Story by Brett Venhuizen
Calvin's second-ranked women's basketball team took on Albion College Wednesday January 23 at the Van Noord Arena. The Knights kept up their reputation in the MIAA with a sound 82-38 victory over the Britons. The Knights improve to 16-1 and a still undefeated 9-0 in MIAA action.
The Calvin defense seemed a little too much to handle for the visitors. The Britons shot only 25% in the first half and was forced to commit ten turnovers. In the first half the knights held the Britons to 16 points. On the other end Calvin shot 51% from the floor and committed only four turnovers at the half. Although Albion did grab ten offensive boards over the much taller Calvin line up. When asked about it after the game Coach Ross said "We didn't do well on the boards defensively in the first. We just weren't boxing out well."
To start the second half the Knights showed no sign of slowing down on either end of the floor, scoring 42 points in the second half while only allowing 22. When it was all said and done Calvin came on top with a 44 point victory. They also shot 50% from the field and also an impressive 13-28 behind the 3-point line with Kelsey Irwin, Kayla Engelhard and Carissa Verkaik tallying three apiece. Carissa led the Knights in points and rebounds with 23 points and 10 boards and shot a perfect 3-3 from downtown. Her performance marked her 44th collegiate double-double. Engelhard and Irwin had 11 points apiece while seniors Heather DeKleine and Logan Marsh and sophomore Breanna Verkaik all have four assists each.
Junior Brett deBear led the Britons with 14 points and 5 rebounds.
After the game Coach Ross noted the ever improving play of Freshman Abby VanderWoude. He mentioned the good play of all the underclassmen and his excitement for the future of Calvin basketball.
One negative of this game for Ross were the amount of turnovers (12) committed by his team. "We would like to keep that number lower in the future. We made some bad passes today that we shouldn't have," said Ross.
Overall the Knights lived up to their reputation at home and they are once again in action on Saturday the 26th at home vs. Alma at 3 p.m