Calvin Men's Basketball Uses 3-Point Barrage to Beat Blue Jays in NCAA III Tournament Opener
-- Story provided by Calvin University Athletics --
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Oh. – No. 10 Calvin connected on 13 of 23 attempts from three-point range in pulling away for a 93-78 first round NCAA III Tournament victory over No. 17 Elmhurst Friday night on the campus of John Carroll University.
Calvin (23-4) advances to a second round game Saturday night at 8:20 p.m. (EST) against host John Carroll.
Calvin scored the first seven points of Friday night's game with Elmhurst (22-6) and pulled out to an early 9-2 lead. Calvin went 8-of-12 from three-point range in the first half, vaulting into a 48-33 halftime lead.
Sophomore Luka Ressler (Caledonia, Mich./GR Catholic Central HS) had the hot first half hand for the Knights with 13 points. Elmhurst trailed just 30-24 with five minutes left in the first half but the Knights exploded for an 18-9 scoring run over the final five ignited by a steal and dunk by senior Uchenna Egekeze (Huntley, Il./Huntley HS and capped off by a buzzer-beating three at the halftime horn by junior Trip Riemersma (Zeeland, Mich./Zeeland East HS).
Calvin extended its lead to 21 points in the second half as sophomore Jalen Overway (Holland, Mich./Holland Christian HS) began to get loose in the paint for the Knights.
Elmhurst made a late run, closing to within 10 at 86-76 with 1:50 remaining but got no closer as the Knights sealed the win with timely free throw shooting down the stretch.
Overway finished with a game-high 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting to go with eight rebounds. Ressler pumped in a career-high 21 points including a 3-for-3 showing from three-point range. Senior Marcus Bult (Wheaton, Il./Wheaton Academy) had 18 points including four three-point field goals while holding the fort against the second half full-court pressure defense employed by Elmhurst. Egekeze scored 14 points to go with eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. Sophomore Owen Varnado (Muskegon, Mich./Western Michigan Christian HS) had five points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Elmhurst was paced by senior John Ittounas with 21 points while graduate student Quinn Pemberton had 14 and senior Ocean Johnson 11.
Friday's game marked the fourth meeting between Calvin and Elmhurst in three years including the second in three years in the NCAA III Tournament. Elmhurst had beaten Calvin in the two prior meetings including a 79-77 victory in the 2022 Round of 16 of the NCAA III Tournament.
With his 24 points, Overway boosted his career total to 1,040 points, moving him into 25th place on the Calvin career scoring list. Egekeze boosted his career scoring total to 1,131 points, moving him into 18th place on the Calvin career scoring list.
'Orange Squad" Preps Men's Basketball for NCAA First-Round Victory vs. Anderson
-- Story provided by Hope College Athletics --
The "Orange Squad" got the Hope College men's basketball team juiced for a big performance to tip off the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Thanks to the scout unit's execution of simulating an opponent's unique scheme, the No. 22-ranked Flying Dutchmen sliced through Anderson University's zone defense from the start and earned a 95-79 first-round victory on Friday in Cleveland, Ohio.
Hope (23-6) advanced to play weekend host and sixth-ranked Case Western Reserve University on Saturday, March 2, at 7:15 p.m. CWRU defeated Mary Baldwin University (Va.), 66-51, in Friday's second game.
Tickets go on sale online on Saturday at 8 a.m. through the CWRU website. They must be purchased online. There are no sales at the door.
Senior guard Clayton Dykhouse credited his teammates for putting the MIAA Tournament champion Flying Dutchmen to excel.
Hope shot 60% from the field while recording 25 assists on 39 made baskets. The assist total was one of the season high.
"Shout-out to a bunch of guys who deserve a lot of credit, our 'Orange Squad.' A lot of underclassmen, and Rob Nocek, Devin Cheaney, Ben Wagar and Josh Decker, those guys helped us get ready," Dykhouse said. "They ran their zone, and it's something we don't see a lot of. It was uncomfortable. Coaches asked a lot of them.
"It was awkward at first, but they did a phenomenal job giving us an amazing look. It was hard to go against them in practice. They made it challenging and frustrating. Without them, their work and dedication, really investing in it, we're not sitting here."
The Flying Dutchmen trailed only once, 2-0, for a total of just 29 seconds. Hope then scored the next eight points for an 8-2 lead at the 16:03 mark.
The lead grew to 29-9 over the next eight minutes as the Flying Dutchmen patiently dissected Anderson's 2-3 zone.
By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, Hope led 45-26 behind six points or more from six different players, including four starters, and assists from all five starters.
Defensively, Hope held the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament champions to 31.3% first-half field-goal shooting. The Ravens missed all nine 3-pointers they attempted.
"I think the first half was indicative of a team that was really dialed in," head coach Greg Mitchell said. "When we got here, after a week of study, we had one of our best practices of the season (on Thursday). We knew we had to play a certain way to advance.
"I thought in the first half we guarded exceptionally hard, then we executed our offensive game plan exactly how we drew it up."
The Flying Dutchmen finished the game shooting 60% from the field (39-65).
Senior forward Tanner Wiegerink (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa) scored a game-high 22 points on 62.5% field-goal shooting (10-16) and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
Junior center Gabe Quillan (Ada, Michigan / Grand Rapids Catholic Central) chipped in 18 points on 80% field-goal shooting (8-10) and four assists.
Senior forward TJ McKenzie (Muskegon, Michigan / North Muskegon) also reached double figures with 10 points.
Dykhouse (Zeeland, Michigan / Zeeland East) added nine points. The senior shared game-high assist honors with sophomore guard Marcus Wourman (East Lansing, Michigan / East Lansing). Both recorded six.
Decker (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio / Woodridge) buried all three of Hope's 3-pointers to finish with nine points.
Anderson (23-5) received a team-high 20 points from forward Bryson Huckeby but shot 39.% from the field.
Entering Friday, Anderson had scored at least 90 points in seven of its past eight games.
Head coach Carter Collins, a 2017 Hope graduate and former student assistant coach under Mitchell, said the Flying Dutchmen's size around the rim helped them produce quality shots against his team's defense.
"They did a really good job of positioning their players to the point they were going to be able to throw it inside," Collins said. "We did try to pack it in a little more inside, but they're going across the top 6-9, 6-7, 6-5. They got a whole bunch of size coming off the bench. If they do get it in that paint area, they're tough to stop. Not only are they tall, but they're skilled finishers."
The Flying Dutchmen outscored Anderson 62-42 in the paint and finished plus-12 on the boards.
Trine Defeats Fontbonne for Program's First NCAA Tournament Win
-- Story provided by Trine University Athletics --
ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's basketball team won their first NCAA Tournament game in program history on Friday night with a 91-81 victory over Fontbonne University, the tournament champions of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC). The Thunder were able to get out and run for 32 points on 20 Griffin turnovers throughout the game and a 27-15 difference in fast break points.
#13 Trine heads to the Second Round where they take on #25 Coe College on Saturday, March 2 at 8:10 p.m. with a 24-4 overall record. Fontbonne's season comes to an end at 20-8.
"I thought our guys really stayed the course of what we were emphasizing all week of getting longer and more effective possessions that allowed our offense to fuel our defense," Head Coach Brooks Miller said postgame.
Three-point plays by Drew Moore and Aidan Smylie allowed the Thunder to get in front early by a mark of 8-1, but just as quickly the Griffins turned the tables. A 14-4 run for Fontbonne made it 15-12 at the under-12 media timeout.
Logan McKenzie sparked a little 6-0 run to reclaim the lead, but the two teams would battle basket-for-basket down the stretch in the first half. Fred Garland scored five points as the half came to a close to give Trine a 32-29 advantage at the break.
Garland would start the second half just as he finished with a steal and a dunk on the other end. Cortez Garland and Emmanuel Megnanglo would get going offensively as well as Nate Tucker to balloon the lead to 49-40 with under 15 minutes to go.
The Griffins got back to even at 57-57 with eight minutes and change remaining on the clock, but a red hot second half continued throughout the middle stages of the period to keep Trine ahead. In total, the Thunder were 19-of-28 (67.9%) from the field in the half.
A steal by Smylie gave Cortez Garland the opportunity to score a layup in transition to go up 75-66, however a deep three by the Griffins kept them alive for the time being. The Thunder lead would shrink to 75-71, but seven consecutive points for Trine gave the team their largest gap of the night at 82-71. Fred Garland found Megnanglo inside for a slam to help punctuate a 91-81 victory.
"You really have to credit guys like Smylie with steals and E (Megnanglo) with blocks really lead our transition offense," Fred Garland mentioned. Smylie had this to say about the late game execution, "You can just never give up on the play - late in the game when I got that steal I was gassed, but ultimately I trusted myself and my teammates to make a play behind me if I didn't get the steal in that situation."
The Thunder shot 32-of-59 (54.2%) in the game with 59 second half points. Fred Garland paced the team with 23 points and five assists. Cortez Garland had 21 points in total and led the team in +/- at +21 in his time on the floor. Smylie contributed all around with 19 points, a team-high seven rebounds and six steals.
