Calvin Men's Basketball Uses Blue Collar Effort to Defeat Blue Streaks to Advance to Sweet 16 of NCAA III Tournament
-- Story provided by Calvin University Athletics --
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Oh. – For the second time in three years and for the 10th time in program history, the Calvin men's basketball team is headed to the Round of 16 of the NCAA III Tournament.
Using a gritty and determined effort, Calvin knocked off No. 2 John Carroll (26-3) on its home court in front of a capacity crowd of 2,220 fans.
Ranked 10th nationally, Calvin (24-4) advances to face No. 4 Randolph-Macon (25-4) in a sectional semifinal game next Friday at 4:45 p.m. (EST) on the campus of Trinity University in Hartford, Connecticut. Trinity will host the sectional and will face Tufts in the game to follow at 7:45 p.m. (EST).
In its win over John Carroll, Calvin took a 31-24 halftime lead and later bumped its advantage to double-digits in the second half. The Knights then withstood a furious comeback effort by the Blue Streaks inside the final five minutes, using a clutch three-pointer off the window and timely free throw shooting inside the final minute to gain the win.
Calvin withstood John Carroll's full-court pressure defense for much of Saturday's contest and turned the game into a methodical half-court affair.
Calvin took a 14-3 lead on a trio of three-point buckets from senior Marcus Bult (Wheaton, Il./Wheaton Academy), forcing John Carroll into a timeout just four-and-a-half minutes in.
John Carroll chipped back into the deficit and trailed 21-17 with 4:29 remaining but sophomore Jalen Overway (Holland, Mich./Holland Christian HS) drained a key triple to put the Knights up 24-17. Another triple by sophomore Luka Ressler (Caledonia, Mich./Grand Rapids Catholic Central HS) and a steal and fast-break dunk by senior Uchenna Egekeze (Huntley, Il./Huntley HS) gave Calvin a 31-21 lead inside the final minute of the half. John Carroll then scored three quick points to close to within seven at the break.
A Luke Frazier triple in the opening moments of the second half brought John Carroll within four at 31-27 but Calvin followed with a 9-1 run to go up 40-28. The Calvin lead ballooned to 14 points on three separate occasions and then to 15 points at 53-38 on a pair of Overway free throws with 7:35 remaining.
Up by 13 points with six minutes left, Calvin appeared poised to close out the win but a series of missed free throws and a collection of electric plays by an explosive John Carroll offense brought the home crowd to life. Jerry Higgins III converted an old-fashioned three-point play to make it 53-45 and point guard Luke Chicone followed with back-to-back three-point shots with his second made triple drawing a foul and a subsequent made free throw to make it a 55-52 game with 4:02 left to play.
Ressler canned a free throw for Calvin out of the final media timeout but Will Yontek converted a driving layup to make it a 56-54 game with 3:48 remaining.
Bult then delivered a clutch and perhaps fortuitous shot on the ensuing possession as he launched three-pointer from the left wing that banked off the glass and in to put the Knights up 59-54 with 3:30 left. The Bult triple gave the Knights some oxygen in the deafening din of the DiCarlo Center.
John Carroll got within three at 61-58 on a jumper by Chase Toppin but junior Trip Riemersma (Zeeland, Mich./Zeeland East HS) answered with two clutch free throws to make it a five-point Calvin advantage. John Carroll misfired on its next two shot attempts and the Knights began to make more free throws.
Chicone scored four points inside the final minute but Overway converted a layup off a press-breaker and the Knights connected on four free throws inside the final 36 seconds to seal the win.
Overway finished the game with 20 points and 10 boards to notch his 15th double-double of the season and the 28th of his career. Bult had 20 points and eight boards. Egekeze had a monster game with 15 points, nine rebounds, four blocked shots and two steals while holding Chicone in check for a good portion of the game.
Chicone finished with a game-high 22 points, scoring 15 of his points over the final 10:39 of the contest. Frazier had 14 points and Yontek 12 for the Blue Streaks.
Calvin held a 46-39 rebounding advantage over John Carroll. The Knights were 7-of-17 (.419) from three-point range while the Blue Streaks were just 4-of-19 (.211). Calvin shot 47.4 percent from the field while holding John Carroll to a season-low 27.4 percent field goal percentage with the Knights blocking 10 shots. Calvin was 20-of-32 (.625) at the free throw line while John Carroll was 22-of-31 (.710) at the charity stripe but just 7-of-13 in the first half.
With his 20 points, Overway moved past Kevin Broene and into 24th place on the Calvin career scoring list, bumping his career scoring total to 1,060. Egekeze now sits in 18th place on the Calvin career scoring list 1,146 points.
Calvin is now 38-24 all-time in NCAA III Tournament play. The Knights are now 3-2 against D3hoops.com Top 25 opponents during the 2023-24 season.
Trine Advances Behind Strong First Half Shooting
-- Story provided by Trine University Athletics --
ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's basketball team won their NCAA Tournament Second Round game over Coe College on Saturday night 76-70 after dominating early in the first half and withstanding a comeback attempt by the Kohawks.
The Thunder (25-4) move on to the Sectional Semifinal Round where their opponent will be Washington University while the 2024 season comes to an end for Coe at 22-6. More information on that game will be available in the coming days.
Going into the locker room for halftime, Trine won the opening period 46-29 and were ahead by 20 before a last second three-point make by the Kohawks as the buzzer sounded. The Thunder caught fire from downtown by going 7-of-14 from the long distance and going 19-for-36 (52.8%) from the field in total. Coe would win the second half, but it was not enough to dig all the way out of their hole.
Cortez Garland led the team in scoring with 23 points with 15 coming in the first half alone. Drew Moore (16 points) and Fred Garland (10 points) also added double figure scoring efforts. Aidan Smylie and Emmanuel Megnanglo led the team in rebounding with 11 and 10, respectively.
A 15-4 run to open the first half was highlighted by three-point makes by Nate Tucker, Cortez Garland and Fred Garland. Grant Pahl would add his name to that list shortly after a timeout called by Coe to make it 22-12 with 12 minutes to play in the first half. A 10-2 run for the Thunder put the scoreboard at 39-21 with just under five minutes remaining.
Trailing by 17 at the break, the Kohawks showed fight early with scores on their first four trips down the floor. The Trine lead was cut all the way down to eight at 49-41 at the under-16 media timeout. At 13:56 to go, Coe had gotten to within five at 54-49. The team leaders in scoring in Cortez Garland and Moore continued to fuel the offense, but the Kohawks got back to even at 60-60 with 7:26 left.
The first lead in the second half for Coe came a few moments later with two free throws, but that would be the only lead of the night for the team as Trine would get back in front and hold on for the victory.
After a block by Pahl, Smylie came down to the other end to bury his first shot of the day with 4:12 remaining to give the Thunder a three-point lead. Smylie would hit another big shot, this time a three with the shot clock winding down to make it a two-possession contest at 70-66 with 1:36 on the clock.
A foul with 40 seconds remaining put Cortez Garland at the charity stripe, where he would sink two. Misses at the line gave the Kohawks life, but a stop by the Thunder with eight seconds left allowed Fred Garland to leak out for a dunk to punctuate the 76-70 win.
No. 22 Men's Basketball's Sweet Sixteen Bid Denied by No. 6 CWRU's Sizzling Second-Half Shooting
-- Story provided by Hope College Athletics --
An emotional but grateful Clayton Dykhouse walked down the bench and greeted each of his teammates as the fifth-year senior exited a Hope College basketball game for the final time.
While an opponent's jaw-dropping, second-half shooting performance spoiled the Flying Dutchmen's Sweet Sixteen bid on Saturday, it did not diminish Dykhouse's appreciation for his teammates.
"I'm seeing guys that I trust and love, freshmen to seniors, it didn't matter," Dykhouse said after No. 22 Hope lost at No. 6 Case Western Reserve University (Ohio), 97-79, in Cleveland.
"I hugged each one of those guys, looked them in the eyes and I told them I loved them. It means the world as a kid from West Michigan watching Hope games to be able to put those four letters on my chest."
It took an incredible performance to knock off the Flying Dutchmen, 23-7 overall with victories over two Top 10-ranked opponents last weekend in the MIAA Tournament.
Up by just one at halftime, the Spartans (23-4) charged away with 57 second-half points on 68.8% shooting from the field. CWRU was even hotter from 3-point range, finishing 83.3% (10-of-12) after making just 25% during the first half (4-16). The last miss was a desperation heave with the shot clock running down.
Guards Anthony Mazzeo and Sam Trunley spearheaded the blistering attack.
Mazzeo netted game-highs of 30 points and eight assists. The point guard and graduate transfer from Baldwin-Wallace University (Ohio) shot 61.1% for the game from the field (11-18) and 62.5% from 3-point range (5-8).
Trunley came off the bench to deliver 29 points on 60% field-goal shooting (12-20) that included 50% from 3-point range (5-10.
Forward Preston Maccous also reached double figures with 15 points after going 85.7% from the field (6/7) and 75% from the 3-point lane (3-4).
CWRU advanced to face the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in the Sweet 16 on Friday, March 8, at a sectional site to be determined.
Hope entered the game allowing 65.4 points per game. Opponents shot just 28% from 3-point range against the Flying Dutchmen.
"I've never quite seen a shooting exhibition like that," said head coach Greg Mitchell, who remains Hope's single-season leader for 3-point shooting at 56.4% during the 1987-88 season. "You cover the bottom half of the stat sheet and look at ours, and that's a winning recipe for us. We shot pretty well. Turnovers were under control.
"We're a team that defends the arc very, very well. We're 28 percent. We've got to tip our cap. We ran into a team that all of a sudden the basket got as big as the ocean and they were standing on the beach. It wasn't because we weren't guarding. It was just because they got in the zone. In the end, that spree in the second half was nothing like I've ever seen."
Hope fared well offensively itself, shooting above 50% in each half and 52.5% for the game (31-59). The Flying Dutchmen sank 53.8% on 3-point attempts (7-13).
Junior center Gabe Quillan (Ada, Michigan / Grand Rapids Catholic Central HS) topped Hope with 19 points on 100% field-goal shooting (7-7).
Junior forward Josh Decker (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio / Woodridge) chipped in 14 points off the bench with three 3-pointers.
Dykhouse (Zeeland, Michigan / Zeeland East) contributed 13 points and a team-best four assists.
The Flying Dutchmen received 12 points apiece from freshman forward Parker Hovey (Shelby, Michigan / Hart) and fifth-year senior forward TJ McKenzie (Muskegon, Michigan / North Muskegon).
"Our locker room is hosting, but I could not be prouder of a team that I've coached," Mitchell said. "The trust and love for each other is unlike any team I've coached."
