WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[oldknight]

In what was truly one of the best D3 women's contests I've ever seen, an undermanned, but game and gritty Lady Knights squad nearly pulled off a major upset for Calvin's Homecoming game at VanNoord Arena this afternoon. It was obvious from the opening tip that Calvin was playing with great passion, something they needed to do the entire 40 minutes to stay in the game against Hope's rare combination of large and talented players. Hope had to know this was going to be a different kind of game when they were unable to score a field goal until the 16:28 mark with Knox scoring on a putback. Calvin did something desperate and surprising--at least to me--by full court pressing the Hope squad from the start and never wavering in doing so, even when Hope made several layups and short jumpers in the first half to build a 39-27 halftime lead. It's rare to see 40 minutes of full court pressing but that's what Calvin did this afternoon, even though I would have thought that Hope was not the type of team with whom that strategy would work. What made it work was Calvin's relentless commitment to their strategy and it eventually wore down Hope both mentally and physically.

At half I remarked to my wife that Calvin reminded me of that pesky little junkyard dog who seemed to think it was the toughest animal in the neighborhood and just wouldn't stop barking at you. I was wondering if the Lady Knights would run out of gas in the second half but it appeared to me that it was Hope who began leaking some oil first (I know, a poor pairing of metaphors). Calvin narrowed the gap behind some excellent floor play from senior Krisit Brummel and freshmen Jill Thomas, and combined with the willingness of Marcia Harris and Brook VanEck (I'd love to go to war with the bulldog from Lowell) to challenge Hope's bigs inside, Calvin slowly but surely closed the gap. When Ottenhof hit a triple at the 3 minute mark to give Calvin a 61-58 lead, even the most staid of Calvinists got off their seats to roar approval.

Jenny Cowen, who was primarily responsible for building Hope's first half lead then took over, scoring 7 of the last 10 for Hope. The most important of these was her 3 ball from the corner at the 46 second mark with the game tied at 63. Cowen then displayed more ice water in the veins by hitting 2 free throws with 19 seconds left to put Hope back up by the final margin. Partridge's surprisingly open 3 at the buzzer went wide and the game ended without Calvin going into yet another overtime game at VanNoord.

The most amazing statistic to me was that despite being outsized by several inches at every inside position, the Lady Knights outrebounded Hope 47-45, getting an incredible 19 offensive boards. Morehouse can't be happy about that. Calvin simply outworked Hope and grabbed virtually every loose ball in the second half. There's simply no excuse for the fact that Brook VanEck at 5'8" got 9 rebounds--more than either Snikkers or Knox. This game was a good and needed test for Hope who have had too many easy wins this year. The game had a tournament quality intensity to it that Hope needs to match if they expect reach the Final Four.

The player of the game really was Cowen, scoring 26 on 8-16 from the floor, 6 of 7 from the stripe, and hustling her way to a team high 9 boards. She repeatedly made big plays for Hope and if she hadn't been on the floor Calvin would have won this game by double digits. I've often said that while she's easily the best athlete on Hope's team, it's her hard nosed, competitive, never-say-die attitude that makes her excel. She's a joy to watch. The crowd was large and very noisy and this made for an exciting afternoon. For those of you who missed today's action, it was as exciting as the men's game at the same venue last week.

[fannie]

Could not have said it any better oldknight..........it was a fun game to watch.  Hope NEEDED that kind of game to ready them for hopefully a nice post-season run.......the full court press seemed to be "key" for Calvin's success this afternoon.  This weeks up-coming tourney could prove interesting!!!!!  :-)

[wwjjdd]

thanks, OK, for the info on Steffani Snikkers.  Much appreciated.

[hope1]

yes what a good game yesterday  maybe they will meet in the miaa tourment finals at the devoss that would be a aonother good game

[Mr. Ypsi]

This is WAY premature (but doesn't hurt to plan) - IF IWU makes it to the Final Four, I plan to be there.   For the IWU @ Hope football game, I brought my RV, but that somehow doesn't now seem an option!  Suggestions on accommodations, etc.?

My dream match up would be IWU vs. Hope for the title.  You'd have home court, but we'd have Christina Solari (national POY?) - I like those odds!

[Flying Dutch Fan]

This is WAY premature (but doesn't hurt to plan) - IF IWU makes it to the Final Four, I plan to be there.   For the IWU @ Hope football game, I brought my RV, but that somehow doesn't now seem an option!  Suggestions on accommodations, etc.?

My dream match up would be IWU vs. Hope for the title.  You'd have home court, but we'd have Christina Solari (national POY?) - I like those odds!

I like those odds too - the odds of Hope shutting down the national POY.  Coach Mo has a history of being pretty darn good at it

[WWWRHH]

Yesterday I prepared a long, insightful commentary from a Hope fan's perspective and then lost my internet connection during the posting process.

At this point, I will not try to top oldknight's in depth analysis of the game.  However, I will summarize what I believe are some of the positive and negative take away's for Hope.

Positives:

Jenny Cowen,

A W in the win column,

Decent play from the three primary post players,

Ability to maintain composure against an intense press,

Ability to maintain composure when down late in the game on the opponents floor- very different from St. Mary's game,

Good defense in the critical final 3 minutes,

Heather Kreuse's strong defense and calm inbounding late in the first half when Knox and Snikkers were on the bench with two fouls.

Negatives:

Failure to capitalize against the double teaming press for much of the second half,

Too many missed easy shots,

Weak rebounding,

Poor defensive rotation at times that opened up wide open corner shots, back door layups and mismatch's for Harris.  (This is a correctable problem.)

Limited scoring from the perimeter players other than Cowen.

Coach Ross put together an excellant game plan and his team played to the best of its ability, but in the end it wasn't enough.  I agree that this was a test that will be beneficial to the Dutch, but I am not complacent about the tourney.

[WWWRHH]

This is a test to see if there are any posters other than Hope and Calvin backers.

I believe this year's conference tourney could be the best of recent years.  While, Hope, Calvin and St. Mary's should advance through the first round with little difficulty all other games through the championship should be credible competitions.

Would it be possible to hear from followers of St. Mary's, Albion and Trine.  What are your keys to victory and what has to go your way to make it to Saturday?

Question for St. Mary's:  Is Beier healthy and ready to go for the tournament?  I see from the box score that she was in the starting lineup against K, but played only two minutes.   Hopefully it was not just an opportunity for her to get on the floor the final home game of her senior year since she is such a tough competitor.  Am I correct in assuming Mahoney is ready to go?

[hope1]

yes i can not go tuesday  night maybe thuresday after my daughter gets done with dutch dance then saturday for shure i will be there

[WWWRHH]

This is WAY premature (but doesn't hurt to plan) - IF IWU makes it to the Final Four, I plan to be there.   For the IWU @ Hope football game, I brought my RV, but that somehow doesn't now seem an option!  Suggestions on accommodations, etc.?

My dream match up would be IWU vs. Hope for the title.  You'd have home court, but we'd have Christina Solari (national POY?) - I like those odds!

Mr. Ypsi there are several national chain hotels within just a couple of miles of campus.  Since you have been to Holland you know there are several great resturants and good shopping downtown.

I would love to engage in NCAA tournament scenario analysis - however, Hope has the conference tourney to get through this week and nothing can be taken for granted - at least Calvin does not seem to have received notice that this week is merely a formality.

However, if you are looking ahead to a match up for Solari, check out the stats for Hopes starting bigs then look at the number of minutes they have averaged.  Both are capable of playing thirty minutes if necessary.  But there is a lot of basketball still to be played.

[Mr. Ypsi]

This is WAY premature (but doesn't hurt to plan) - IF IWU makes it to the Final Four, I plan to be there.   For the IWU @ Hope football game, I brought my RV, but that somehow doesn't now seem an option!  Suggestions on accommodations, etc.?

My dream match up would be IWU vs. Hope for the title.  You'd have home court, but we'd have Christina Solari (national POY?) - I like those odds!

Mr. Ypsi there are several national chain hotels within just a couple of miles of campus.  Since you have been to Holland you know there are several great resturants and good shopping downtown.

I would love to engage in NCAA tournament scenario analysis - however, Hope has the conference tourney to get through this week and nothing can be taken for granted - at least Calvin does not seem to have received notice that the next week is merely a formality.

However, if you are looking ahead to a match up for Soari, check out the stats for Hopes starting bigs then look at the number of minutes they have averaged.  Both are capable of playing thirty minutes if necessary.  But there is a lot of basketball still to be played.

Thanks for the response.  Fortunately both Hope and IWU are in the envious position of the conference tourneys being only to protect seeding - both are absolute locks for a C if they fall.  Based on last year, do you have any sense of whether I should book now (with cancellation possible - wouldn't want to 'count my chickens ...'), or could I afford to wait 'til the Titans actually make it?

BTW, just saw today that the next two Final Fours will be in Bloomington - dare we 'hope' for a home-and-home series?   [I would be reasonably certain that THAT would be a first for national title games in any sport at any level! ]

[WWWRHH]

Mr. Ypsi:

I think you have some time before you make reservations.  Holland does not sit alone isolated on the wind swept prairie like the Bloomington - Normal metropolis.  It is really part of the greater Grand Rapids area(downtown GR is much closer to Hope than Peoria is to IWU) and there are several lake towns north and south of the city that are slow in the winter.

Even if you waited until the week prior to the finals, I think you could find a hotel less than thirty minutes from campus without great difficulty.  However, some of the locals may be able to provide more detailed information.

[Hoosier Titan]

....Holland does not sit alone isolated on the wind swept prairie like the Bloomington - Normal metropolis....

I really wanted to argue with this description, but it is just too accurate! The only bad thing about living in B-N--we have had weather worse than Mt. Washington, NH, this year, site of the highest wind ever recorded on Earth, without the great scenery and hiking.

http://mountwashington.org/

Thanks for the info, WWW.

[sac]

#1 Hope 74, #8 Olivet 57
#2 Saint Mary's 74, #7 Adrian 60
#3 Calvin 69, #6 Alma 41
#5 Albion 58, #4 Trine 48


Semi's are set

#5 Albion at #1 Hope

#3 Calvin at #2 Saint Mary's

Its the third year in a row the same four teams have made the semi-finals.

[oldknight]

After losing twice in overtime to Alma during the regular season, Calvin seems to have taken no chances tonight (and apparently no prisoners) in a 69-41 romp at VanNoord.  I noticed a curious thing from tonight's box. Cassie Kopke, who began the season on Calvin's roster, ended it on Alma's. During the same season, she played 3 games for the Lady Knights and 15 for the Scots. I don't know that I've ever seen that before.