Hope 80 Albion 55
Box
Recap
Sometimes its just about catching a team at the right time, or in this case for Albion maybe the wrong time. After a non-conference run of 7-3 with good wins and 3 very tough losses to Augustana, Ferris State and Mt. St. Joeseph the Britons began their MIAA campaign falling flat on their faces losing to Alma for the 6th straight time. The theory was they'd walk into DeVos very upset and fight tooth and nail to get that loss back, instead they turned in whatever that was Wednesday night.
It was a game that was supposed to be more dangerous for Hope, 0-2 in the league coming off a loss to Calvin and a pretty pathetic final 10 minutes in that one. For the first 20 minutes Wednesday it made you wonder where this team was heading as it seemed to teeter on the edge of a third league loss and a full collapse. At halftime it was 27-25 Hope, the Dutchmen were 0-8 from three and couldn't seem to make even the simplest of layups.
Then the 2nd half happened. Hope began the half with a renewed emphasis on both ends of the court, they scored on 5 of their first 6 2nd half possessions and held Albion to one FG in the halves first 6 minutes. When Dante Hawkins and Chad Carlson sank back-to-back threes breaking a string of 0-11 Hope was up by double-digits with all the momentum and pulling away. Albion just couldn't stop Hope from scoring and the rest of the half played out as a comfortable double-digit lead that never wavered much and finally ballooned to a 25 point win.
click for much much more
That uneasy feeling, even into the 2nd half was from a Hope team going 0-11 from 3-point territory before Hawkins and Carlson finally broke that lid. That moment seemed to take the tension away that had built up from the previous two games and first half. They were able to play freely with confidence the rest of the game and it showed. The two identical alley-oop dunks by Benson probably helped as well.
Bad day for Albion's offense. Corey Wheeler, Albion's fine freshmen went 0-6 from the field and spent a lot of this game sitting on the bench. Jordan Herron battled foul trouble and good Hope defense all day before finally fouling out. With two of the Britons best offensive weapons sitting on the bench for much of the game they had little offensive punch and were much easier to defend. Two 6 minutes stretches at each end of the 2nd half did them in where they scored 9 total points. If it wasn't for Travel Oakes and some timely 3-point shooting this score could have been really ugly.
Four in a row. With Saturday and Sunday losses to Adrian and Oakland the Britons have now lost 4 in a row. Within the league they sit 1-3 and still have both games with Calvin and Trine remaining along with hosting Hope. Unless the Brits turn this around quickly even making the MIAA Tournament is going to be a heck of a fight for them.
Efficiency:
Hope 123.55 Albion 85.7
Efficiency says it was a blow-out. At halftime this was a game of dueling 85's on the efficiency scale, brutal. Hope's second half offense was an eff rating of 150, against Albion that's pretty astronomical.
In the preview I hinted Albion might not be the best offensive team, and Hope did what it needed to do on defense and Albion helped. The nice thing was having such a productive 2nd half that they didn't get dragged into one of Albion's defensive struggles that get decided in the last 10 minutes.
Perspective: Albion had given up more than 60 points only 4 times this year, one of those an overtime game and only Whittier had cracked 70. Hope's 2nd half performance was maybe a little more stunning in that light. That Whittier game was their opponents high water mark for efficiency this year at just 102. Hope crushed that.
Pace:
64-64 Expected pace involving these two teams. The second half was about 10 possessions faster than the first. Or saying it better, the first half was a 60 possession game pace, the second half a 70 possession game pace.
Rebounding:
Hope 39 Albion 25
Hope had 38.7% of available offensive rebounds
Albion had 18.7% of available offensive rebounds
2nd chance points was 22-2, a dominating effort from the Dutchmen. Albion's been out-rebounded a couple times this year but not like this. This was Albion's season low for rebounds and margin before their game with D1 Oakland. Hope won this game within the game decidedly.
A Reminder That It's Not Supposed To Be Easy
Hope 95 Olivet 85
Box
Recap --from Olivet
 |
| Tree face = my face during this game |
I guess if you watch enough MIAA basketball you're bound to see things that don't really surprise you but probably do while they're happening. I can think of several times I've sat in the stands while Hope played one of the league's bottom teams and its been unnerving as said bottom team plays one of its best games of the year. On this day though that gap between 'one of its best games of the year' and what Olivet has been was truly pretty epic.
I was thoroughly impressed with Hope's offensive approach to this game, I thought their shot selection was excellent, their intent to get the ball inside and pound Olivet to death was correct. I spent most of this game waiting for Olivet to miss a 3-point shot and regress to the 28% 3-point shooting team they had been all year. I had to wait 35 minutes but it eventually came, then Hope pulled away to win by 10.
If you were a neutral this was probably an enthralling game to watch, lots of offense, lots of great individual play and the 3-point shooting was pretty amazing from both teams. At least twice Olivet players stepped off the bench cold and hit 3's on their first shot. Not wide-open, no one in the same zip code wide-open, but standing still 25 feet from the basket with a defender in front of you and just chuck it in the basket open.
When it was over its the kind of game you kind of blink twice and say 'well that was interesting' and go home.
Olivet's Cavelry has arrived. Injuries have hurt Olivet all year, they've been without Sr. Blake Krum and Jr. TJ Vondette, they returned last week. Take two starters off any MIAA team and they'd struggle. Someone convinced Jake Zielinski he should play basketball instead of being the best IM player in MIAA history and he's made them immediately better. Zielinski is an all-MIAA talent and fearless shooter, I don't think his impact on that team can really be understated, he's already their best player. Olivet went from a team heading for a convincing 0-14 to probably being able to win 2 or 3, maybe even 4 games and something tells me Hope won't be the last team they scare the daylights out of this year. They still aren't good on defense so maybe not.
Big Score, big stats. High scoring games produce high point totals and Hope had 3 guys reach 20 points and the 5 position combined for 21. Gardner, Blackledge and Eidson had really good, even great days in Gardner's case but I think it was Cody Stuive that was the most valuable. Brock Benson spent most of this game in the penalty box for the crime of being taller and bigger than everyone else on the floor and it was Stuive that filled most of those minutes. Cody hit a couple 'right back at you' three's that snuffed Olivet momentum, a nifty tip in, and a few nice rebounds while limiting Olivet's inside play.
Efficiency:
Hope 138.64 Olivet 125.05
Blink twice, that was interesting.
Hope's 138 was consistent throughout the game, its what Hope did against Pitt-Greensburg. Olivet's 125 is their offensive best by such a wide margin over their norm its not even possible to describe it without giving a full course on statistical analysis and probabilities. Olivet had one previous game over 100, that was against Mt Union the 2nd time when Mt. Union was probably pretty tired of seeing the Comets.
The 125 was Hope's 2nd worst of the year and joins Calvin, Whitewater and Stevens Point as the only teams to crack 120+ against Hope. That should make you feel awesome. Hope won't win any awards for their defense in this one but strangely defensive play at the end kind of won this one.
Cue Dick Vitale the 3-point shot has revolutionized the game sound bite.
Pace:
68-68 For such a high scoring game this was a fairly normal pace. Consider that Hope/Pitt-Greensburg combined for only 10 more points but had 36 more possessions. I think it points to how well both teams shot the ball, Hope 59.6%, Olivet 51% and both teams were over 60% for most of this game. Fun!....I guess.
Rebounding:
Hope 29 Olivet 22
Hope had 43% of available offensive rebounds
Olivet had 32% of available offensive rebounds
Both teams had fewer than 30 rebounds, because no one missed. Hope did its part on its own glass resulting in a 2nd chance points advantage of 18-5. You could say this won the game and you wouldn't be wrong. Olivet's 32% offensive rebounding rate is probably the best they've done against Hope in awhile. Most of these were long ones off missed 3's, they didn't win too many head-to-head battles for boards in the paint at either end.
Couple Random Thoughts
The League. This weekends Hope and Calvin results (Calvin by 2 over K) speak to how difficult its going to be in this league. We've got young teams getting better with young players getting better coached by good coaches. Pretty interesting to see the leagues leading scorers and only 4 Seniors are in the top 20. We have quite a grind ahead for everyone.
Pool C for Hope?: Nothing really changed this week and I'm still firmly of the belief Hope has to win out its conference slate to have a chance at one, at best maybe a margin of one loss but I don't feel comfortable with that right now. Losses for other Pool C teams will start to accumulate as we get more head-to-heads between the better teams in the region and elsewhere, plus we should start seeing more upsets as we hit February and the 2nd time through the round-robin leagues. Hope just can't be one of those upsets.
For strength of schedule, Hope's non-conference opponents went 16-2 last week which gave a nice unexpected boost to their SOS. If those non-conference opponents continue their current win rate Hope's SOS would be close to last years, which would be really nice. This week it will probably come down again as there are some head-to-head games that will prevent the same kind of week.
Up Next:
Alma @ Hope Wed 6pm
Hope @ Kalamazoo Sat 1pm
(note those start times)
I'll take a look at Alma before Wednesday and Kalamazoo before Saturday. Buckle up, another fun week ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment