By Gina de Haan

On Saturday afternoon at Van Noord Arena, the No. 23 Calvin women's basketball team faced off against No. 3 Hope College in the 115th edition of the storied rivalry series.

The Dutch, who clinched the MIAA title on Wednesday with an 83-47 victory over Kalamazoo, were looking to earn a win to cap off their season with a sweep of the conference. Hope entered the contest with a perfect 24-0, 15-0 MIAA record, while the Knights, who had already claimed the second place in the MIAA, held a 19-5 overall record with a 13-2 conference mark.

This contest served as the second meeting of the season between the two rival teams, with Hope claiming victory the first time around by a score of 79-47. Hope led 36-15 at halftime and continued to roll in the second half, cruising to the win. Hope shot 49.3 percent from the floor and forced 23 Calvin turnovers in the defeat.

After struggling to get shots to fall in the first matchup of the season, the Knights found their groove Saturday afternoon on their home court and handed Hope its first loss of the season by a score of 88-77.

In the victory the Knights shot 48.2-percent from the floor, 54.5-percent from three-point range and 71.0-percent from the free throw line.

Anna Timmer scored the first bucket of the game, but was soon answered by Hope's Elizabeth Perkins who sank a jumper. Kally Verkaik put the Knights back on top with a made layup and Ali Spayde furthered the Knights' momentum, driving to the hoop and scoring another two points. 

Hope's Autumn Anderson quickly responded, draining a three-point basket to bring the point difference back to one, the scoreboard reading 6-5 in favor of the home team.

Junior Lauren Goldthorpe got the Knights going, scoring four straight points by way of a free throw and three-pointer.

Following a media timeout, the teams went back-and-forth in scoring, Hope slowly chipping away at Calvin's lead. By the end of the first quarter, the Flying Dutch had knotted the score at 13 after Angelique Gaddy scored layup at the quarter buzzer. 

Hope began to heat up in the second quarter, scoring four points before senior Abby Springer would get a layup to fall for the Knights.

As the midpoint of the quarter neared, Tiffany Karger drained a triple to earn back the lead, sparking the Knights. After a bucket by Hope's Gaddy, Calvin stepped up its defensive pressure, earning back-to-back steals that led to fastbreak layups by Goldthorpe and Bre Luurtsema to give the Knights a 22-19 edge over their guests.

In an attempt to halt Calvin's increasing momentum, Hope called a timeout. Out of the break, Hope's leading scorer Maura McAfee laid in a bucket, but, in the next possession, Tiffany Karger extended the Knights' lead to four by sinking another three-pointer with 5:14 left to play in the half.

Hope responded with four points, scored by Allison Hedrick and Francesca Buchanan, to tie the game at 25.

Calvin would close out the half strong, outscoring Hope 8-2 in the final 3:50. Anna Timmer hit a three-pointer and a jumper while Goldthorpe added another triple to give the Knights a 33-27 lead heading into the halftime break.

At the half, Lauren Goldthorpe led all scorers with nine points. The Knights were shooting 50.0-percent (5-10) from three-point range while the Flying Dutch only made 14.3-percent (1-7).

Hope scored the first four points of the second half, holding the Knights scoreless until the 7:48 mark when Mackenzie Shelton put in a layup.

After made free throws by both teams, the scoreboard read 37-33, with Calvin still holding on to the lead.

At the 5:42 mark, Karger was fouled and went one-for-two from the line. Kally Verkaik added to the effort when she put up a shot that rolled around the rim and finally fell through. 

Following a made free throw by McAfee, Karger knocked down her third three-pointer of the afternoon. Calvin possessed a 43-36 lead with five minutes left to play in the third.

After Hope's Gaddy sunk a free throw, the Knights scored the next seven points off of a jumper from Luurtsema, a pair of made FTs by Timmer and a three-pointer from Spayde.

Before the quarter ended, the Knights would sink two more shots from behind the arc, courtesy of Timmer and Karger.

In the final 5 minutes of the quarter, the Knights only outscored the Flying Dutch 14-12, but held a nine-point lead heading into the final quarter.

In the first two minutes the fourth quarter, the Flying Dutch cut Calvin's lead to five (57-52). However, Kally Verakik had an answer for Hope, scoring two consecutive buckets, a three-pointer followed by a layup in the paint, to put the Knights up by double digits once again.

Hope's Madison Geers was fouled and knocked down two free throws, but Calvin answered with a six-point run, with a layup in the paint and free throw by Luurtsema along with a triple by Goldthorpe.

The Knights continued to roll offensively, building their lead to 16 at with just over two minutes remaining after Karger's fifth triple of the night and a bucket in the paint by Timmer.

In the final two minutes of the contest, Hope was able to cut the point deficit to six with the help of three-pointers by Anderson, Gaddy (2) and Mandy Traversa.

However, Abby Springer displayed solid free throw shooting, going 6-8 from the line in the final two minutes of play. Timmer, Spayde and Verkaik also knocked down free throws in the last minute to clinch the victory for their team.

"I thought that this was by far the best game that we've played," said Calvin head coach John Ross. "I give our players credit from the way we bounced back since the last Hope game."

Calvin was led in scoring by Anna Timmer who finished with 18 points, shooting 100-percent from three-point range and the free throw line (5-7 FG, 2-2 3pt, 6-6 FT). Tiffany Karger finished with 16 points, which came by way of five three-pointers and one free throw.

"I feed off my team, especially the starters. If they're going, that gets me going," said Karger, a senior who played in her final game at Van Noord Arena on Saturday afternoon. "We wanted to go out with a bang, and I think we did."

Lauren Goldthorpe scored 13 points and was 3-3 from behind the three-point arc. Kally Verkaik and Bre Luurtsema recorded 11 points and eight rebounds apiece. Abby Springer had a solid all-around game, logging 10 points, eight assists, two blocks and two steals.

"After last game (against Hope), we knew that we didn't play to our full potential and we knew there were a lot of things we needed to work on to get there," said senior Kally Verkaik. "A big thing is our self-confidence and I think we really improved that a lot. We just really focused on playing our game, our defense and offense."

Hope was led in scoring by Angelique Gaddy who scored a career-high 22 points. Maura McAfee finished with a double-double, scoring 15 points and snagging 12 rebounds. Elizabeth Perkins chipped in 12 points.

The Flying Dutch outrebounded the Knights 45-35, including 18 offensive rebounds that led to 17 second-chance points.

Hope head coach Brian Morehouse emphasized Calvin's offensive performance in the victory. "The bottom line is that they scored 88 points and if they score 88 points they're not going to lose."

"The great thing about this game is that you don't get to bring what happened in previous years or previous games to this game. The fact that they didn't shoot well in game one made it look like we beat them worse than we did. They had a lot of the same shots today as they did in game one. The difference was that they didn't miss them," said Morehouse.

Defensively, the Knights disallowed the Flying Dutch to gain sufficient momentum for any large scoring runs, keeping the ball out of the hands of Hope's key players.

"We trusted ourselves defensively," said Anna Timmer. "Last game we tried to do some different things, but we realized that we should be proud of the Calvin ball that we play. I think that showed, especially on the defensive end."

Timmer says the Knights plan to take the postseason one game at a time as they now have the "swagger and confidence" that they've been trying to find the whole season.

Calvin will face Trine (18-7, 10-6 MIAA) in the MIAA Tournament semifinals next week Friday, the 26th at Hope's DeVos Fieldhouse.