Another stingy effort from the Hope College men's basketball team paid off handsomely on Saturday.
The Flying Dutchmen earned a 72-63 victory at Adrian College by holding an opponent to under 40% field goal shooting for the second consecutive game.
The performance marked the second time this season Hope accomplished the feat and the first since November when the Flying Dutchmen won at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on November 16 and at home vs. North Park University on November 19.
Hope improved to 13-8 overall and 6-3 in MIAA play. The Flying Dutchmen moved two games ahead of fourth-place Olivet College after Olivet lost at Calvin on Saturday. Hope's next game is Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 5:30 p.m. against Trine University.
"It's definitely been our focus," head coach Greg Mitchell said of team defense. "We made some schematic changes and challenged the guys to dig in and make sure they have each other's backs. It was definitely needed. We didn't shoot great. We didn't have ET (Evan Thomas). We knew it was going to be a big more of challenge. You guard hard, you give yourselves a chance. I thought we guarded hard."
Adrian shot 36.8% from the field (21-57) to Hope's 32.8% (20-67).
Offensively, the Flying Dutchmen used timely second-half 3-point shooting and near-perfect free-throw shooting to fend off the Bulldogs.
Freshman guard Marcus Wourman (East Lansing, Michigan / East Lansing HS) buried the first of three Hope made 3-pointers in a span of 2 ½ minutes that kept the Flying Dutchmen in control.
Wourman's 3 with 10:46 remaining off an assist from sophomore guard Zach Hawes (Haslett, Michigan / Haslett) extended Hope's lead to 52-46.
Hawes took an assist from Wourman 57 seconds later to sink a 3 that pushed the Flying Dutchmen ahead, 55-46.
Wiegerink (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa) hit a corner 3 off an assist from senior guard Clayton Dykhouse (Zeeland, Michigan / West Ottawa) for a 60-50 Hope lead with 8:10 remaining.
Wiegerink finished with 17 points, one of his season-high. He trailed only sophomore center Gabe Quillan (Ada, Michigan / Grand Rapids Catholic Central), who totaled 19 points.
Dykhouse also reached double figures with 12 points, nearly all of which came on 10-of-10 free-throw shooting.
The Flying Dutchmen finished the game at 92.6% from the line (25-27) after making all but one of their 16 second-half attempts.
"Tanner had a big game; he was very efficient and hit some big shots," Mitchell said. "Gabe was big inside. Marcus had a really heady game. Zach came in and took some of ET's minutes. It wasn't a work of art, but guys stepped up like we needed them to."