MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

From the broadcast, the boxscore, and postgame comments by KVS it seems the Knights were quite fortunate to escape Hershey Hall with a win. Wes Weir was 8-10 from the arc and Trine shot 12-22 as a team. It appears Calvin won on the strenth of rebounding (37-28) and 24-27 from the stripe. Mantel had 15 and 10 and Veltema played another big game, scoring 18 and hitting 4-8 treys.

[bulldogalum]

Albion 84
Adrian 71

Albion deserved to win.  I'll forego any further commentary since it would undoubtedly be laced with profanity.

[CalvinChelseaMom]

We were at the Calvin/Trine game. For some reason we have spent the last six years celebrating our anniversary at basketball games.

I don't think Caleb hurt his ankle. He was grabbed by one Trine player (who was called for a foul) while another player got him in the gut (or somewheres there about) at the same time. I think if it was his ankle he wouldn't have been squatting for so long--seems like that would hurt. That's what it looked like. He was able to recover and he made big free throws at the end of the game, as did Danny Rodts.

Weir was hard to stop and he was very hot today. There were some interesting calls all game, but I've come to expect that. Calvin played pretty good D against most everyone but Weir.

[realist]

Hope 66-42.  According to the announcers Hope, "is starting to pull away".   These guys are good.

[realist]

Good, solid win for Hope.  92-64

Thanks for the update CCM.   Doug W. wouldn't really say what was happening.  T

[CalvinChelseaMom]

Strong win for Hope. Not being there I couldn't tell how physical this game was, but noticed Hope shot 33 free throws compared with Olivet's 14? Did anyone get hurt in this game?

[scottiedawg]

Strong win for Hope. Not being there I couldn't tell how physical this game was, but noticed Hope shot 33 free throws compared with Olivet's 14? Did anyone get hurt in this game?

No injuries.  We only shot one three in the first half, and concentrated on the inside game.  It paid off.

[hope#1]

Great game by Hope!  Solid ball movement,  good team defense and contributions from a lot of different players.  Team still needs to rebound better but all in all  Hope played solid.  Jesse continues to shine but the efforts of guys like Bunn, Krombeen, Bowser and Nelis make it tough to hang with Hope for an entire game.

Olivet seemed to lose focus in the second half but are still a scary team if they are on.  Andre Evans again put on a show in the first half.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Thoughts from the DeVos tonight:

- Hope did what I thought they would have to do to beat the Comets - play good D and out rebound them (Hope had a 40-30 rebounding edge).

- Jesse Reimink has really become pretty predictable - he's going to put up 20 or so, hit the boards, pass well, and defend hard.   I guess we can live with that   

- Real spark off the bench today from both Chris Nelis and Brandon Bosch. Bosch scored 6 in the first half, with great cuts to the basket.  Nelis had 6 points and 5 boards in the first half, and shut down Brandon McClary on D.  Chris finished the game with 12 and 10, and no fouls.  Really solid minutes off the bench, which I would expect to earn him more playing time.

- The DeVos was a rocking place today.  2500+ for a womens game this afternoon, and 3500+ for the guys tonight.  Great day to be a Hope fan!!

[sac]

Hope 92 Olivet 64

Once or twice a year Hope just puts together a team effort that can't be matched, tonight this might have been it.

Hope started strong with a 12-3 run, they missed a couple opportunities to really get off to a great start.  The tone was set, Hope led the rebounding battle early 10-3 in the first 5 minutes.

This game had a chance for some drama when Michael McClary picked up foul #2 at 18:07, felt bad for him a little because there was nothing he could do.  Followed by Jesse Reimink picking up his 2nd foul at 14:20, both were pretty much crap calls.  Olivet controlled the middle part of the half or at least I felt like they played better.  Olivet just couldn't really capitalize, B. McClary was uncharacteristicly sloppy with the footwork a couple times, missed a few shots etc.  Evans carried them and was their catalyst, much like the first time.  Much like the first time Hope contained him for the rest of the game once they switched.

When JR left Hope led by 9, when he returned at 5:04 Hope led by 4.........at the half Hope led by 16.  Coincidence?  not a chance.  Jesse returned to score 8 of Hope's next 15.  The Dutchmen finished really strong and had a comfortable if not surprising halftime lead.

Hope withstood the Olivet charge in the 2nd half, the Comets rolled off their first 5 shots in succession, only to see Hope back to a 17 point lead.  Hope was agressive attacking the basket tonight and Olivet just couldn't seem to defend without fouling.  I think by this point Olivet kind of resigned to their fate and Hope could do just about whatever they wanted the rest of the game.  Olivet quit challenging shots and that suprised me some.

Hope's bench came through in a big way toinght, holding the fort with Jesse Reimink in the penalty box, and at one time acutally building on a lead when the lineups probably didn't favor Hope.   Huge night for Chris Nellis, 12 points 10 rebounds........and completely out of nowhere.  He was pretty agressive and Olivet couldn't match him.

Its hard to say it with a 28 point win but Hope won this game in a lot of subtle ways tonight (more later).  For sure I thought this was the best I've seen Hope play, with some surprising efforts here or there from the bench.  I think Olivet came in to DeVos expecting to win, but Hope made sure that didn't happen.

Reimink 20, Bunn 12, Nelis 12,  Krombeen 11, Bowser 10

B. McClary 15, Evans 13

[sac]

Some notes from a packed DeVos

**I mentioned the subtle ways Hope won this one, one I think was keeping Joe Post and Andre Evans from setting up their teamates.  Post was averaging 4 assists per game, Evans almost 3.........tonight 0 for Post, 2 for Evans.  They also forced 5 to's from those two and 6 more from B McClary.  Joe Post was one of the nations leaders in assist/turnover ratio, tonight Post was 0 assists to 4 turnovers.


The McClary's average'd 10.0 and 8.5 rebounds per game coming in, tonight they had 6 and 3..........and its the second time Hope has held those two well below their avg's.  Never would have guessed this Hope team would win the rebounding battle twice vs Olivet.

Hope attacked the basket relentlesly tonight, their 33 FT attempts speaks to that fact, and they continued to do so even when the game wasn't in doubt with 10 min left.  The still earned 14 more trips to the line in the last 10 minutes.   I thought Olivet settled for a lot of midrange jumpers from 5-10 feet.  The more agressive team clearly won this one. 


**I think one of Hope's goals this year was to be better from month to month, February will be a tough month for Hope to top January.   But it was quite surprising to see a Hope team play so much of and get so much from its bench today when just 3 weeks ago the bench looked like 3 deep 10 mins per game at best.


**I went 2-2 in the pick'ems today, but I completely missed all four games when it came to how I thought they'd go.  None of today's results matched what I saw from the 5 different MIAA teams I saw from Saturday to Wednesday.   Very confusing season.


**Ran into AlwaysHope during halftime at the men's basketball display.  Great to hear the stories of old Hope teams from many, many years ago.  Reading words in one thing, but hearing someone describe something is quite different.

[sac]

Updated standings through Sat.  w/remaining sched

Calvin 7-1    (+3)  @alma, adrian, hope, @olivet, albion, @kzoo
Hope 7-1     (+2)  @albion, kzoo, @calvin, adrian, @alma, @trine
Albion 5-3    (+1)  hope, olivet, @trine, @kzoo, @calvin, alma
Olivet 4-4     (+1)  trine, @albion, kzoo, calvin, @alma, adrian
Alma 3-5      (-1)    calvin, @trine, @adrian, hope, olivet, @albion
Adrian  3-5   (-2)   @kzoo, @calvin, alma, trine, @hope, @olivet
Kzoo 2-6      (-2)   adrian, @hope, @olivet, albion, @trine, calvin
Trine 1-7      (-2)   @olivet, alma, albion, @adrian, kzoo, hope

Wednesday, February 4
Adrian at Kalamazoo, 7:30 p.m.
Calvin at Alma, 8 p.m.
Trine at Olivet, 7:30 p.m.
Hope at Albion, 7:30 p.m.



***Albion kept themselves in the race with their win today, Wednesday's game with Hope is big for both teams.  Hope had better expect a real battle.

***No score surprised me more than Kzoo pasting Alma today.  Jordan Redditt only played 4 minutes and it looks like he didn't start.  Alma's just not very good without DeHaan and Redditt both scoring.

***Suddenly Kzoo is back in the picture for the 4th slot.  A win over Adrian could be a big boost to those claims.

***If ever there was a year #8 and #7 could beat #1 and #2 in the tournament, this might be it.

*** So great to see Wes Weir having an outstanding Sr. season at  Trine.  Wes blew out his knee last year and his return this season is reminiscent of Greg Immink in 2006.

[ziggy]

*** So great to see Wes Weir having an outstanding Sr. season at  Trine.  Wes blew out his knee last year and his return this season is reminiscent of Greg Immink in 2006.

No doubt.  We'll see if the 0-2 week for Trine will keep Weir from gaining player of the week honors.  Despite the team record, I think he deserves it.

[sac]

*** So great to see Wes Weir having an outstanding Sr. season at  Trine.  Wes blew out his knee last year and his return this season is reminiscent of Greg Immink in 2006.

Except for that whole thing about Wes being listed as a Jr on Trine's website.........it was a good idea.   http://www.trine.edu/trineathletics/mens_basketball/roster.cfm

Still good to see Wes having an outstanding Jr. season.

[almcguirejr]

A nice article about KVS.

http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2009/02/vande_streek_humble_as_calvins.html