MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[GoKnights68]

FINAL:

Hope 62

Albion 55

....Big road win for the Dutchmen


A key play was when Hope was up by 3 and Bunn missed his first free-throw of the 1 and 1, but Bunn still got the rebound, Bunn got fouled, and then made both free-throws.  This was with about a half a minute to go in the game.




Adrian/Olivet in OT right now.

[GoKnights68]

FINAL:

Calvin 80

Kalamazoo 67


Always great to get any road win in the MIAA.


Clark had an impressive 28 points for the Hornets.

[GoKnights68]

Final in OT:

Adrian 65

Olivet 64

[RuleBritannia]

Calvin: With their win on the road, and Albion's home loss, Calvin is the clear front runner.

Albion: Tough home loss for them, the Brits are still in contention, but they face a near must win at Calvin on Saturday, not only for them, but for all other hopefuls as well. They will need to box out better, and they will need more than 5 people to score to make that happen though.

Hope: Put themselves back into contention with tonight's win. The Dutchmen won't go quietly, but they will need some outside help to win the regular season title.

Adrian: A surprise contender here. Adrian knocked off Olivet in OT to move to 3-2 in the league. If they could get a win at Hope on Saturday, they'd put themselves right in the thick of things.

Olivet: Probably lost any realistic hope of winning the title, but could have a say on who does win it.

Kalamazoo: Probably lost any realistic hope of winning the title, but could have a say on who does win it.

Trine: Proved they're not the worst team in the league, can they make a run, or will they stay in the cellar?

Alma: If there is a bright point for Alma, it was the fact that they were able to rally from down big tonight.

Albion at Calvin
Adrian at Hope
Kalamazoo at Trine
Alma at Olivet

We'll have a much better sense of where teams stand after Saturday. If Calvin wins though, I'd be shocked if anyone but them end up winning the league.
Alma at Olivet

[Happy Calvin Guy]

It's great to get a W in Kalamazoo and be alone atop the MIAA standings!

Just some thoughts from the box score tonight as I did not make the trip to K-zoo:

--We've been focusing a bit on free throws on this board recently.  Great night tonight.  Knights were huge making 25-28 for 89%.  (This seemed to make a big difference in the Hope/Albion outcome too).  Included 9-10 from Schnyders.
--Speaking of Brad, crazy line tonight.  13 minutes, 3-5 FG, 9-10 FT, 3 reb, only 1 TO, 15 points.  That is serious production, sounds like once again his relentless nose for the basket served him well.
--Tom Snikkers again fills the stat sheet--13 points, 8 reb, team-leading 3 ast, 1 block, 1 steal
--Quietly Trent Salo has found a 3 point stroke, hitting another one tonight and shooting over 50% from beyond the arc in league play.  Also 3 ast, zero turnovers.  there are plenty of times when all 5 Knights on the floor are a threat from downtown.
--Big John with another double-double.  Yawn.
--Danny Rodts only logs 16 minutes.  Is his knee still bothering him?  Would like to hear from someone with the inside scoop or who saw the game tonight.
--Not a great shooting game from Schuster tonight but 9 rebounds and 3 blocks in 20 minutes.  Loving the inside presence of the Twin Towers.
--Knights once again have a significant edge on the boards but lose the turnover battle.  I think this may be the biggest need for improvement right now.  Elimination of mental lapses while handling the ball and an effective press break should be the focus in practice.  

Congrats to all the winners tonight:  Calvin, Hope, Adrian, and Trine.  Big game Saturday at Van Noord as the Knights go for a 2-game lead in the MIAA!

[goodknight]

--Danny Rodts only logs 16 minutes.  Is his knee still bothering him?  Would like to hear from someone with the inside scoop or who saw the game tonight.

Rodts picked up two fouls early and sat most of the first half. 

[KnightSlappy]

Final in OT:

Adrian 65

Olivet 64

Can we finally put the Olivet league championship contender talk to bed?

It was nice to see the Knights take care of business in a tough building. Still too many turnovers though. They need to work on the press break (look for the big man down the floor!), but a lot of the turnovers were from players trying to force the ball to a teammate cutting toward the hoop. I like to see guys moving without the ball (the 'motion' offense seems to be working better than in previous years) but the passers need to realize that they can't thread the ball through two defenders legs every time.

Got a good taste of "Bryan being Bryan" tonight (a good thing). At one point Mr Powell missed a defensive assignment leading to a Kzoo three, then turned the ball over. After observing Coach KVS send Salo to the scorer's table to spell him, Bryan let a three ball fly and promptly buried it. I love that mistakes don't phase this kid at all. He also had a dandy of a no-looker to find a wide open Tom Snikkers down low for a layup.

Early in the year I think we saw Mantel get passive if things weren't working for him in a particular game. It seems that now he's making his own plays happen. A couple of times in the last two games I've seen him shoo teammates out of the crowded paint after receiving the ball in the post. Both times he took his defender for a bucket. A thunderous second half dunk by John got the crowd (even some Kzoo students) buzzing tonight. Not sure it was the best in D3 history, but it was still impressive.

I'm very impressed with Brent Schuster's shot blocking ability. It seems to me that he had one or two more that looked clean but were whistled for fouls. Though now that I think about it one may have been a Paul Campbell block and another may have been a Schnyders block. In any event, I really like the length that this team has, it really can disrupt opponent's shots.

Note to the rest of the league: if you give Ryan Clark even an inch of space, he'll knock down the shot.

[sac]

Hope 62 Albion 55

Tough, tough win for the Dutchmen tonight.  I thought coming in it would take a total team effort to get this done tonight and I really think thats what Hope came up with.  Bench scoring was a modest 14-6 advantage but in a 7 point game that turns out to be pretty huge. 

Three things that really stood out for me tonight.

1.  I thought this might be Hope's best defensive effort of the season, they didn't make a lot of stops but they made it difficult to score, Albion never really made any big runs and the whole second half seemed to be about Hope keeping the Brits at arms length. Ultimately it came down to the final 2 minutes and Hope was able to make the bigger plays which turned out to be rebounds in crucial situations to keep possessions alive or gain a stop.

2.  Hope weathered some foul trouble at a spot on the floor they're already pretty thin.  At 16 min Andy Venema picked up fouls 2, 3 and 4 in a remarkable 38 seconds, Hope immediately went smaller with Mysliwiec taking his place on the floor.  Then 5 minutes latter Chris Nelis picked up his fourth, and is replaced by Josh Holwerda who immediately picked up a block and back to back steals and a 3rd steal just seconds latter.  Monster minutes off the bench in that situation from a guy who probably wouldn't have played in that half.  Hope entered this 10 minute stretch of the game up 8 and finished it up 6.  There could have been a big momentum swing there and it was averted.

3.  Hope played Albion almost even from behind the arc.  I thought this would be a huge advantage for Albion and it might have turned out to be their undoing.  There were several opportunities for big momentum swinging 3's that just didn't go in for the Britons for whatever reason.  But not getting whipped in this little segment of the game was pretty huge.


Albion is a good basketball team and plays as hard as any we've seen.  J.C. Cruse and Andre Bridges gave Hope fits taking the ball to the basket. Kolin Kazen is all hustle all the time and seems to be incredibly strong for a Freshmen.  Not many loose balls get away from him.   Hope seemed to do a nice job on Dave Stasiak holding him to zero points in 20 minutes, he usually averages 8 points a game......which goes along with Hope doing a decent job getting out to defend or at least run at 3 point shooters.

Albion might have trouble with Calvin's height, but I would expect a similar type of effort on Saturday.  Hard to turn around and go win at Calvin after losing whats typically your biggest game on your own floor.


Hope may or may not have turned the corner, time will tell, big road wins such as tonight can have a way of really giving a team a big boost.  Tonight was actually the perfect opponent to have with your backs against the wall, a traditionally tough opponent in a tough environment.  Hope came out focused and ready to play and stayed with that approach for 40 minutes.  A difficult thing to do for a young team.

[sac]

Standings  + for road win/ - for home loss

Calvin 5-0      +2
Albion 4-1     +2
Adrian 3-2      0
Hope 3-2       0
Olivet 2-3      0
Kzoo 2-3       0
Trine 1-4       -1
Alma 0-5       -3

Saturday, January 23
Kalamazoo at Trine, 3 p.m.
Alma at Olivet, 3 p.m.
Albion at Calvin, 7:30 p.m.
Adrian at Hope, 3 p.m.

-------------------------------------------------------

Couple big individual stat lines tonight

Michael McClary  27 points, 16 rebounds, 11-17 from the floor  vs Adrian

Javon Mosley 29 points, 11-18 from the floor, 5 treys vs Olivet

Ryan Clark 28 points, 5-10 from three vs Calvin

.........also the attendance was listed as 473 at Albion but I have to believe it was a bit higher than that, under 1,000 but surely higher than 473.  Not a very big Hope contingent.

[Mr. Ypsi]

sac, you must have an error somewhere.  With conference games, plusses must equal minusses, but you have plus 4 and minus 3.

[GoKnights68]

Great to hear some insight from someone that made the trip down to Kalamazoo.  Thanks, KnightSlappy.  Looking forward to see if Calvin can win the turnover battle verses Albion this Saturday.

[Hopester]

2.  Hope weathered some foul trouble at a spot on the floor they're already pretty thin.  At 16 min Andy Venema picked up fouls 2, 3 and 4 in a remarkable 38 seconds, Hope immediately went smaller with Mysliwiec taking his place on the floor.  Then 5 minutes latter Chris Nelis picked up his fourth, and is replaced by Josh Holwerda who immediately picked up a block and back to back steals and a 3rd steal just seconds latter.  Monster minutes off the bench in that situation from a guy who probably wouldn't have played in that half.  Hope entered this 10 minute stretch of the game up 8 and finished it up 6.  There could have been a big momentum swing there and it was averted.

This stretch was doubly important when you really look at everyone who was on the floor, 3 freshman and 2 sophomores (1 with a year of varsity experience, and they played probably 3 minutes of gametime or so as a group)

Krombeen
Mysliwiec
Neil
Snuggerud
Holwerda

Gonna be a dynamic starting corps in two years!

[sac]

A key play was when Hope was up by 3 and Bunn missed his first free-throw of the 1 and 1, but Bunn still got the rebound, Bunn got fouled, and then made both free-throws.  This was with about a half a minute to go in the game.

Nate Snuggerud made the play, tipping the rebound out to Bunn who anticipated the tip well.

[GoKnights68]

A key play was when Hope was up by 3 and Bunn missed his first free-throw of the 1 and 1, but Bunn still got the rebound, Bunn got fouled, and then made both free-throws.  This was with about a half a minute to go in the game.

Nate Snuggerud made the play, tipping the rebound out to Bunn who anticipated the tip well.

Ahhh, I see, thanks for the correction.  It all happened so quickly...

[Adrian Hoops Fan]

Great win for the Bulldogs last night.  McClary is a great player and had his way most of the night as he has all year.  But as the game was on the line in the last possession (AC with a 65-64 lead) and tied at end of regulation, he could not even get a touch down on the block.  Credit there goes to both Matt Wayne and Dennis Mason who would not on those possessions let him get the ball as well as the guards putting great pressure on the ball.  Mosely had another phenomenal game scoring a game high 29 and is quickly showing that he belongs in the list of the MIAA's best hitting many clutch shots in the comeback as the Comets had a double digit lead at a couple points in the game.  The difference was that the Comets guards could not handle the press and had multiple turnovers in the late stretch.