For the first time in 810 days, the Hope College women's basketball team didn't earn a post-game celebration.

In a Top 5 showdown witnessed by the largest NCAA Division III crowd of the season , fourth-ranked Trine University delivered a performance on Wednesday that snapped the top-ranked Flying Dutch's 61-game, three-season winning streak.

A 70-62 Trine victory in front of a DeVos Fieldhouse crowd of 2,380 ended a run that began in the 2019-20 season opener on November 8, 2019 against Luther College (Iowa) in Rock Island, Illinois.

The 61 games tied for the third-longest winning streak in NCAA Division III women's basketball history. 

"We weren't good enough. Trine was better than us tonight," head coach Brian Morehouse said. "They outplayed us in every facet of the game. They outshot us. I thought they played really tough. They were really good defensively. Credit to Coach (Andy) Rang and Trine."

Trine (14-2, 7-1 MIAA) led for nearly the entire way. The Thunder answered a Sydney Muller jumper 1 ½ minutes into the game for a 2-0 lead Hope with an 8-0 run over the next two minutes.

After trailing by as many as 15 points, the Flying Dutch rallied with an 8-0 run early in the fourth quarter to narrow Trine's lead to 57-52. Hope kept battling, pulling within two points at 64-62 after a Meg Morehouse split at the foul line with 44 seconds remaining.

Two Rachel Stewart free throws on the next possession pushed the lead out of reach for good.

"We don't need a loss to teach us lessons. We needed to win that last four minutes, and we came up short," Brian Morehouse said. "We got to just worry about one day at a time. The streak was great. There were a couple of times it could have ended, but we just kept extending it.

"No. 4 played No. 1 tonight. This was two good teams going at it. I don't think we held up our end of the bargain. I think Trine played really well."

Junior Meg Morehouse (Zeeland, Michigan / Zeeland East HS) led the Flying Dutch with 14 points off the bench.

Muller (Grand Rapids, Michigan / Grand Rapids Christian) finished with 10 points.

Hope shot a season-low 27.0 percent from the field (17-63), including 15.0 percent from 3-point range (8-20).

The Flying Dutch outscored Trine at the foul line, 25-10, but missed nine of their final 18 attempts.

Trine buried 10 3-pointers and shot 49.1 percent from the field (25-51).

Three Thunder scored in double figures: Tara Bieniewicz (18 points with four 3-pointers), Stewart (16 points), and Kayla Wildman (10 points).

The Trine win also stopped Hope's home winning streak at 37 games, which matched the second-longest such streak in team history. Trine was the last team to beat the Flying Dutch at DeVos Fieldhouse, 73-61, on January 2, 2019.

Hope's All-Time Winning Streaks

The Flying Dutch's next game is Saturday, Jan. 29, at 3 p.m. at third-place Albion College.