WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[TUAngola]

Exhibition final tonight:  Ball State 100 Trine 41.

[monsoon]

Preseason Top 25 is out:
https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/women/2023-24/preseason

Trine: 17
Hope: 21
Calvin: ORV

Transylvania is 1, with NYU at 2.

[TUAngola]

Preseason Top 25 is out:
https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/women/2023-24/preseason

Trine: 17
Hope: 21
Calvin: ORV

Transylvania is 1, with NYU at 2.

Nice for the MIAA to get some squads in the polls, however both Hope and Trine have graduated a bevy of extremely talented players from the past two seasons.  The Flying Dutchmen and Thunder will be inexperienced in some spots.  We'll see how November and December plays out as both teams have some tough non-conference matchups that will give us an idea on what to expect this season.

[pointlem]

Nice for the MIAA to get some squads in the polls, however both Hope and Trine have graduated a bevy of extremely talented players from the past two seasons.  The Flying Dutchmen and Thunder will be inexperienced in some spots.  We'll see how November and December plays out as both teams have some tough non-conference matchups that will give us an idea on what to expect this season.

Agreed, TUAngola. Hope the last two years has graduated two exceptional groups of players who accomplished amazing things, making Coach Morehouse look like the John Wooden of DIII women's basketball. Now it's back to earth, surely with fewer blow-out 40 point wins and more exciting games. And a chance for new players to enjoy their chance to shine.

[HOPEful]

Agreed, TUAngola. Hope the last two years has graduated two exceptional groups of players who accomplished amazing things, making Coach Morehouse look like the John Wooden of DIII women's basketball. Now it's back to earth, surely with fewer blow-out 40 point wins and more exciting games. And a chance for new players to enjoy their chance to shine.

I'm excited to see what an off-season and being thrust into a much bigger role does for Karsen, Keegan, and Sydney's games. All 3 showed promise as freshmen, so fingers crossed that there's a sophomore leap in their play. Throw in the upperclassmen Jada and Raven and there's reason to be excited about this team.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

MIAA Coaches poll is out:

https://www.miaa.org/sports/wbkb/2023-24/releases/PreseasonPoll

Rank  Team Points  First-Place Votes
1.   Trine           8 points   8
2.   Hope     18 points   1
3.   Albion   20 points   
T4.   Alma           32 points   
T4.   Calvin   32 points   
6.   Adrian   47 points   
7.   Saint Mary's   50 points   
8.   Olivet   54 points   
9.   Kalamazoo   63 points   

[TUAngola]

Trine WBB off to a good start in 2024 recruiting class:

Zoe Willems, 5'7 G, Bethany Christian HS, Goshen IN.  Sister of Albion College F Beck Willems.  Indiana Junior Small School All State Top 15.  1000 pt scorer.  Led team to Class 1A state championship game.

Madison Wagner, 5'10 G, Carroll HS, Flora IN.  Indiana Junior Small School All State Top 15.  1000 pt scorer.

Hailey Cole 5'11 F, Bellmont HS, Decatur IN.  Honorable Mention Junior All State.

3 more to add to this list:

Jocelyn Love, 5'7 G, Lapel HS, Lapel IN.  Team finished as Class 2A state runners up last season.  Fun fact, assistant coach is Trine alum and WBB guard on the Final Four team, Kaylee (Argyle) Huckabee.

Emma Payton, 6'0 F, Burlington Central HS, Burlington IL (west of Chicago).

Lily Johnson, 5'11 F, Lakota West HS, West Chester OH (north of Cincinnati). 

Nice to see some interior recruits in this class so far.

[AlwaysHope]

Did you notice that Hope's WBB 5-11 Freshman Guard Chloe Brunsburg from Minnesota led the team in scoring and rebounding.  She made 5 out of 11 shots, including 2 threes, plus gathered in 8 rebounds (4 offensive) in only 13 minutes of play. Keep your eye on her!  It was her first collegiate game.

[scottiedawg]

Did you notice that Hope's WBB 5-11 Freshman Guard Chloe Brunsburg from Minnesota led the team in scoring and rebounding.  She made 5 out of 11 shots, including 2 threes, plus gathered in 8 rebounds (4 offensive) in only 13 minutes of play. Keep your eye on her!  It was her first collegiate game.

Maynard and Brunsberg were quite impressive. Some players just look different on the floor. Better comfort, better awareness, better physical instincts. You could see it with Karlblom from day one last year. Different sets of skills between all three of course, but I had a similar feeling watching them.

[TUAngola]

Trine (#17) opens up the '23-'24 season with a hard fought win over Baldwin Wallace (RV) 62-60.  This is a great win over a very good BW team who was picked 2nd in the OAC behind Ohio Northern.  It would have been nice to ease into the season a bit, especially since BW had 2 quality wins under their belts already.  Starters were Wagner, Hinds, Rhonehouse, Tate and Sanner.  We were good defensively the first half, went into break with a 3 point lead.  BW came out hot and jumped out to a 3 point lead early in the third quarter and held onto the lead throughout the first few minutes of the 4th.  The whole second half was choppy however with an abundance of whistles, the refs did not let the game flow at all, both teams were in the bonus early in both the 3rd and 4th quarters.  We hit just enough free throws down the stretch to pull it out, but had anxious moments at the end by missing 2 with .6 seconds to play.  BW called a timeout and ran a halfcourt play to lob the ball to the block, but Wagner made a good defensive play to get a hand on the ball to run out the clock.  Offensively we weren't pretty, but I can't fault the effort at all.  Erin Sherwood was huge for us off the bench with 16 points.  She didn't play much as a freshman last year coming off a knee injury her senior year in high school.  She is still wearing a full length brace, but you can see she put in a lot of work over the summer, is in much better shape.  We needed her as Abby Sanner had a tough outing tonight.  It was great to see Chelsi Giesige back on the court after 2 season ending injuries the last 2 years.  She is not 100% and also plays with a full length leg brace, but gave us good minutes and energy.  Sidney wasn't stellar on the offensive end but still ended up with 16 points.  However it was her lockdown defense on BW all-conference point guard Emily Irwin that was the difference in the game, holding her to 0 points.  We have lots to work on as a team.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but thrilled we could beat a good team like BW.   

[pointlem]

Two more excellent games from the young flying Dutch, who, despite the graduation of all last year's starters (and of the national championship starters the year before), are looking like they unexpectedly merit that preseason top 25 ranking.

What hasn't changed is the Morehouse-Kust offensive (up tempo energy from at least 10 players). The player depth also means fresher 2nd half legs, when once again Hope came from behind to win 80 to 73—a score that does not indicate the game's back-and-forth closeness.

For Hope today, 46% 3-point shooting, winning the bench points 37 to 7, and a career-high 20 points from Olivia Bellows overcame a 9 rebound deficit and 27 points by Illinois Wesleyan's athletic Lauren Huber.

IWU, which suffered its first loss, plays much like Hope—well-coached, up tempo, and pressure defense . . . and surely must be destined to be a CCIW contender.

All in all, an exciting game between two quite similar teams.

[TUAngola]

Results from this weekend's Cameron Hospital Classic Tournament at Trine.

Saturday:
Wittenberg 76 Albion 60
Trine 78 Muskingum 47

Sunday:
Albion 64 Muskingum 58 OT
Wittenberg 65 Trine 59

Wittenberg backs up their opening game upset of #10 Ohio Northern by coming to Angola and looking very impressive in their wins over Albion yesterday and Trine this afternoon.  Their quickness off the dribble caused the Thunder all sorts of problems.  Cash and Gains-Burns are a nice backcourt tandem and then Wolshire was fantastic too with a good inside-out game.  We're going to have growing pains this year.  We're not very deep, we need to find some offensive production off the bench other than Sherwood.  We're dinged up a little too.  Allie Walther went down very early in yesterday's game with what appears to be a severe ankle injury.  She was being counted on to give the second unit a spark of production off the bench.  We have too much standing around waiting for Sidney to make a play, if we don't get a better balance we're going to struggle against good teams.  So far Coach Rang has been reluctant to get more of the freshmen in, other than Horton and Capouch.  Tringali is one I'd like to see in there simply for the fact she can really shoot it.  She showed that yesterday with a quick 8 points in 4 minutes of playing time.  Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little defensive inexperience to let your scorers play.  Just need to keep their heads up and try to improve as the season goes on. 

The early 'eye test' between Hope and Trine shows Hope as the better and deeper team of the two this year.  Hope has been impressive from what I've seen of their games so far.   

[sac]

Sarah LaPrarie 5-7 G  Rochester Stoney Creek has committed to Hope.

[TUAngola]

MIAA WBB opens up conference play with 2 big games right out of the gate tonight:

Hope @ Albion 7pm
Trine @ Calvin 7:30pm

I've seen Trine and Albion in person, Hope and Calvin live stream.  Albion is a team that can be really good and is probably the most experienced in the league along with Alma.  If Beavers can give them production, they are tough to defend.  In the Albion games in Angola 10 days ago it appeared Beavers may have been coming off an injury as she didn't start either game, and looked gassed when she did get extended playing time, so it might be a matter of getting back into playing shape.  Hope is relatively young, but the pieces are still there to be probably the best all around and deepest team in the league.  Calvin is another young team, but is playing good defense and is a good rebounding team with a lot of nice interior post players.  Trine is also a young squad.  They suffered a set back to Wittenberg 10 days ago but had a nice bounce back win last weekend on the road at Ohio Northern, which was ranked preseason but has suffered some tough losses against good competition.  Trine's huge weakness is rebounding, I think they are last in the league if I remember seeing that correctly.  That is where Albion, Hope and Calvin excel is rebounding.  With Hope and Trine playing on the road I'd have Albion and Calvin as slight favorites tonight.

Alma is looking good too.  They beat Wittenberg at home in 2 OT after Wittenberg had defeated both Albion and Trine the previous weekend.  Sas is awfully good, I'd say she is the player of the year so far in the MIAA.  You got to know where she is at all the time on defense or she will burn you.  I think I read she broke Alma's single game scoring record with her performance against Wittenberg, she finished with 39 points.

[TUAngola]

With Hope and Trine playing on the road I'd have Albion and Calvin as slight favorites tonight.

...so much for my prediction. 

Hope 68 Albion 51
Trine 67 Calvin 50