Calvin picked up its first victory over its chief rival since January of 2000 with a 74-62 upset win Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd at the Hope College Dow Center. The Calvin victory was also its first over Hope at the Dow Center since January of 1999.
In addition, the victory extended Calvin's current win streak to 11 games while snapping Hope's 22-game homecourt win streak.
Most importantly, the Calvin victory allowed the Knights to move into a share of first place in the MIAA standings at 7-1 in the conference.
Ranked 14th in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, Hope (16-2 overall) led early but Calvin (13-3 overall) would take its first lead at 18-14 on a four-point play by junior Kristin McDonald at the 10:28 mark of the first half and would never trail again.
The three-point shot by McDonald was the first of five that she would hit on the night as she finished the evening with 25 points on 9 of 16 shooting including 5 of 10 from three-point range.
A 10-3 burst over the final four minutes of the first half allowed the Knights to build a 41-28 halftime lead. Calvin would then stretch its lead to 15 points on two occasions in the second half only to see Hope rally to within five points at 57-52 with 7:25 remaining. McDonald then stepped up and drilled a three-point shot from the right win to give Calvin an eight-point lead and would follow with her fourth three-pointer of the game two minutes later to put the Knights up 63-53. Sophomore Katherine Pettinga and McDonald ripped in two more triples over the next two minutes to keep the Knights up by ten and stall a furious Hope comeback effort.
Calvin then cemented the win with five free throws in the final 1:27 of play.
McDonald was one of four Calvin players to reach double-figures in scoring as freshman Lisa Winkle had 14 points, junior Lisa Nanninga 13 points and Pettinga 11 points. Nanninga finished with a game-high eight rebounds while Pettinga collected five steals.
Hope was led in defeat by sophomore Bria Ebels with 22 points with junior Kelly Taylor collecting 12 and sophomore Linda Ebels 10.
Calvin shot 50.9 percent overall including 38.9 percent (7 of 18) from behind the arc. Hope shot 42.0 percent overall but also committed 20 turnovers.