Dec 07, 2011
ANGOLA, IN - In a battle of unbeaten teams, Calvin used a strong second half surge to claim a 53-37 victory at Trine University Wednesday night in an MIAA contest. Ranked fourth in the most recent d3hoops.com Top 25 poll of the year, Calvin is now 8-0 overall and 3-0 in the MIAA. Trine slips to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the MIAA.
Calvin's victory marked its 11th consecutive victory over Trine dating back to the 2005-06 season. Through one half of play, the two conference foes competed on nearly even terms as the Knights held a slim 19-17 halftime lead as both teams shot just 29 percent from the floor. Calvin then heated up early in the second half, rolling off an 11-2 scoring run to take a 30-19 lead.
Calvin answered every Trine surge from there as the Thunder cut the gap to 31-26 only to see Calvin score nine unanswered points to build a 40-26 lead. Trine then closed to within 10 at 40-30 but the Knights responded with a 13-3 run to take a commanding 53-33 lead to seal the win.
Junior Carissa Verkaik led Calvin with 17 points to move past Mindi Andringa and into sixth place on the Calvin career scoring list. Junior Ally Wolffis had her best game of the year, scoring nine points and corralling a season-high 10 rebounds. Freshman Kayla Engelhard chipped in with eight points including a pair of three-pointers. Senior Courtney Kurncz also had a strong all-around game with six points, nine rebounds, three assists, three blocks and a pair of steals.
Trine was led in defeat by Sydney Spragg with eight points.
Calvin held a 39-30 rebounding advantage and limited Trine to 30 percent field goal shooting overall. Calvin shot 39 percent overall but heated up to a 48.3 percent in the second half.
"With exams right around the corner, this is not an easy time for our student-athletes but I was very pleased with our performance," said Calvin women's basketball coach John Ross. "I was most pleased with our intensity on defense and our ability to rebound the basketball tonight. Trine is off to a great start so we knew we would have our hands full but I thought we were up to the challenge."
At 3-0 in league play, Calvin is tied for first place in the MIAA standings with rival Hope which also improved to 3-0 in conference play with a 74-56 win over Saint Mary's Wednesday night.
Calvin will now break until December 17 when it hosts Olivet at 3 p.m. in an MIAA contest at Van Noord Arena.