The Hope College men's basketball team saw its bid for a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association regular-season championship slip away Saturday afternoon in the latest edition of The Rivalry with Calvin University.
The Knights shot 57 percent from the field and held off a late rally to defeat the Flying Dutchmen, 96-88, in front of 4,532 fans at Van Noord Arena. The loss knocked Hope out of a share of the MIAA title with The University of Olivet, which defeated Trine University 84-80 Saturday in Angola, Indiana, to clinch its first outright conference championship since 1972.
Hope finished 11-3 in the MIAA and will take a 16-9 overall record into the conference tournament next weekend at Olivet's Cutler Events Center. The Flying Dutchmen will be the No. 2 seed in the tournament.
Calvin has now defeated Hope five consecutive times in The Rivalry, but the Flying Dutchmen still lead the overall series 111-107. The 184 combined points between the two teams made it the highest-scoring Rivalry game since 1989, when the Knights defeated Hope 99-86 (185 combined points). Both head coaches – Hope's Greg Mitchell and Calvin's Bill Sall – played in that game, with Sall scoring 38 points for the Knights.
Both teams came out firing offensively early, with the lead changing hands 11 times in the first half. Freshman guard Brendan Cargill (Grand Rapids, Michigan/Forest Hills Central) scored eight consecutive points in a span of 62 seconds to give Hope a 34-32 lead with five minutes remaining in the first half.
However, the Knights answered with a 10-0 run, and would never trail again the rest of the game. Calvin led 48-41 at the half.
Hope cut the Calvin lead to 61-59 on a three-point play by sophomore guard Carter Bishop (Holt, Michigan/Holt) with 12:07 remaining. But the Knights would stretch the lead out again, running off eight straight points to take their biggest lead at 76-65 with 8:43 to play.
The Flying Dutchmen twice pulled to within four points in the final three minutes, the last time at 90-86 on a backdoor layup by senior guard Justice Mims (Rochester Hills, Michigan/Rochester Adams) with 1:41 left. However, the Knights sank 6 of 8 free throws in the final 48 seconds to clinch the win.
"Obviously, (it was) not the result we were looking for," Mitchell said. "It was a real good game, just a different game. (We saw) an offensive explosion … Some things I like that we did – our younger guys really stepped up and rose to the occasion. (Junior forward) Parker (Hovey) was good as usual. It came down to … the possession battle - we had a couple more turnovers than they did - and some of their guys really stepped up."
Cargill led four Hope players in double figures with 19 points, 15 of them in the first half.
Hovey (Shelby, Michigan/Hart) added 13 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, leading Hope in the latter two categories.
Freshman center Sean Wesolek (Bay City, Michigan/John Glenn) hit three 3-point baskets as he scored 13 points off the bench. Freshman guard Avery Sanchez (Turlock, California/John H. Pitman) chipped in with 10 points in a reserve role.
Jalen Overway led Calvin with 28 points and 10 rebounds, while Trevin Winkle added 24 points.
Hope will play a semifinal contest in the MIAA tournament on Friday, Feb. 27 at 5:30 p.m. at Olivet against the winning of a first-round game between No. 3 seed Calvin and No. 6 seed Adrian College on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at Calvin.