WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[scottiedawg]

If it's gamesmanship that's incredible.

Hope v Albion semis is still up though.

[TUAngola]

I hope everyone travels safely to the tournament sites tomorrow.  I'm assuming most participating teams have already arrived at their host college.  Friday appears to be a 'not so fun' travel day, with a major snow storm hitting the Chicago area with 6-10" of snow.  Won't make for good traveling weather for those Trine folks heading west to Dubuque.  I am not going, was probably not going to go anyway, but the incoming weather sealed the deal plus I am just getting over a nasty cold.  Angola is on the southern fringe of the storm but we're still supposed get 3-5" of snow.  What is the forecast for Holland tomorrow?

Loras will be the prohibitive favorite in their pod, they have been playing great basketball.  Trine will have to play really well to get past Wash U to even get a shot at playing the hosts on Saturday.  Hopefully the deep run in the tournament last year will give us a little edge experience wise.  Ardis and Wagner will have to carry the bulk of the scoring load.  If Argyle can make a few 3s that will help, she has been stuggling lately.  Sanner will have to stay out of foul trouble, and the Slonekers' will need to be leading us defensively.   

[TUAngola]

Final from Loras College:  Trine 79  WashU 69

Well played game by both teams, stats were pretty even, both made 9 three pointers, both made 14 free throws, Trine with 5 more made baskets and shot 50% from the floor for the game.  We played well the 1st quarter and 3 minutes into the 2nd, led by 13 at one point, WashU fought back and cut it to 7 at half.  WashU takes their first lead of the game midway thru the 3rd with an 11 pt run, but Trine responds to lead by 4 going into the 4th.  Every run by WashU in the 4th was countered with huge buckets by the Thunder and WashU was forced to foul at the end of the game for a final margin of 10 points.

We got good contributions from everyone:  Ardis 18, 9 reb, 9 ast (1 reb and ast away from a triple/double), Wagner 15, Argyle 11 (with 3 3's, we needed her to hit them tonight), Tate 9, Hinds 9 (3 huge 3's in the 3rd qtr), K Sloneker 8, Sanner 6 (with couple big buckets in the 4th), S Sloneker 3. 

Will face the winner of Loras/Knox tomorrow night.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Nice game by the Dutch last night to get the 82-61 win.  Close first quarter and early second, and then Hope did what Hope does - defense turning into offense, and very good shooting. 

Tonight they get the chance to "avenge" their last loss in the NCAA tournament when they lost to Wartburg in the 2019 NCAAs, losing 79-49 @ Wartburg.  I know during their amazing run of 60+ wins in a row several players and Coach Mo sited that loss at Wartburg as a turning point. 

Here's a quick look at how Hope and Wartburg compare going into tonights game:

Offense	% 2pt	% 3pt	% FT
Hope	54.5	38.5	68
Wartburg	47.9	33.7	70.9
------
Defense	% 2pt	% 3pt
Hope	39.1	28.4
Wartburg	35.7	29.3
------
Rebounding	Team	Opp	Margin
Hope	43.8	31.5	12.3
Wartburg	38.1	38.1	0
------
Scoring	Team	Opp	Margin
Hope	88.1	55.1	33
Wartburg	72	57	15
------
3 point shooting	Made/game
Hope	9.5
Wartburg	9.7
------
Ball Control	Stl/game	TO/Game	OppTO/Game
Hope	12.4	14.6	21.2
Wartburg	9.2	13.3	18.3
------
Ball Control	Asst/game	A/TO	Blks/game
Hope	15.9	1.09	2.6
Wartburg	14.5	1.09	3.6
------
	vRRO	In-Div SOS	Massey Predicts
Hope	4-1	0.523	76
Wartburg	1-6	0.574	65

[TUAngola]

Trine at Loras tonight, 8:30 Eastern Time (7:30 Central).

Massey has Loras with a 58% chance of winning with projected final score of 64-61.  Massey has Loras ranked 12th and Trine 15th.  D3 Hoops has Loras ranked 15th and Trine 14th.  In terms of style both are very similar relying on tough defense and motion offense.  Neither team goes much more than 8 deep.  Loras does have an advantage in size, 4 of their 5 starters are 5'10 and taller while we only have one girl 5'10 or taller.  There are some common opponents: both Trine and Loras have defeated Calvin, Loras defeated UW Eau Claire and Trine lost to Eau Claire, Trine has defeated Wartburg and Loras has won 2 of 3 games with Wartburg.  Loras has won 11 in a row, have not lost since mid January.  I give the edge to Loras tonight playing at home with some raucous fans.  Their students aren't on spring break yet so they'll have a large crowd.

[TUAngola]

Just realized it's MIAA vs ARC in both games today.  Good luck to Hope in their game against Wartburg and Trine in their game against Loras!  Hope's last loss in the NCAA tournament came against Wartburg in 2019.  Time for payback.

[pointlem]

Kudos to Trine. We'll be rooting for you and your women players, TU Angola.

Incredible shooting by Wartburg tonight . . . the second time they've ambushed Hope . . . and after Hope was roaring back as the third quarter was ending with 1529 fans on their feet and the house vibrating with deafening energy.

After time passes, we'll say what an incredible four years those seniors have had: 103 and 4 . . . three #1 finishes in a row out of 400+ schools, plus 26-3 this year. You could not have asked for more (even if, having accomplished this much, we wished for still more).

And what typically spontaneous eloquence by Coach Morehouse in reflecting on it all: https://youtu.be/9owICFqvC9U?t=1206.

I think of him as the John Wooden of current DIII women's BB.

[TUAngola]

Survive and advance:  Trine 60  Loras 54

Tale of 2 halves, Loras with some great 3 point shooting jumps out to a 34-25 lead at half.  But Trine turned up their defense a notch and made things much more difficult for the Duhawks in the 2nd half.  Trine ties things up at the end of the third qtr and take their first lead since the first qtr with 6 quick points to begin the 4th.  Trine doesn't relinquish the lead and Sidney Wagner hits 5-6 FT to seal the win.  Defense holds Loras to 5-26 shooting in the 2nd half.

Sidney Wagner with a great game, finishes with 17 pts, 12 reb, 4 ast.  But the player of the game was freshman Abby Sanner.  She was huge in a game where we needed her length and led the Thunder with 19 pts.  Makayla Ardis with another solid game and finishes with 11 pts and 7 reb.

Trine's next game will be against ultra talented NYU.  With Transylvania winning tonight, the Sweet 16 will more than likely be back in Lexington again next week.  Games hosts will be announced Sunday. 

[TUAngola]

Watched the first half of Hope's game.  Just ran into a hot shooting Wartburg team, their 3 point shooting was terrific.  Outstanding 4 years for this group of seniors.  Hope will be back, they aren't going anywhere as they have good young talent to plug in for next year.

[TUAngola]

Back to Transylvania for Trine .

Ladies are headed back to Lexington KY for the Sweet 16 next weekend.  Some comfort in knowing how to win on that court.  Doesn't get any easier though as the next opponent is NYU ranked #2 in Massey and #6 in D3 Hoops poll.  They are beating teams by an avg of 25 pts/gm.  Their non-conference schedule wasn't that great but the one game that stands out is an impressive 20 pt win over Tufts.  They gave Hope a great game last year and have most all of that team back.  We'll be heavy underdogs against the Violets.  They have 2 inside players who are very good in Bruns at 6'1 and Walker at 6'0, with a 'do everything' guard in Pellecchia.  It's a matchup problem for the undersized Thunder.  My guess is we'll have to utilize Sanner and the Slonker(s) on the court at the same time even more to combat their length. 

Transy is the only Sweet 16 host outside of the state of Massachusettes.  Smith, Tufts and Babson are the other hosts next weekend. 

[HOPEful]

Let's go Trine! Would love to see back-to-back MIAA champions!

[sac]

Hope's great run really began off the back of a 79-49 loss at Wartburg in the 2019 tournament.  That team was very young with many of the same faces that lifted the Championship trophy a year ago and one or two from this years team as well.  They didn't lose again for 3 years.

Both times Wartburg shot over 50% from 3, 10-19 in 2019, 14-24 this weekend.

[TUAngola]

I will be heading down to Lexington again this year for the Sweet 16.  I came down with the 'crud' a few weeks ago so wasn't able to get up to Hope for the MIAA conference final, and didn't want to fight the wintry weather to get out to Dubuque last weekend.  Just an amazing feat by the Thunder to make it back to the regional finals again this year.  I sure wasn't expecting it with the graduation losses from last year's team.  Wagner and Ardis has been a great tandem at guard, and Sanner has been coming into her own since Underhill was lost for the season.

It will be #14 Trine vs #6 NYU and #16 Ohio Northern vs #2 Transylvania.  Massey has NYU with a 68% chance of winning over Trine and are 6 point favorites, and Transy has a 73% chance of winning over ONU and are 8 point favorites.  My belief is that NYU will be the favorite to advance out of this region.  Transy has everyone back from last year's loss to Trine, but they play a very weak schedule.  That's why I thought Trine had a good shot of winning at Transy last year, that the battles with Hope were advantageous in playing in those tough games.

I just couldn't pass up seeing this group of seniors play one more time.     

[ronk]

I will be heading down to Lexington again this year for the Sweet 16.  I came down with the 'crud' a few weeks ago so wasn't able to get up to Hope for the MIAA conference final, and didn't want to fight the wintry weather to get out to Dubuque last weekend.  Just an amazing feat by the Thunder to make it back to the regional finals again this year.  I sure wasn't expecting it with the graduation losses from last year's team.  Wagner and Ardis has been a great tandem at guard, and Sanner has been coming into her own since Underhill was lost for the season.

It will be #14 Trine vs #6 NYU and #16 Ohio Northern vs #2 Transylvania.  Massey has NYU with a 68% chance of winning over Trine and are 6 point favorites, and Transy has a 73% chance of winning over ONU and are 8 point favorites.  My belief is that NYU will be the favorite to advance out of this region.  Transy has everyone back from last year's loss to Trine, but they play a very weak schedule.  That's why I thought Trine had a good shot of winning at Transy last year, that the battles with Hope were advantageous in playing in those tough games.

I just couldn't pass up seeing this group of seniors play one more time.   

I agree with Massey; I  really like Wagner's play but in this game, I think NYU's Pellechia will hold her down.

[sac]

Bridget Crombie   5-11  SF has committed to Hope for basketball and track

Bridget is homeschooled and has run track and played basketball for CHAP  or Capital Homeschool Athletic Program based in Lansing, Mi.