Women’s Basketball Claims Share of MIAA Regular Season Title With 67-44 Win at Olivet
Saturday, February 11, 2012
(Photo by Sandy Palmatter)
OLIVET – Calvin clinched a share of the MIAA regular season title with a 67-44 victory at Olivet Saturday afternoon. Ranked fifth nationally, Calvin improves to 22-1 overall and to 14-1 in the MIAA. The Knights can claim an outright title with a win over Saint Mary’s next Wednesday. The league title is Calvin’s 13th overall in women’s basketball which leads all MIAA schools.
Calvin overcame early foul trouble to roll out to a 44-22 halftime lead against the Comets. Calvin then stretched its lead to as many as 35 points in the second half to help seal the win.
Calvin’s inside tandem of juniors Carissa Verkaik and Julia Hilbrands powered the Knights to the win as Verkaik had 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting while Hillbrands was 6-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-4 at the free throw line for 16 points.
Junior Ally Wolffis also contributed seven points.
“Olivet has been playing good basketball lately so we feel very positive about this win,” said Calvin women’s basketball coach John Ross. “We are happy about winning a share of the MIAA (regular season) title but we know we still have work to do. We’ve got a very challenging opponent coming up next Wednesday when we host Saint Mary’s so we’ll have to be prepared.”
Calvin’s game against Saint Mary’s next Wednesday is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. at Van Noord Arena.
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Hope Defeats Calvin 83-70 in 181st Meeting of The Rivalry
Story By Andrew Knot/Photo by Dan Vos
The Knights dropped an 83-70 loss to archrival and top-ranked Hope on Saturday, moving their record to 12-11 overall and 7-5 in conference.
The game was competitive in its early stages. Senior Brian Haverdink drilled a three from the top of the key to bring the score to 11-9 early. Sophomore Tyler Kruis followed that up on the defensive end with a baseline block of Hope’s Colton Overway. But Hope clawed back to take a marginal lead off an old-fashioned three point play from Nate Van Arendonk. But once again, Haverdink, playing in his final Calvin-Hope game, buried another three to put the Knights on top by two.
But Hope would mount a double-digit lead in not too long. After VanArendonk again converted three consecutive points to put the Dutchmen on top by 15. With less than four minutes to go in the half, Calvin found itself needing a spark.
That spark came in the form of 6’1” junior Bryan Powell. With two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the half, Powell intercepted pass from Hope’s Logan Neil and darted towards the basket. Nearing the hoop, Powell elevated over Neil for an electrifying, authoritative dunk. Powell’s fast break electrified the Calvin crowd, which had previously grown silent, and by halftime, the Knights had cut the deficit to eight.
The Dutchmen were able to stifle any remains of Calvin momentum after halftime. David Krombeen sank a triple three minutes into the half and Billy Seiler downed two threes in less than a minute. Soon, Hope’s lead was nineteen.
Calvin would respond at various points with runs. Kruis was efficient in the paint, scoring 11 second half points. But Hope’s defense was stifling, and Calvin couldn’t cut the lead to single digits.
“They did a good job of taking away our inside high-low game,” said Calvin Coach Kevin Vande Streek. “They forced us to take shots at the end of the shot clock.”
Kruis led the Knights in scoring with 17 points. He also contributed 6 rebounds. Powell was close behind with 16 points and junior Tom Snikkers led the way on the glass with 10 boards.
Hope was led in scoring by Nate Snuggerud with 25 points while David Krombeen had 20 points.
Calvin held a 43-29 rebounding advantage but the Knights shot just 36.9 percent from the floor while Hope connected on 52.8 percent of its attempts.
Calvin travels to Angola, IN to square off against Trine on Wednesday. Calvin is currently locked in a three-way tie for second place in the MIAA standings with Adrian and Trine as all three teams are 7-5 in league play. Albion is lurking close behind at 6-6 as four teams are vying for three available spots for the upcoming four-team league tournament. Hope has already clinched the top seed.
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Track and Field Action Continues at GVSU Big Meet
ALLENDALE – Action continued at the Grand Valley State big meet on Saturday. Notable performances for the Calvin men’s team included sophomore Sam Kerk placing fifth in the 3,000 meters with a time of 8:39.93.In the men’s shot put, junior Aaron Meckes produced a season-best throw of 53-3 that places him ninth on the NCAA III qualifying list.
On the women’s side, sophomore Stephanie Bennett had a solid day, posting a time of 8.20 in the 60 meter dash and a time of 26.70 in the 200 meter dash. Freshman Kate Ardinger also had a strong time of 5:10.97 that was good for 10th place in the mile run.
