoney chipped in 11 while senior Maggie Ronan added
ten for Saint Mary's.
“They played us extremely tough in the first half, I thought we did a good job
defensively, but they really shut us down offensively – we just picked up the
intensity in the second half. Saint Mary's is really good, they have a lot of
seniors, and we're going to have to be ready to play next Thursday,” said Ross.
“Hopefully we'll use the break that we have to our advantage and get people a
little more fresh for the final week.”
The Calvin victory sets up a rematch with Saint Mary's in the first round of
MIAA Tournament as Calvin claimed the top seed and Saint Mary's holds the
fourth seed. That game will take place next week Thursday, and is the next game
on Calvin's schedule. Hope is the second seed in the MIAA Tournament while
Albion is the third seed.
MIAA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-15-12 GAMES
Calvin 15-1
Hope 12-3
Albion 11-4
Saint Mary’s 8-7
Adrian 6-9
Olivet 5-10
Trine 5-10
Alma 4-11
Kalamazoo 2-12
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Trine 73, Calvin 54
By Andrew Knot
The Knights dropped a 73-54 loss to Trine on Wednesday, setting up a must-win
game with Olivet on Saturday.
The Thunder jumped out to a 6-0 lead off five points from their leading scorer
Ian Jackson. Calvin’s answered with consecutive buckets in the paint. Both Tom
Snikkers and Tyler Dykstra found space beneath the basket to get the Knights on
the board in the early going. The eventual equalizer came in the form of a
Brian Haverdink three ball from the top of the key.
From there, Calvin would jump out to an 18-12 lead. After receiving the ball
on the perimeter, Snikkers put the ball on the floor and converted on a
right-handed lay-up despite a foul. Snikkers would complete the old-fashioned
three-point play to put Calvin on top by six.
But Trine came back with an offensive flurry. The Thunder repeatedly turned to
high ball screens for Jackson, who was very effective in getting to the lane.
At the hands of Jackson’s dribble penetration, the Thunder regained the lead at
23-22.
Snikkers followed that up with a lay-up and, on the next possession, Tyler
Dykstra drilled a three from the baseline to put the Knights on top by four.
Calvin would hold on to a 30-28 lead at halftime.
Out of the locker room, Trine took the lead after Ian Jackson and Chris Kent
got to the lane. Kent converted both of his free throws to give the Thunder a
36-34 lead and the Thunder wouldn’t look back from there. After both Snikkers
and Matt DeBoer found themselves in foul trouble, the Thunder extended their
lead to 15 with eight minutes to go.
Jackson and Kent continued to slice the Knight defense, and an alley-oop
lay-in from Kent to Scott Rogers, who got the basket and a foul, highlighted
the Thunder run. Later in the half, Trine would extend its lead above 20, and
after time expired, the score stood at 73-54 in favor of the Thunder.
“Trine played really well and deserves all the credit,” said Calvin Coach
Kevin Vande Streek after the game. Vande Streek also credited the Thunder’s
screen-heavy offense.”
Statistically, Snikkers led the Knights with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Haverdink joined him in double figures with 10 points.
The loss drops the Knights to .500 overall and 7-6 in conference. Calvin will
travel to Olivet on Saturday for a game that will decide its conference
tournament fate.
MIAA MEN’S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-15-12 GAMES
Hope 13-0
Adrian 8-5
Trine 8-5
Albion 7-6
Calvin 7-6
Alma 4-9
Kalamazoo 3-10
Olivet 2-11
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING
HOLLAND – The first night of the four-day MIAA Swimming and Diving
Championships took place Wednesday night at the Holland Aquatic Center. After
one day of competition, the Calvin men are in second place with 34 points while
the Calvin women are in fourth place with 30 points. The only finals event that
took place on Wednesday were the men’s and women’s 800 freestyle relays.
In the men’s 800 freestyle relay, the Calvin team of senior Ross Battoclette,
freshman Alex Baumann, sophomore Andrew Mitchell and freshman Travis Vincent
had a season-best time of 6:54.12 that was good for second place, just .54 of a
second behind Kalamazoo’s winning relay team.
On the women’s side, the Calvin team of junior Elizabeth Counsell, junior
Stephanie Fox, freshman Kathryn Wrobel and junior Shelby Cloyd took fourth in a
time of 8:05.48.
In the only other event of the night, the men’s one-meter diving prelims,
Calvin qualified three divers for the finals as sophomore Andrew Krafft had the
top score out of the prelims at 546.10 while freshman Jordan Kaster was fourth
(439.20) and junior Josh Dreska seventh (289.60).
Action continues with prelims Thursday morning at 10 a.m. with finals set for
5:30 p.m.
Live results for the rest of the competition will be available at:
http://hollandhighswimminganddiving.org/downloads/index.htm
Received on Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:51:48 -0500
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