CKSR (Women's Basketball Defeats Trine 83-48 - To Face Hope Saturday in MIAA Tournament Championship Game)

CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR FEB. 20, 2013

Women's Basketball Defeats Trine 83-48 - To Face Hope Saturday in MIAA
Tournament Championship Game

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 83, Trine 48
By Mark DeHaan

Coming off just its second loss of the season at the hands of rival Hope, the
#3 Calvin women's basketball team looked like a team with something to prove in
its MIAA Tournament semifinal against Trine Wednesday evening. The Knights took
the early lead and did not look back, building a double-digit advantage and
cruising to the 83-48 victory. Calvin advances to the MIAA Tournament
Championship game on Saturday and will host rival Hope at 3 p.m. at Van Noord
Arena.

Calvin started the game with strong defense, holding the Thunder without a
field goal until there was 11:19 remaining in the first half, building a 16-3
lead. Trine attempted 15 field goals during those opening minutes and Calvin
totaled five blocks in that span.

The Knights continued to run away from Trine as the Thunder remained cold from
the field. With 4:06 remaining, Calvin led 30-6, shooting 12-for-25 from the
field while Trine was 1-for-26.

The Knights took a 40-11 lead into the break. Senior Carissa Verkaik had 10
points and eight rebounds at half while junior Kirstin Tripp and senior Kelsey
Irwin each added six. Calvin ended the half with a 32-16 rebounding advantage
while shooting 16-for-33 from the field. The Thunder shot 3-for-32 in the
opening half.

Looking to get back into the game, Trine utilized the full-court press out of
the intermission. The Thunder forced the Knights into a few early errors before
head coach John Ross used a time out to settle his team down.

Calvin saw contributions from all the members of its roster as every player
entered the scoring column. The Knights then took their largest lead of the
game with 4:18 remaining at 71-32.

Verkaik led all scorers with 18 points while adding 11 rebounds. On her first
rebound of the game, Verkaik became Calvin's all-time leader in rebounds.
Verkaik now holds the all-time records in points, rebounds, and blocked shots.
Verkaik also boosted her career scoring total to 2,190 points, moving her into
19th place on the all-time NCAA Division III scoring list.

Sophomore Hannah Acre chipped in nine points for the Knights while Tripp,
sophomore Abby VanderWoude and senior Julia Hilbrands all scored eight points
with Hilbrands grabbing eight rebounds as well.

The game also marked a milestone for Calvin seniors Kelsey Irwin, Carissa
Verkaik, Julia Hilbrands and Ally Wolffis as it marked the 100th victory at
Calvin for the quartet. All four players have been four-year varsity players.
In doing so, the group becomes the first set of players in Calvin women’s
basketball history to win 100 games in a career. During their time at Calvin,
the group of seniors has posted a won-loss record of 100-14.

Trine was led in defeat by Kelsey Henselmeier who scored 14 points. Megan
Loveberry added 10 for the Thunder.

“(Defense) is something that we really put an emphasis on. We're really going
to have to step up our defense if we're going to make a run at the end of the
season. We contested a lot of shots, and holding them to 11 points (in the
first half) was really good,” said head coach John Ross. “(Against Hope on
Saturday) we have to play defense for 40 minutes, we have to take care of the
ball and rebound. We're going to have to learn from our mistakes, try to put
out our best performance of the year on Saturday because that is what we're
going to need to beat them.”

Hope, now ranked second in the nation, and Calvin, ranked third, meet for the
third time this year. The teams split the regular season series 1-1 with each
team winning at home. The game will be played at Calvin's Van Noord Arena with
the tip-off scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday’s meeting will mark the eighth
meeting between Calvin and Hope in the MIAA Tournament title game. Hope holds a
5-2 edge in the seven prior meetings but Calvin has won the last two title
tilts against the Flying Dutch.

General Admission tickets for Saturday’s game will be on sale at Calvin’s
website (http://www.calvin.edu/boxoffice), and at the Calvin Box Office
Thursday and Friday, February 21 and 22, from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Tickets will
also be sold at the Arena starting at 1:00pm on Saturday. All tickets will be
General Admission.
 
Ticket Prices: General Admission tickets are FREE for MIAA students with
student ID. General Admission tickets are $3.00 for any college faculty/staff
and students, High School students and
children, and $5.00 for all others. There is no limit on the number of tickets
to be purchased.

MORE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

This evening, Grand Rapids NBC affiliate WOOD-TV 8 produced a feature story on
the three Verkaik sisters – Carissa, Breanna and Kally. The video profile can
be found on the WOOD-TV website at:
http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/sports/ncaa_bball/3-sisters-make-calvin-team-a-family?ref=scroller&categoryId=10004&status=true
Received on Wed Feb 20 23:38:48 2013