GRAND RAPIDS - The Calvin women's basketball team battled top-ranked Hope College to the end, but fell 62-56 in the MIAA-opener on Wednesday night at Van Noord Arena.
Calvin (5-1, 0-1) was ranked 15th in the nation in this week's D3hoops.com poll coming off a win at fourth-ranked UW-Whitewater last weekend, and started the game playing with confidence on both ends of the court. The Knights shot 60.0 percent from the field in the first quarter, with Leah Harris and Sydney Cleary combining for 13 points as Calvin led 23-20 after the opening 10 minutes.
Hope (6-0, 1-0) answered in the second quarter, out-scoring the Knights 18-9 on the way to a 38-32 halftime lead.
The Knights shot 42.9 percent from the field in the first half while holding the Flying Dutch to 36.8 percent, but 13 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes proved costly as Hope built a lead.
The defenses made life difficult for both teams in the second half, as Hope shot just 22.7 percent in the third quarter, but held Calvin to 28.6 percent as it pushed its lead to 49-40 going into the fourth period.
In the final stanza, the Knights held the Flying Dutch to just 2-14 (14.3 percent) from the field and cut the deficit to five on a Cleary three-pointer with 2:10 remaining in the game, but the Flying Dutch were able to hold them off in the final minutes at the free throw line to secure the six-point win.
Hope entered the night averaging 101.4 points per game and shooting 56.2 percent from the field, but was held nearly 40 points below its season average and shot 37.3 percent for the game. The Knights were terrific defensively as a team, and Gabby Timmer anchored that side of the court by tying a career high with eight blocks, and tying a season high with 18 rebounds to go with 14 points, notching the 41st double-double of her career in the process.
Cleary joined Timmer with 14 points and six assists. Harris added 11 points and seven rebounds.
Hope was led by Ella McKinney who dropped in 22 points while senior post Savannah Feenstra had 20 and Claire Baguley 11.