CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR DEC. 20, 2014
Men's Basketball Perfect at Charity Stripe in Victory at UW-Oshkosh;
Women's Basketball Arrives in San Francisco - Files Day One Report
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 75, UW-Oshkosh 63
By Mark DeHaan
OSHKOSH, WI - After falling to the Redhawks of Ripon College on Friday evening, the Knights rebounded against the Titans of University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Saturday to get back on the winning track.
Behind 21 points from senior Jordan Brink and a 12-for-12 effort from the free throw line that allowed the Knights to ice the game in the closing minutes, the Knights earned a 75-63 victory.
Both teams entered with 5-4 records, looking to avoid dropping to .500 on the season.
In the first half, the teams played evenly as the game saw 11 lead changes.
The Titans jumped out to a 6-0 lead behind a pair of threes from guard Alex Olson. Calvin responded with seven straight to grab a 7-6 advantage.
The teams then traded the lead back and forth, and with 1:49 to go, a three from junior Austin Parks saw the Knights take their largest lead of the first half at 29-24.
Calvin then settled on a 31-29 advantage at the break. Sophomore Brad Visser led Calvin with 8 points at halftime, while AJ Mueller had 14 for the Titans.
Out of the break, a triple from Olson gave Wisconsin-Oshkosh a 36-33 lead minutes in to the second period.
A 16-3 run by Calvin, including a run of four minutes where the Titans were held without a field goal, then gave the Knights a double-digit lead at 49-39.
Back-to-back threes from Olson cut Calvin's advantage to 49-45.
With 7:13 to go, another three from Wisconsin-Oshkosh again cut the Knights lead to four at 53-49, but a 10-0 run for Calvin, with five points provided by Brink, saw the largest margin of the game at 63-49.
With 1:40 remaining, a three-point play by Olson brought the game to 67-58, but that is as close as the Titans would come as Calvin made 8-of-8 free throws in the final two minutes to ice the game and earn a 75-63 win.
The Knights shot 52.8% from the field, also hitting 12-of-12 shots from the free throw line. Wisconsin-Oshkosh shot 40% and just 32.1% from three-point range. Calvin out-rebounded the Titans 38-23.
Individually, Brink scored 21 and added six rebounds to lead the Knights. Brink's 21 points move him into 14th on the career scoring list, moving him past former teammate Tyler Kruis. Visser added 13 points, freshman Connor Vander Brug scored 11, and Parks chipped in 10 points, six rebounds, and five assists.
For Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Olson finished with 24 while Mueller added 20.
"We weren't in the bonus until the last three minutes or so, but a lot of clutch free throws; Jordan Brink had two, Tyler Dykstra had two, and Austin Parks had four," said head coach Kevin Vande Streek. "It's been a good semester for us in that we've continued to get better, and hopefully this is a team that continues to build throughout the whole season."
The Knights improve to 6-4 with the win.
Calvin now looks forward to the final non-conference matchup of its season when the Knights make the long road trip to Hancock, Michigan to face Finlandia University on December 31. The New Year's Eve contest against the Lions is scheduled to tip-off at 1:00 p.m.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Day 1 California Trip Diary
(Editor's note: The Calvin women's basketball team is currently in Northern California, preparing for a set of games on the campus of UC-Santa Cruz early next week. Team members are providing daily updates from the trip.)
By Calvin College Senior Kelly Bates
(Kelly is a native of Ossineke, Michigan. She is a graduate of Alpena High School.)
This morning started out not so bright and very early. We met at Calvin at 5:15 a.m. to head to the airport to begin our journey. Our flight left from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis at 7:15. I found wearing the same exact outfit as fourteen other girls is a great conversation starter. People in the airport and on our flights stopped us to ask what sport we were, where we were traveling, and wished us luck.
Our flight from Minneapolis to San Francisco was delayed for three hours due to weather and flight traffic in the west. We spent our new-found free time either catching up on sleep, trying to drive away sleep by filling up with Starbucks, playing card games, painting each other's nails, or just chatting. Once aboard the aircraft, all was well.
The first stop after leaving the airport was to find food. So, naturally, we went to IN-N-OUT Burger. After scarfing down the delicious burgers, we piled back in our rental vans - each one with a license plate from a different state (Nevada, Florida, and California). From there we drove to the Chinese Christian School Gymnasium for practice. Though stiff joints and partially digested burgers and shakes made practice a little slower than other days, we were able to stay focused and have a beneficial practice.
After practice we had a potluck prepared for us by our very gracious host families at Alameda CRC.
A pair of athletes were paired up with a host family and, after a 20+ hour day of traveling and getting settled here in San Francisco, we were able to get some much needed sleep.
Thank you for all your prayers and well-wishes.
Received on Sat Dec 20 21:51:20 2014
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