Calvin advanced to the MIAA Tournament Championship final with a hard-fought 74-61 victory over Albion Friday night in an MIAA Tournament semifinal game at the Holland Civic Center.
Calvin (18-9) will face Adrian (16-11) in Saturday’s championship game at 7:30 p.m. at the Holland Civic Center with the winner receiving the MIAA’s automatic bid to next week’s NCAA III Tournament. Adrian upended top-seeded Hope in Saturday’s second semifinal game by an 86-82 score.
Calvin will be making its ninth appearance in the MIAA Tournament finals with the Knights holding a 4-4 record in championship play. Saturday’s championship tilt will provide a rematch of the 2001 MIAA Tournament final which Calvin won by a 77-63 score at the Calvin Fieldhouse.
Heading into Friday night’s game against Albion (20-8), Calvin had dropped six of its previous nine games against the Britons dating back to the 2001 season.
On Friday however, it was Calvin that took control as the Knights used a 12-0 run late in the first half to build a 38-25 halftime lead. Of its 38 first half points, 21 came from Calvin’s bench as sophomore reserves Andy Draayer and Kyle Trewhella hit for 10 and eight points respectively in the opening 20 minutes.
Calvin built its lead to 17 at 48-31 five minutes into the second half but Albion was not done. Using a 12-3 run over a four-minute stretch, the Britons crept to within seven at 56-49 with junior Michael Thomas providing eight of Albion’s points in the spurt.
A shot in the lane by Calvin junior Dan Aultman and a subsequent three-pointer by junior point guard Ricky Shilts put the Knights back up by double-digits at 61-49 and the Britons would never seriously threaten again.
Aultman led the Calvin charge with 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting, despite having not practice in more than a week because of a concussion suffered in Calvin’s 75-64 loss to Hope on February 18. Battling chronic foot problems, Shilts was next with 13 while Draayer finished with his 10 first half points. Sophomore forward Brian Roelofs also gave the Knights a big lift with six points and three rebounds off the bench despite playing with a fractured cheek-bone suffered in Calvin’s first round MIAA Tournament victory over Kalamazoo Wednesday night. Playing with a badly bruised shoulder, senior Kevin Broene was also big for the Knights, scoring nine points on 4 of 6 shooting.
Overall, Calvin shot 53.1 percent from the field including 8 of 14 (.571) from three-point range and 14 of 20 (.700) at the free throw line. Conversely, Calvin held Albion to just 29.7 percent field goal shooting including just 6 of 27 (.222) from beyond the three-point arc.
“Our plan was to double the post and force them to shoot from the perimeter,” said Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek afterwards. “We felt that Albion’s strength was its inside game and that its outside shooting was perhaps a bit of an achilles’ heel.’
Albion took 17 three-point shots in the first half and I felt that our interior defense played a big role in that,” he continued. “I thought we played excellent defense in the second half against Kalamazoo Wednesday night and I think that (defensive) intensity carried over into this game.”
Albion was led in scoring by Thomas who collected 26 points but connected on just 7 of 25 field goal attempts. Senior Joe Finland added 10 points off the bench for the Britons. Calvin also won the rebounding battle, finishing with 37 boards to the 36 of Albion with senior Chris Prins leading the Knights with six caroms. Senior center Ryan Smalligan also played a key role for the Knights, finishing with five rebounds, three blocked shots, two assists and two steals.