MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Kalamazoo gave Calvin a strong performance at VNA two weeks ago, but the Hornets folded the tent early tonight at the Roller Dome, as the Knights coasted to victory, 84-51. If Calvin's offense is reasonably competent this season, they're very hard to beat as their defense was once again stifling. Kalamazoo wasn't particularly good at dealing with Jalen Overway, who dominated the paint with 27 points, 15 rebounds, and a host of blocked and altered shots. 

[TUAngola]

Trine 65 Albion 41

I hate to sound like a broken record but once again the Thunder defense was just terrific tonight. Trine forced 24 Albion turnovers with 19 coming off of steals.  The only downfall is that we need to convert more of those steals into points, we just didn't finish enough of the 3 on 2 and 2 on 1 fastbreaks off of the steals.  Connor with probably his worst game this year, he's lost confindence in his shot, was 0-6 from behind the arc and 0-10 for the game.  In the second half he had a wide open 3, no one within 20 feet of him, he lined it up for like 3 seconds...and shot an air ball.  I'm not worried though, he'll break out sooner than later.  Brent had a good second half offensively and led us with 22 points.  Grant Pahl had a good game off the bench with 12 points.  For Albion we really frustrated their 2 good guards, Garland and Armstead-Wilkerson, they had 7 and 8 turnovers respectively.  Garland finished with 11 points but it was a 'quiet' 11.  Albion's team as a whole was just frustrated, no cohesiveness at all.  The frustrations boiled over into some teammates arguing with each other on the court a few times.         

[sac]

Hope 76  Alma 53 F

Good team win for Hope tonight.  Stretched a modest 5 point halftime lead into 17 quickly with a 15-3 start to the second half, never would get closer than 12 after that.  Real good defensive and rebounding minutes.  Wiegerink and McKenzie had really nice 2nd halves.  Have to mention Ben Wagar who came off the bench continued his pretty incredible shooting.  4-4 tonight. 

Alma played hard tonight, just couldn't shoot the 3's well enough and bad night for Hope to have a good night from the 3-line. 

Hope:  Thomas 14, Wiegerink 13, Wourman 11, McKenzie 10
Alma:  Walker 14, Riley 13

[sac]

In the other game
Olivet 92  Adrian 82 F

Olivet led this pretty comfortably throughout, curious final score.

[KnightSlappy]

Trine 65 Albion 41

I hate to sound like a broken record but once again the Thunder defense was just terrific tonight. Trine forced 24 Albion turnovers with 19 coming off of steals.  The only downfall is that we need to convert more of those steals into points, we just didn't finish enough of the 3 on 2 and 2 on 1 fastbreaks off of the steals.  Connor with probably his worst game this year, he's lost confindence in his shot, was 0-6 from behind the arc and 0-10 for the game.  In the second half he had a wide open 3, no one within 20 feet of him, he lined it up for like 3 seconds...and shot an air ball.  I'm not worried though, he'll break out sooner than later.  Brent had a good second half offensively and led us with 22 points.  Grant Pahl had a good game off the bench with 12 points.  For Albion we really frustrated their 2 good guards, Garland and Armstead-Wilkerson, they had 7 and 8 turnovers respectively.  Garland finished with 11 points but it was a 'quiet' 11.  Albion's team as a whole was just frustrated, no cohesiveness at all.  The frustrations boiled over into some teammates arguing with each other on the court a few times.       

I thought Albion would give Trine a tight game tonight -- and for a few minutes it looked like they would -- but when I checked back in later Trine was smothering.

[KnightSlappy]

Kalamazoo gave Calvin a strong performance at VNA two weeks ago, but the Hornets folded the tent early tonight at the Roller Dome, as the Knights coasted to victory, 84-51. If Calvin's offense is reasonably competent this season, they're very hard to beat as their defense was once again stifling. Kalamazoo wasn't particularly good at dealing with Jalen Overway, who dominated the paint with 27 points, 15 rebounds, and a host of blocked and altered shots.

Kalamazoo just doesn't have anyone who can deal with Overway inside, and tonight Calvin was able to knock down threes to help keep doublers honest.

[sac]

+/-
+1 for road wins, -1 for home losses

Calvin  9-0    +5
Trine   8-1    +4
Hope   6-3    +2
Olivet  5-4    0
Albion 3-6     -1
Adrian 2-7     -3
Alma   2-7     -2
Kzoo   1-8     -5

Top 4 separated from bottom 4 by 2 games now. 


Games remaining:
Calvin:    OLI, @Alma, TRINE, HOPE, @Alb
Trine:      ALMA, @Hope, @Cal, KZO, ADR
Hope:      @Adr, TRINE, OLI, @Cal, KZO
Olivet:     @Cal, KZO, HOPE, ALB, @Alm
Albion:    KZO, ADR, @Alma, @Olivet, CAL
Adrian:    HOPE, @Alb, @Kzo, ALMA, @Trine
Alma:      @Trine, CAL, ALB, @Adri, OLI
Kzoo:      @Alb, @Oli, ADR, @Trine, @Hope


Albion/Adrian/Alma have 6 games head-to-head remaining
Alma doesn't have to play Kzoo again and has both Trine/Calvin remaining, so maybe disadvantage Alma
Kzoo still in it, but would have to win probably 3 road games to have a shot

[ziggy]

+/-
+1 for road wins, -1 for home losses

Calvin  9-0    +5
Trine   8-1    +4
Hope   6-3    +2
Olivet  5-4    0
Albion 3-6     -1
Adrian 2-7     -3
Alma   2-7     -2
Kzoo   1-8     -5

Top 4 separated from bottom 4 by 2 games now. 


Games remaining:
Calvin:    OLI, @Alma, TRINE, HOPE, @Alb
Trine:      ALMA, @Hope, @Cal, KZO, ADR
Hope:      @Adr, TRINE, OLI, @Cal, KZO
Olivet:     @Cal, KZO, HOPE, ALB, @Alm
Albion:    KZO, ADR, @Alma, @Olivet, CAL
Adrian:    HOPE, @Alb, @Kzo, ALMA, @Trine
Alma:      @Trine, CAL, ALB, @Adri, OLI
Kzoo:      @Alb, @Oli, ADR, @Trine, @Hope


Albion/Adrian/Alma have 6 games head-to-head remaining
Alma doesn't have to play Kzoo again and has both Trine/Calvin remaining, so maybe disadvantage Alma
Kzoo still in it, but would have to win probably 3 road games to have a shot

If Calvin can avoid a letdown against Olivet or Alma, they can clinch the regular season title no later than a week from Saturday with a win over Trine. They would be two up with two to play but hold the sweep over Trine as the tie-breaker while everyone else already has at least three losses.

[sac]

+/-
+1 for road wins, -1 for home losses

Calvin  9-0    +5
Trine   8-1    +4
Hope   6-3    +2
Olivet  5-4    0
Albion 3-6     -1
Adrian 2-7     -3
Alma   2-7     -2
Kzoo   1-8     -5

Top 4 separated from bottom 4 by 2 games now. 


Games remaining:
Calvin:    OLI, @Alma, TRINE, HOPE, @Alb
Trine:      ALMA, @Hope, @Cal, KZO, ADR
Hope:      @Adr, TRINE, OLI, @Cal, KZO
Olivet:     @Cal, KZO, HOPE, ALB, @Alm
Albion:    KZO, ADR, @Alma, @Olivet, CAL
Adrian:    HOPE, @Alb, @Kzo, ALMA, @Trine
Alma:      @Trine, CAL, ALB, @Adri, OLI
Kzoo:      @Alb, @Oli, ADR, @Trine, @Hope


Albion/Adrian/Alma have 6 games head-to-head remaining
Alma doesn't have to play Kzoo again and has both Trine/Calvin remaining, so maybe disadvantage Alma
Kzoo still in it, but would have to win probably 3 road games to have a shot

If Calvin can avoid a letdown against Olivet or Alma, they can clinch the regular season title no later than a week from Saturday with a win over Trine. They would be two up with two to play but hold the sweep over Trine as the tie-breaker while everyone else already has at least three losses.

I think we'll be mostly done with seeding by the Wednesday before the final day, and top 3 or 4 might be pretty settled by next Saturday.  Final day shouldn't have much if any drama.

[wiz]

Calvin survives Perez in the house.

[sac]

Hope 72 Adrian 63 F

Evan Thomas and Devin Cheney sat this one out.  Hope spent most of the day missing shots, I'll give Adrian's interior D some credit they stood tall and challenged Hope inside all day, very rarely was it easy.  But sometimes it was and that's the summery of really Hope's season, great play intermixed with some really ugly scenes.

I believe Hope led the rest of the game after gaining a 4-2 lead.  Much like the game in Holland it floated around double digits most of the way.  A decent push by Adrian mid-second half saw the Bulldogs drag it down to 3 but back-to-back treys by Wourman and Hawes put Hope back up 9, Adrian would get no closer than 7 from there.  Final minutes a mix of beautiful worked clutch shots and bizarre mistakes, bad turnovers and a few iffy shot selections by both teams.

Adrian just kind of stuck around and never really got any real momentum going.  A scratchy game full of stoppages, free-throws and every time-out possible I think.  Hope won it at the FT line going 25-27, while Adrian went 17-18.

Hope:  Quillan 17, Wiegerink 17, Dykhouse 12
Adrian:  Price 19, Fields 12


You might have caught the name Hawes in there, Zach had played a total of 17 minutes this year, his 4 min played the other night at Alma were his previous high.  He played 16 today, had a couple big time 3's and generally I thought played well.     He almost doubled his playing time and his 6  points tripled his career scoring total.

Game 21 Hope's really stretching for minutes.  Weird, weird season.

[sac]

+/-
+1 for road wins, -1 for home losses

Calvin  10-0    +5
Trine   9-1    +4
Hope   7-3    +3
Olivet  5-5    0
Albion 3-7     -2
Alma   2-8     -2
Adrian 2-8     -4
Kzoo   2-8     -4

I believe Hope clinched a tournament spot today and a home seed but maybe not (but basically yes).


Games remaining:
Calvin:    @Alma, TRINE, HOPE, @Alb
Trine:      @Hope, @Cal, KZO, ADR
Hope:      TRINE, OLI, @Cal, KZO
Olivet:     KZO, HOPE, ALB, @Alm
Albion:    ADR, @Alma, @Olivet, CAL
Adrian:    @Alb, @Kzo, ALMA, @Trine
Alma:      CAL, ALB, @Adri, OLI
Kzoo:      @Oli, ADR, @Trine, @Hope


Kzoo's win at Albion makes the last 2 tournament spots basically a free for all. 
Kzoo still has the hardest road, Adrian maybe the best?

very big week for Trine @Hope, @Calvin

[oldknight]

Calvin improves to 10-0 in the conference with a 92-74 win at VNA. Credit Olivet for making countless tough shots against the Calvin defense, scoring more points than any Calvin opponent this year except Elmhurst. The Comets really compete hard, and just don't quit. Unfortunately for Sammy Hargraves, his club ran into an ever-improving Calvin offense that is making strides, as the Knights showed more efficiency, committed fewer turnovers, and took advantage of the visitor's inability to slow down the beast known as Jalen Overway. The freshmen from Holland Christian led with another double/double (30 and 10), while four other Knights finished in double figures, including fellow frosh, Owen Varnado, who netted 18. Calvin was good enough to barely notice a rare off-day from Uchenna Egekeze, who missed numerous shots near the basket, finishing with 3 points and a curious 1 rebound. Robinette came off the bench to lead Olivet with 16. It may have looked like a comfortable win to some, but I don't think anyone should take Olivet lightly. They're a pretty good 5-5 team.

[MaroonKnighty]

I don't think anyone should take Olivet lightly. They're a pretty good 5-5 team.

I wouldn't be surprised to see an upset on the 11th.  This team is pretty good.

[HOPEful]

I don't think anyone should take Olivet lightly. They're a pretty good 5-5 team.

I wouldn't be surprised to see an upset on the 11th.  This team is pretty good.

This year's Hope team is so wildly inconsistent, there's not a single team in the MIAA I don't think is capable of beating Hope. Conversely, I also think there's not a single team they're not capable of beating. But until they start putting it all together more consistently, I'd lean to them being upset/bounced early over them making a run at this point...