Box Score
Hope started Overway, Seiler, Eidson, Snuggerud, VanArendonk for the second game in a row. Off the bench Gardner, Neil, DeMaagd, Benson with the majority of minutes. Colton Overway left the game with an injury early in the second half, hard to say what it is other than in hockey terms a 'lower body injury'. Fingers crossed it isn't serious.
Game Recap:
Hope and Alma traded blow for blow for most of the first half and early second half. A late first half sequence of Hope points put the Dutchmen ahead by 12, only to see Alma close out the half with 8 straight points. Alma spent much of the half running high ball screens trying to get a switch with a guard against one of Hope's big men. This was pretty successful for a good part of the game. Greg Silverthorne had a terrific first half for Alma as he hit several long fg's, including an incredible 3 standing on the little 's' in 'Scots' on the floor. Easily over 25 feet.
For Hope it was Colton Overway leading the first half charge scoring in a variety of ways. Mostly though Hope spent the first half and really the entire game patiently breaking down Alma's defense and most often ending up with layups, if they missed the layups they were right there to put it back in. The degree of difficulty on Hope shots was pretty low last night.
Defensively Hope did a really good job limiting DJ Beckman and Isiah Law, Alma's two leading scorers. Neither ever really was able to get into the flow of the game much and combined only took 10 of Alma's 57 fg attempts. Once Hope adjusted to Silverthorne they seemed perfectly happy to let Alma try and beat them with their other guys.
It was a 63-61 game with 11 minutes left, Colton Overway had left the game with his injury and Alma had scored 6 straight points. Over the next few minutes Hope began to make some defensive plays including a couple good blocks while executing well on the offensive end. Most of Alma's looks at the basket were no where as good or as open as they had been.
This is the part of the game where Hope really focused on getting the ball inside either to Snuggerud or Benson. With a little over six to play it was still just a 4 point lead at 73-69, over the next 3 or 4 minutes Hope scored 11 points in a row from their 2 Fr., Benson and Gardner and 15 of the next 17. Within those points was a couple good post moves by Benson, a nice pass or two and a couple really good drives to the basket by Gardner. All while Hope held Alma to just one ft. It seemed to happen really fast and even caught me off-guard when I looked up at the scoreboard and was shocked to see a 16 point lead.
In all I think this score is really deceiving, its an 18 point win but it really wasn't an 18 point game at all.
(As game recaps go, this one sucked. Its been a long tiring week)
Streak? 40 in a row now.
Colton's injury will be the big concern over the next couple days. I imagine it will require an expert opinion, like say a doctor. He tried to play again but came right back out and spent the rest of the game on the bench. Its a shame to because he was having an outstanding game, perhaps the best of his Hope career. Alma had a tough time guarding him. Ben Gardner was pretty outstanding in his place but Hope needs Overway.
This was my first live look at Alma. Sam Hargraves is getting there. If this team had any size at all they would be one tough team to beat because offensively they have outstanding potential. The real problem for Alma has been defense and rebounding, and that might also come down to size. Its just a little too easy to get the ball in close for easy baskets against them. Alma graduates a couple pretty good players in Silverthorne and Williamson but the majority of these guys return, including their PG Brandon Krause who seems pretty underrated. At least for now the days of Alma being the doormat of the league seem to be over.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
Assists: Its always been a running theory of mine that Alma has the stingiest scoring table in the league. Seems fishy Hope had just 12 assists on 33 baskets when most of those baskets were layups. I remember seeing a boxscore from up there years ago when Hope practically led D3 in assists, scored something close to 100 points and were credited with 5 assists.
3-point shooting: Both teams laid a goose egg in the second half. For Alma theirs were a little less wide open and a little more rushed than the first half. For Hope its kind of the continuation of the last 4 games where they are now just 16-63 or 25%. Hope's not a great 3-point shooting team but I think they're better than 25%.
Free-throws: A good night at the line 23-30, and that's with 5 misses from two guys shooting 79 and 76 percent, even after the misses.
Nate Snuggerud: 24 points, 7 rebounds.....looked a little more like his old self. Interesting to note his two best performances since Florida have come against Alma.
Colton Overway: 20 points, 7-9 shooting, 3 rebounds.....was really having a very good game. Defensively was asked to deal with all those high ball screen switches, not easy.
Brock Benson: 17 points, 4 rebounds......when Hope really needed someone to step up in the low post late in the game it was Brock last night.
Ben Gardner: 10 points........box scores just never quite really cover his total contribution. Excellent job taking the pg duties over and most of these points came in the decisive few minutes.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 71 Alma 69
It felt like more watching the game, a lot more actually. High ft numbers may have brought it down a little.
Offensively Efficieny: 129.12
That's ridiculous. It's the second highest Alma's given up this year (Ohio Northern), and the second best Hope's had this year (Internet College). The first half was a completely bonkers rate of 139. Hope had the same number of fg attempts against Olivet (55) and scored 65 points. This is what happens when almost everything you shoot is within 2 feet of the basket, truthfully this could have been a little worse with a little better finishing.
Defensive Efficiency: 107.60
For the most part Alma had a really good night shooting the ball. I certainly would liked to have seen Hope do better but having witnessed it in person I'm not sure the defense itself is much to blame and in the end it was defense that helped turn the game in Hope's favor. The second half Hope held them to a rate of 91 (this is mostly the weird fg attempts math). Sometimes teams just make a lot of shots in their own gym and Alma ran a lot of good plays to get mis-matches. This was Hope's 2nd worst defensive efficiency in league play (Calvin) and 7th time this season over 100, lost the previous 6.
Hey you think the former Calvin player head coach watched the Calvin tape?
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 54.5% of available offensive rebounds
Alma: 32.4% of available offensive rebounds
Hope gave up probably something around a normal average, its a little high given Hope's season performance but only by 1 or 2 boards. On their own glass Hope dominated as they should considering they had a 6-8 or 6-10 guy out there almost all night against not 6-8 or 6-10 guys. Second chance points was 18-9 in Hope's favor it certainly helped.
Moment or Keys to the Game:
The last 10 minute stretch Hope played its best defense, holding Alma to only 1 lone made fg. On the other end Hope converted nearly every possession into points and gradually expanded a lead from 2 to something I didn't even realize was happening.
My Game Ball Goes To:
I could pick one of four guys and feel comfortable, Colton Overway was on his way to the best game of his Hope career maybe, Brock Benson really stepped up big down the stretch with his interior offensive play, Ben Gardner was again in the middle of turning a game in Hope's favor by just doing all kinds of things that don't make it into a boxscore. But Nate Snuggerud was the difference tonight, Alma just really couldn't match-up with him and stopped him very few times once he got the ball near the paint, and a few times he looked like his old self. Nate it is.
Standings
Overway - 4
Snuggerud - 4
Eidson - 2
Seiler - 2
Gardner - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1
VanArendonk - 1
Benson - 1
Going Forward:
I'm glad that's out of the way. Road trips to Alma are no longer the lazy Saturday afternoons where you can name your final score and hope no one gets hurt. Alma can play now and play well. This night could have been much different but Hope did a great job controlling the game and never really let Alma get that momentum to carry them to a bigger lead, like the 10 point lead they had in Holland. Last night Alma led by 2 a couple times and that was really it.
In the immediate future is Adrian, a team that has given up 145 points in its last 3 games total. They gave up 81 to Hope the first time, that won't happen again. I expect a brutally ugly game Wed. night and Hope is going to have to match Adrian's defensive effort. When they last met Adrian was still figuring out who would be on the team this semester, now they've had some time to work that out and no one will walk off the floor in the middle of the game this time.
Hope's still in this thing called the MIAA Championship, still kicking, still in with a shout. They simply need to keep winning and keep progressing for the MIAA Tournament.
Up Next: Every Hope fan holding their breath.
Wednesday, January 30 Hope vs Adrian at DeVos Fieldhouse
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