Box Score
Hope started Gardner, Seiler, Eidson, Snuggerud, VanArendonk. It's the post-season so this isn't going to change much between now and Saturday is it? Grant Neil logged 22 followed by Denham, DeMaagd, Byers, McMahon, Benson around 9-14. Denham logged a couple extra when Gardner picked up his 4th foul. Josh Holwerda, Chris Ray and Colton Overway made one final appearance before the clock ticked zero in this one.
Game Recap:
I've done a terrible job preparing myself for this weekend, its hard to reconcile that this season has gone by so quickly. But the reality is it could all be over this weekend and that's what about 350 D3 programs face, the end of their season. It was just getting fun to, and so just like every year its time for my love/hate relationship with late February/March basketball, its good. Unfortunately just when it gets good, just when everything you've seen over the past 4 months starts to make sense, starts to gel into this thing you can explain, appreciate and look forward to, it ends.
But that is part of what makes this weekend fun, the prospect of 30 guys playing each other in a game that might be their last this year. For some it might be their last organized game forever. That prospect is always real, always seems a little harsh but the desperate nature adds to the flavor that is post-season basketball. Yesterday it happened twice, Saturday it will happen again. It used to happen in one gym, now its 2, now its only half the fun or half the aggravation.
Trine came to Holland to play last night and they were pretty good. An early stretch of good shooting, including making 5 jump shots in a row, gave the Thunder an early 6 point lead, at the same time Hope was a little less than good on their end of the offensive floor. Between Saturday and last night Hope forgot how much trouble Trine had with their interior, the ball didn't go inside enough and when it did, it didn't find its way to the bottom of the net often enough.
Ben Gardner kept Hope's offense from being completely dead, there was a real chance Trine could have built a double-digit first half lead had things continued to be the way they were going, but the wonder kid from Indiana just kind of took things into his own hands and ended up with 14 first half points, his previous career high for a game was 18. He set that this past Saturday. I tried really hard to think of Hope individual performance in the MIAA tournament like that in one half, the only names I could come up with were Cramer, Holstege, Muhlenberg, VanderHeide etc. But yeah, he was kind of good last night.
By the end of the first you could sense Hope had gained some control of the game, they were leading even though it had felt like Trine had played a really good first half, and they had, shooting the ball at 50% with most of those being mid-range jump-shots. Defensively Hope was denying Ian Jackson anything, and if not for two ft's in the final dying seconds of the half he would have been shut-out. In the end Jackson finished with 12, most of those he had to work very hard for.
In the second half it was again Ben Gardner seeming to spark the Hope offense along with a healthy dose of Nate Snuggerud. By the 5 minutes played mark, back-to-back Gardner baskets had put Hope up 10. The game floated right in the 6-13 point range until Trine, at almost the exact same point in the game as Saturday rallied with a 9-2 run to cut it to 6. Hope steadied things, even doing so through adversity with Gardner picking up his 4th foul, and outperformed Trine in the final minutes with baskets or points every time they needed them. Trine meanwhile kind of wilted under the pressure, a couple airballed ft's, and numerous other shots well off the mark kept their desperate rally from succeeding.
Survive and advance, all that matters now.
Ben Gardner! All Ben has done in his last six games is establish and break his career high 3 times. Against Trine he's scored 15, 18, 24. Matt Neil may want to consider scheduling more Indiana schools. What Ben has done in the last 4 weeks since Colton Overway's injury is one of the more impressive things I think I've seen from any Hope player in my time watching and there have been some pretty impressive things.
Ian Jackson only really had one big game against Hope, that came in his Sophomore season. Starting with his Fr. year his scoring line against Hope reads (11, 18, 17)-- (23, 9)-- (4, 8)-- (14, 10, 12.). For his career against Hope Jackson shot 50-130 for 38%, I'm sure that's below his average and the points average of 12.6 is well below his career average. Defense is always a team game but Hope's had some pretty good individual stoppers, one of them is Billy Seiler who's drawn the Jackson assignment. He has simply been in Jackson's jersey the last couple years. Jackson has been one of the most prolific scorers in recent MIAA history and one of the 5 or 6 best in all of Trine's great history.
Streaks? This win takes Hope's streak to 22 over Trine now, 20 since Trine joined the league. The other streak and the more important one is 8 straight appearances in the MIAA Championship game. Hope will be going for their 6th straight tournament title Saturday.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
Free-throws: Perception is everything sometimes, during the game it felt like Hope was really putting on a clank-fest, in reality they were 23-31 which is a perfectly acceptable 74%. Inside that number though is that everyone not named Nate Snuggerud or Ben Gardner went 10-18, a not so acceptable number. Trine missed some big ones down the stretch going just 1-6 in the final 3 minutes, different finish with those points. Overall just 10-19 from a team that shoots 75% from the line normally. Win by 13 with 13-13 from the stripe from 2 guys. Practice your ft's kids.
(Also a pretty boring stat sheet like Saturday's)
Ben Gardner: 24 points, 6 rebounds.....4th career high in the last 6 games. I just don't even know what to say about this kid anymore.
Nate Snuggerud: 20 points, 7 rebounds.........the other guy Trine really couldn't stop, in contrast to Jackson, I think Nate had a very good career vs Trine.
Nate VanArendonk: 6 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals........seemed to be a frustrating kind of night for him at least offensively, this is better than it looked
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 71 Trine 68
Only slightly higher paced than the first two, if you can tell the difference watching congratulations
Offensive Efficiency: 107.46
Not as good as the previous two Trine games, my perceptions must have been all screwy last night because I thought the 2nd half was better than the first, but it was the other way around. Four of the six halves played between these two Hope was over a 110 scoring rate.
Defensive Efficiency: 92.61
The difference between these two teams right now seems to be this. Trine hasn't been able to stop Hope this year while Hope has been able to stop Trine in at least 1 half of all 3 games. Last night it was a second half scoring rate of just 79 that did Trine in after a 108 in the first half. The good half/bad half thing for Hope has held steady through most of the season.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 45.9% of available offensive rebounds
Trine: 33.3% of available offensive rebounds
If there's another glaring difference between the two teams its also rebounding. Hope's just been so much better on their own glass. This particular game Trine did just a touch better keeping Hope off the glass, but not much. Second chance points was only 14-11
Moments or Key to the Game:
Staying composed in the face of a Trine team that played awfully well in the first half. It would have been easy to start pressing or forcing things but Hope really didn't do that.
Nick Tatu hit a 3 to bring Trine within 6 to cap a mini-run of 9-2. Trine really had a chance to rally at that point but it just didn't happen for them, prior to that it looked like Hope might walk away with it easily.
Any time Ben Gardner touched the basketball, not true, but it felt like it.
My Game Ball Goes To:
Guesses? Ben Gardner, he was just outstanding last night. A close second would have been Snuggerud.
Standings
Snuggerud - 6
Overway - 4
Gardner - 3
VanArendonk - 2
Eidson - 2
Seiler - 2
Benson - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1
Neil -1
Everyone -1
Going Forward:
Last night Hope was good enough to advance in a game that has looked like a lot of MIAA semi-finals recently, one team just not having enough in the tank to fight to the bitter end. MIAA seasons have turned into long grinds for the middle of the league. The parity from anywhere outside Holland and Grand Rapids has been evident, there isn't a lot of difference between 3 thru 8. Its how 8 beats 3 and 7 beats 4 in the final two weeks of the season. Two more MIAA semi-finalists fell victim to the season that Hope and Calvin really don't face (save for Calvin last year). So once again we end up with this for the title, Hope vs Calvin.
Seasons are peaks and valleys and Saturday is another daunting and appropriate peak. The league champion, in their gym, who also happens to be your arch rival. Would you want anything else? So far we've seen a historic blow-out and a game where Hope did absolutely everything they needed to win and won by just 3. This is their shot, its all you can ask for.
There is no tomorrow without a win.
Up Next: Me vs. finding some kind of zen state of mind for Saturday
Saturday, February 23 Hope at Calvin, VanNoord Arena, MIAA Tournament Championship
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