Hope went to Northern Kentucky fishing for in-region wins and found a couple keepers. On Monday the Dutchmen rallied to beat a Centre team that I'm fairly convinced is going to be a borderline NCAA team. Tuesday the Dutchmen found themselves in a battle with host Thomas More and needed nearly identical steals in the final few seconds to steal a game that in the end may turn out to be pretty huge.
Monday: Hope 75 Centre 68
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| apparently known as the 'praying colonel' |
After Hope jumped to an early 11-3 lead, Centre settled down on both ends of the court and really dominated the next 20 or so minutes of play. Defensively they played what looked like a match-up zone focusing on plugging the paint. Hope struggled for a lengthy stretch of the first half with turnovers and generally making shots. Centre's lead was never more than 6 and only early in the second half.
Hope turned the game in their favor with a really good 8 minute stretch of defense from about 12 minutes to play to 4 of the second half. In that time Hope erased a 6 point deficit outscoring the Colonels 19-5 and holding them without a fg for those 8 minutes. Fr. G Chad Carlson was instrumental in helping to turn the tides with some great ball pressure defense and two big 3 back-to-back 3-point shots to give Hope a 6 point lead they would never relinquish.
The only real disappointing part of the late rally was having 3 really good chances to potentially bury the Colonels and extend the lead to 10, failing to do so resulted in having to hold off a desperate team that still had a chance to pull some kind of miracle, which Hope was able to do.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 68 Centre 69
This is just a comment on basketball in general, I'm thinking the rule changes have really taken away the ability of teams to grind games into the low 60's and high 50's for possessions. Those were fairly commonplace. I have yet to see one that I've calculated in the 50's this year. Nearly every game is in the 65-70 range.
Offensively Efficiency: 110.42
I think this is pretty good especially considering how much trouble Centre's defense seemed to give Hope in the latter parts of the first half. This is above what Centre had been allowing this season. Second half was 117. This gives Hope 4 pretty consistent offensive performances in a row.
Defensive Efficiency: 98.95
This game turned on defensive ball pressure. I don't know what Hope saw but after halftime they really tried to pressure the ball and the result seemed to be making Centre uncomfortable with where the offense was starting and resulted in a lot of rushed or hurried wild shots. The second half was a scoring rate of just 82, which is terrific.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 44.4% of available offensive rebounds
Centre: 31.0% of available offensive rebounds
Second chance points was 9-8 to Centre, not much influence on the game on the boards. In general I think Hope is doing a nice job keeping opponents off the offensive glass thus far.
Game Score:
3rd star- Josh Karsner, Centre 15.1
As advertised, 16 points off the bench
2nd star- Ben Gardner, Hope 17.2
It seems silly to take this for granted already, but yeah I am.
1st star- Alex Eidson, Hope 17.5
Still struggling from deep but starting to find a good offensive pressence
Nate VanArendonk and Chad Carlson also graded out well. Every now and then this game score calculation catches a guy like Centre's Donovan Whitehead who had 20 points and probably to anyone watching was the best player on the floor. However, Whitehead took a lot of shots to reach 20 points and committed 6 turnovers thus he only graded out at 13.1
Tuesday: Hope 83 Thomas More 80
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| Thomas More was a wise man |
Tueday night Hope tackled the host Saints of Thomas More. This game really began in the 2nd half when Thomas More ripped off a 21-5 run over the first 9 minutes to erase an 8 point deficit and grab an 8 point lead at 58-50. From that point on Hope was in a battle and took a long hard 11 minutes of clutch shooting and hard work to get back in a position to win.
Thomas More should be given tons of credit here, despite a pretty significant size disadvantage the Saints gave Hope all sorts of problems around the basket and nearly pulled off the kind of win all of those PAC schools have been looking for.
To sum it up best, Hope literally stole this one:
| 00:19 | Steal by GARDNER,BEN | - | |||||||||||
| 00:11 | GARDNER,BEN made jump shot | 81-80 | |||||||||||
| 00:03 | - | Turnover by RICHARD,CHRIS | |||||||||||
| 00:01 | Steal by BENSON,BROCK | - | |||||||||||
| 00:01 | - | Foul by BERLEKAMP,SPENCER | |||||||||||
| 00:01 | GARDNER,BEN made free throw | 82-80 | |||||||||||
| 00:01 | GARDNER,BEN made free throw |
How Hope ended up in this position is probably the emphasis over the next couple practices. The good thing of course is that Hope pulled out a win, on the road, under really dire circumstances.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 74 Thomas More 73
Hope's highest paced game of the year thus far. Both teams looked to push the ball whenever possible, which isn't to say there wasn't a lot of half court offense.
Offensively Efficiency: 112.85
Fifth straight really good, really consistent offensive performance.
Defensive Efficiency: 110.12
Maybe the first time to be legitimately unhappy with a defensive effort. Thomas More is not anywhere near one the top 25 teams that had previously done this. Way to many easy baskets in close and allowing easy penetration. Its what Thomas More does and does well, Hope didn't cope with it pretty much at all.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 53.6% of available offensive rebounds
Thomas More: 33.3% of available offensive rebounds
Meh, given the height differences the bottom number should probably be a little better. 21-17 second chance points in Hope's favor doesn't feel like a win. A team with nearly 3 inches per man advantage was even with their shorter opponent at 46 points in the paint.
Game Score:
3rd star- Ben Gardner, Hope 14.1
hero blood, it seems to come naturally
2nd star- Brock Benson, Hope 14.7
Very active 2nd half, made the big defensive play when needed
1st star- D'Carlo Hayes, Thomas More 15.1
Was really quite a handful all day
Going Forward:
I think we count this as a successful weekend, two in-region wins against opponents that probably represent a few MIAA opponents pretty well. While the Thomas More game was somewhat of a disappointment in how it played out its important to remember the grander picture. This very young Hope team won its first true road game with a pretty dramatic last few seconds. That has to count for something.
Saturday is a game with Edgewood, an opponent I think will test Hope more than people think. Then its full bore right into the maelstrom of league play.
Up Next: Me vs anything with a rose on it, because living here is going to be tough for awhile
Jan 4. Edgewood at DeVos Fieldhouse
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