With Adrian in second place in the MIAA at 5-2 and Calvin tied for third at 4-3, the Saturday afternoon contest promised to be hard fought, and that's exactly what it was. In the end, Adrian came out on top 60-57 in a hard-fought game at Calvin's Van Noord Arena.
Adrian maintains sole possession of second place in the MIAA standings while Calvin slips into fourth place behind Trine.
From the tip, both teams fought for an advantage, with the tie scored five times in the first ten minutes.
Adrian then jumped out on a 6-0 run including two fast break layups to build an 18-12 advantage. A layup by junior Bryan Powell ended the Bulldogs run, but Adrian would hit a pair of jumpers before settling on a 24-19 halftime lead.
Calvin shot just 13 field goals in the first half, making five. The Knights stayed in the game on 8-of-12 shooting from the free-throw line, limiting Adrian to just 0-for-1 from the stripe. Powell led the Knights at halftime with seven points, while sophomore Tyler Kruis added five.
Early in the second half, Calvin drew to within two points on two occasions, but could not tie-up the Bulldogs as Adrian would respond each time with a basket of their own.
With 13:20 remaining, and down 41-33, Calvin went on a 7-0 run, capped by a one-handed jam by freshman Tyler Dykstra, to bring the score to 41-40.
Five straight points by the Bulldogs expanded the Adrian lead to 46-40 before a layup by junior David Rietema and a jumper by junior Matt DeBoer brought the score to 46-44.
With 5:20 left in the game, a Rietema free-throw would draw the Knights to within one at 52-51. Calvin could not overcome the one point deficit, however, as Adrian continued to hold the lead.
With 1:47 remaining, a Powell jumper finally tied up the game at 57-57.
After an Adrian free-throw, Calvin had a number of opportunities with under a minute left but were stopped on a shot-clock violation. A layup by Adrian junior Delano Collins gave the Bulldogs a 60-57 lead with 13 seconds remaining.
With the clock winding down, Powell put up a three-point shot that bounced off the back iron and out, giving the Bulldogs the tight 60-57 victory.
"That was one intense basketball game. I'm really proud of how hard our guys played," said Head Coach Kevin Vande Streek. "In a game like this, it's one possession. One possession determines whether you win or lose a tightly contested game, and theres always "that one." That one you could have blocked out, made those two free-throws instead of splitting. It's a hard one to lose because I thought we invested an awful lot today."
The Knights were led on offense by DeBoer, who scored 15 points. Powell added 11 while Kruis chipped in nine points and five rebounds. Overall, Calvin shot 53.8% from the field but struggled at the free-throw line, shooting just 63.2%. Calvin also gave up 13 offensive rebounds to Adrian, giving the Bulldogs a number of second chance points.
Leading Adrian on offense was sophomore Richaud Pack with 14 points, while junior Brad Whitby added 13. Collins scored eight and junior Dennis Mason also chipped in eight points and grabbed seven rebounds.
The loss moves Calvin to 9-10 overall, 4-4 in the MIAA and into a tie for fourth place with Albion. Adrian is now 13-5 overall and 6-2 in conference, second in the MIAA.
Calvin's next game will be Wednesday when it heads to Albion for a 6 p.m. contest against the Britons.