Box Score
Hope started Overway, Seiler, Eidson, Byers, Benson. Ben Gardner logged 20 off the bench including a significant chunk of the second half. DeMaagd, Neil, VanArendonk played about 10 each, Snuggerud, Wittenbach 6 each while Ray and Denham played briefly.
Game Recap:
I've watched Hope go into Adrian a couple times expecting a great game and maybe even expecting the worst only to see Hope blow the Bulldogs to bits. Yesterday wasn't quite like that but it was close. Hope dominated the first 15 minutes of this one in such a way that the Bulldogs were near mutiny.
Establishing Brock Benson early in the post was key and I'll give away my game ball right now and say he was pretty awesome today. On the same day Alex Eidson went off for 26 against Aurora, Benson had 17 on a near perfect night. Yesterday he was near perfect again and had a big day on the boards vs a team that rebounds like very few out there. Benson and Seiler traded early scoring opportunities, an Eidson 3 and a couple Byers ft's later and it was 16-2, Mark White had already called timeout twice. They were rattled.
Defensively Hope was terrific early particularly their switches, cutting off the lane and their help defense on the baseline. They really forced Adrian to take a lot of shots they really didn't want to take, or at least made them difficult ones to make. They also harassed Adrian into 13 first half turnovers. Hope was out-defending the very defensive minded Bulldogs.
Adrian coach Mark White had a pretty tough halftime speech, with one player walking out on the team during the game, a number of players openly showing their frustration, etc. He could have lost that team and Hope rolled to a huge 30+ point win. But Adrian came out and played a terrific offensive 2nd half, and whittled the deficit down to 4 or 5. I remember looking up at the scoreboard at 8 or 9 minutes and thinking this would be a bad time to have a scoreless stretch like they've had in all their losses because this Adrian team is feeling it right now. But Hope stayed strong enough, knocked down their ft's and walked out of Adrian with a big road win.
Mutiny. Adrian's Brandon Romain was subbed for with about 4 minutes remaining and walked past the bench to the locker room. I caught the end of it while one player in a sweatsuit tried to catch up to him and the assistant left the bench to go after him. Romain didn't return for the 2nd half and later Saturday night his name was removed from the Adrian roster. In addition Adrian has added a couple more players to the roster including Nathan Stepney who played in the game. I don't know exactly whats going on at Adrian but the roster has gone through some serious changes just since the season started. This isn't the same team I saw in November, nor as deep or even as good. I didn't think Romain fit well in the 1 1/2 games I saw and to be truthful they're probably much better off without him. I still think Adrian is a really good team, they'll have a chance to bounce back from this week.
Hope's gone with this starting 5 for its 4th straight game, tonight that
starting 5 combined to go 22-37, scoring 65 of the teams 81 points.
This probably won't change if that continues, this will also make more sense to you if you read the last game review. Coaching from the stands is easy.
81 points is the most points a Mark White coached Adrian team has given up, even counting overtime games. This was a very unusual outcome. White's done some good things at Adrian but is just 2-8 against the Dutchmen.
Other streaks. Yesterday's win at Adrian makes 15 road conference wins a row, as far as I know a record. It's 17 if you count the two MIAA Tournament wins at Calvin in 2010. That's a little bit crazy. Now its off to the loveable Kresge where road streaks go to die.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
Hope had 20 turnovers in this one which is quite a few more than they'd like. Several of these were the 'trying to make a play' variety and too many of them came later in the game when managing the clock might have been more important.
Freethrows: 11-14 with the lead back down to single-digits in the last 6 minutes or so. I look forward to the day I can watch a Hope game again and the woman next to me doesn't audibly hold her breath on every ft shot because we are all holding our breath.
Brock Benson: 18 points, 10 rebounds....not sure I can stress enough how big some of these rebounds were. 7-8 from the floor, a couple great post moves, a really nice dunk.
Colton Overway: 18 points, 5 assists........on the whole a really good day with a couple important shots in the 2nd half, made a couple bad decisions that earned him a little pine time late. Coaching never stops, even for Sr's.
Billy Seiler: 15 points, 5 rebounds 3 of those offensive........this was quiet yet really not so quiet.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 74 Adrian 75
Kind of high, I'm guessing it got up to this number because of the 37 combined turnovers. There were times both teams pushed the ball to prevent the other from setting up the defense. I'd expect a bigger effort from Adrian to slow this down when they come to Holland.
Offensive Efficiency: 110.02
No one on Adrian's schedule has even done anything close to this against them all year. It was two relatively consistent halves as well.
Defensive Efficiency: 96.58
Pretty much right on Adrian's average. As good as they are on defense they do struggle to score sometimes, however yesterday's second half was a blazing 120 rate. Hope really crushed them in the first half at just 72.
When they aren't playing really good offensive teams this seems to be about the rate Hope plays defense, could be better. But what really needs to be better is the consistent effort from half to half.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 45.5% of available offensive rebounds
Adrian: 39.5% of available offensive rebounds
Second chance points ended up 12-6 to Hope, they kind of beat Adrian at their own game a little or at least didn't let Adrian make this a big part of their game.
Moments or Keys to the Game:
The opening 5 minutes Hope was dominant on both ends of the floor. They really punched Adrian in the mouth and it took them all the way to halftime to recover.
Early second half Cody Barnes hit a 4-point play followed by 2 consecutive Hope turnovers and another 3. A 19 point deficit went down to 12 and suddenly there was reason for Adrian to believe. It was a good ball-game after that.
Immediately after that sequence Brock Benson made a nice post move and drew a foul for the 3-point play. Two or three other times Adrian got the deficit below 10 only for Hope to get it back to 15.
:38 seconds left Ben Gardner hit both ft's in a 4 point game, it was pretty much over after that.
My Game Ball Goes To:
Brock Benson was really good today and Adrian didn't have much of an answer for him. He's really come along nicely since the beginning of the season and at least today looked like a veteran big man out there.
Standings
Overway - 3
Eidson - 2
Snuggerud - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1
VanArendonk - 1
Seiler - 1
Benson - 1
Going Forward:
I think the result was most important, this is a good road win vs a good team. It kind of ended up being a get a big lead and 'hang on baby' game but I really think Adrian just played an outstanding 2nd half. Road wins are huge in any league race and this one, a tough one, is behind them. It was also a huge break to catch this game without the students there. Those last few minutes would have been 1,000 times more tense with a full student section.
I saw Hope defend Adrian in a way I wasn't sure they could early in this one. While they weren't able to sustain that for 40 minutes it was pretty encouraging because there are tougher defensive challenges on the horizon.
Next its on to Albion and Kresge where they'll get another stiff road challenge despite the Britons struggles this year. Nothing more needed to open your eyes to that than Calvin's tough 3 point win there on Saturday. Albion will battle Hope.
Up Next: Kresge, argh!, ack!, pbbbbtttt!!!
Wednesday Jan. 9 Hope at Albion
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