CKSR (Basketball Teams Pick Up Saturday Wins/Track and Field Teams Compete at Hillsdale)

CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 8, 2014

Basketball Teams Pick Up Saturday Wins;
Track and Field Teams Compete at Hillsdale

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 82, Alma 70

ALMA - The Calvin women's basketball team finished out a busy week of play with an 82-70 victory at Alma College Saturday afternoon. The game marked the fourth game in seven days for the Knights.

With the win, Calvin moved within a half-game of second place Olivet (10-2 MIAA) as the Knights improved to 10-3 in league play and to 15-6 overall.

Calvin led 39-28 at halftime holding Alma to 32.4 percent shooting in the first half. The Knights stretched their lead to as many as 21 points at 76-55 with just over six minutes remaining before the Scots made a late run to close the final deficit down to 12.

"I thought Alma really came out to play in the first half and forced us to step it up a notch which is to Alma's credit," said Calvin women's basketball coach John Ross. "I think our depth and conditioning started to make a positive difference for our team in the second half and that was big for us this week because we had three games in five days and four games in a seven-day span."

Calvin was led in scoring by junior Breanna Verkaik (Holland/Holland Christian HS) who tossed in 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting while freshman Anna Timmer (Caledonia/South Christian HS) had 17 points to stretch her double-figure scoring streak to three games. Sophomore Abby Springer (Vernon Hills, IL/Vernon Hills HS) added nine points while senior Kirstin Tripp (Brighton/Brighton HS) and junior Kayla Engelhard (Unionville/Saginaw Valley Lutheran HS) had eight points apiece.

Alma was led by Tara Padgett who had 21 points off the bench while Mallory Pruett had 13 points and 12 boards.

Calvin returns to action on Wednesday when it travels to Rochester College of Michigan for an 8:30 p.m. game.

MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-8-14 GAMES

Hope 13-0
Olivet 10-2
Calvin 10-3
Kalamazoo 8-4
Adrian 6-6
Saint Mary's 4-8
Albion 3-10
Trine 2-10
Alma 0-13

MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 68, Adrian 55

ADRIAN - Calvin got back on the winning track Saturday night, defeating the Adrian Bulldogs 68-55.

Calvin (16-5 overall, 8-2 MIAA) held a slim 34-33 halftime lead as Adrian shot 48 percent from the field over the opening 20 minutes.

Calvin limited the Bulldogs to 29 percent shooting in the second half while shooting 53 percent on its own offensive end to pull away for the win.

Junior guard Jordan Brink (Dyer, IN/Illiana Christian HS) was a key part of the Calvin second half surge, scoring 15 second half points. Junior forward Tyler Dykstra (Holland/Holland Christian HS) had 12 points and five boards while senior Tyler Kruis (Grand Rapids/Calvin Christian HS) had 11 points and five rebounds. Senior Mickey DeVries (Lansing/Lansing Christian HS) chipped in with eight points.

Rickey Jackson led Adrian with 18 points while Wesley Reed had 14.

"I was proud of our guys, I thought they came out and played hard ," said Calvin men's basketball coach Kevin Vande Streek. "In the first half, Adrian just made some some tough shots. We had guys with a hand in their face and they were still knocking shots in. We made a couple of adjustments at halftime but really it was more about just continuing to play hard and stay them (Adrian) on defense and I thought we did that."

Calvin held a 33-23 rebounding advantage.

"I think our size definitely played to our advantage in this game," said Vande Streek. "They were forced to make some double teams and we started finding the open man in the second half."

Calvin had a solid evening at the free throw line, converting 23 of 28 attempts at the charity stripe for an 82.1 percent free throw clip.

Calvin is back in action on Wednesday when it hosts Kalamazoo at Van Noord Arena at 7:30 p.m.

MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-8-14 GAMES

Hope 9-1
Calvin 8-2
Trine 6-4
Albion 5-5
Kalamazoo 4-6
Alma 3-6
Olivet 3-6
Adrian 1-9

MEN'S AND WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD

HILLSDALE - The Calvin men's and women's track and field team put together two strong days of competition at the Hillsdale "Wide-Track" Classic on Friday and Saturday.

MEN'S RECAP

Junior Erik Holstege led the charge by posting a two-day point total of 4, 672 points. The total will put Holstege in contention for a spot in the event for the NCAA III Indoor Track and Field Championships next month.

Holstege had the top shot put performance on the heptathlon competitors with a throw of 41-11 1/2 while also recording marks of 21-2 3/4 in the long jump and 5-11 1/2 in the high jump. He also ran 7.30 in the 60 meter dash, was eighth in the 1,000 meter run (3:03.46), second in the 60 meter hurdles (8.52) and 11th in the pole vault (10-8).

In the men's 3,000 meter invitational only race, senior David Vande Bunte took second with an impressive time of 8:33.54. In the open 3,000 meters, junior Steven Haagsma took second (8:47.79) while junior Josh Ferguson was third (8:49.02).

In addition, sophomore Jeff Meitler won the men's open one-mile run with a time of 4:25.30.

WOMEN'S RECAP

Sophomore McKenzie Diemer won the women's open 3,000 meters with a time of 10:33.59 while junior Sarah Danner was second (10:34.54). Freshman Cassie Vince took fifth in the invite only 3,000 meters in a time of 10:01.69.

In the women's open mile run, freshman Kristen Brink took third in a time of 5:47.83.

Senior Hilary Banning also took third with an impressive leap of 35-11 in the triple jump.
Received on Sat Feb 8 23:30:15 2014