About 10 days ago or so Hope's week of 4 games in 8 days looked fairly daunting. At Trine, hosting Kalamazoo, Calvin, Albion. Three of those teams will likely be in the MIAA's half-tournament. I would have been ok with Hope going 3-1 on the week, probably not happy about it, but ok with it. The hardest part of the weeks adventure was the first part, 3 games in 5 days and no practice on Sunday, followed by 48 hours of preparation for your rival for the second time this year.
At least in my mind the most unlikely scenario was that Hope would win all 4 games by double-digits and spend a little more than 100 minutes of the 160 leading by double-digits. It was a good week.
click for the fun
Hope 76 Kalamazoo 61
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In the dark on this one. Hope built a double-digit lead about midway through the first half, a couple Kzoo rallies brought it to single digits once or twice but the second half was played mostly in the 10-15 point range and never felt truly like Kzoo could threaten. The main reason was Mark Ghafari, Kalamazoo's excellent guard left the game with an injury before halftime and never returned. Even without him though, Kzoo did okay and the second half was mostly a draw with neither team shooting it well. The margin hit 21 before Kzoo scored the last 6 points of the game.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 71 Kalamazoo 69
This is probably the expected pace for a game with Kalamazoo
Offensively Efficiency: 107.42
Hope was really good in the first half with an eff of 123 that came down to 94 in the second half and its why the second half was mostly a stalemate.
Defensive Efficiency: 88.96
Two really consistent halves of 88 and 89. Hope kept Kzoo's offense stuck in the mud and they were never able to get going. For the year the Hornets have been around the 110 range for offensive efficiency.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 30.6% of available offensive rebounds
Kalmazoo: 41.7% of available offensive rebounds
2nd Chance points: Kalamazoo 18, Hope 12
Kalamazoo took 73 shots in this game, missed a lot of them and ended up with 20 offensive rebounds. This is one of the few times Hope's been defeated on the glass so thoroughly, obviously Kalamazoo didn't win but you might look at this as a reason the margin wasn't more. Hope wouldn't have been happy with this.
Other Interesting Stats:
Assist Rate:
Hope had 22 assists on 29 made FG's, that is excellent. Contrast that with Kalamazoo's 5 on 25 and you get the picture this was much more of a one-on-one game for Kalamazoo. Either that or the Hope scoring table was stingy with the assists for Kzoo.
Minutes:
One key stat, that really isn't a stat, was minutes played. Hope was able to find a little extra rest for some guys. With this game being in between Trine and Calvin not having to expend maximum energy was probably key to being rested for Wednesday's game with Calvin.
Streak:
33 wins in a row over Kalamazoo
Hope 88 Albion 73
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Seven minutes into this one Albon's Jordan Herron made a fg to put Albion ahead 12-10, after 4 turnovers (in a row) and 3 missed shots, 4 minutes later Hope was ahead 27-12. This blitz of 17 points stunned the Britons and they really never recovered. The rest of this game was a double-digit lead for Hope.
Albion had few answers to slow down Hope's offense. At Kresge the Britons played with boundless energy and had the Dutchmen tied up all over the court. Yesterday, Hope did almost what they wanted at will and combined with some better than usual outside shooting returned the favor from 3 weeks ago with a convincing victory.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 75 Albion 75
Hope really tried to push the pace in this one, the game at Kresge was the slowest paced game Hope had played this year, under 60 possessions. Its harder to defend well in a higher paced game like this one.
Offensively Efficiency: 116.63
Two almost identical halves, this is the kind of offensive efficiency I think you strive for.
Defensive Efficiency: 97.30
First half they held the Britons to an eff of just 74, Albion was better the second half but could get no defensive stops to close the margin.
Albion closed this gap a little with a stronger finish than Hope.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 38.5% of available offensive rebounds
Albion: 36.1% of available offensive rebounds
2nd Chance points: Hope 13, Albion 12
Pretty much even and didn't really dictate the outcome of the game. Hope shot over 50% for the game so they had fewer misses yet still grabbed a nice percentage of their own.
Other Interesting Stats:
Great guard play:
At Albion Ben Gardner and Alex Eidson were held in check with just 8 total points. Yesterday the two combined for 34 points and were 11-19 from the floor. Include Corey McMahon's 13 points and 5-8 shooting and it was Hope's guards that carried them to this win.
4 Games in 8 days
Four wins
FG% 50.7
3FG% 45.3
Ast Rte. 62.9%
Offensive EFF: 111.64
Defensvie EFF: 91.26
That's just a really good week.
Going Forward:
This last week couldn't have gone better. Hope made it through its likely most difficult stretch in the MIAA with 4 convincing wins and grabbed the outright MIAA lead. They did so by playing what I think was their best stretch of basketball this year by a long mile.
From here its two weeks that decides an MIAA Championship. Four games against the bottom four teams in the league yet nothing feels secure. Three road trips to Olivet, Kalamazoo and Adrian, all of those can be tricky and the final remaining home game with trickiest, Alma. I feel really good about what I saw from this Hope team this week, hopefully they can maintain that kind of play in the coming weeks.
Up Next:
Me vs overindulging in delicious pizza
Feb. 12 @ Olivet
Feb. 15 Alma at DeVos Fieldhouse
thanks scott.
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