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Notebook

Greg Chandler's
Great Lakes Notebook
Posted Jan. 11, 2000

Now that the holidays are over, conference play is underway in full force. For the most part, the preseason favorites are having their way in the early going.

In the North Coast Athletic Conference, Wabash, Wooster and Wittenberg continued to roll, remaining unbeaten. Wabash had the biggest week, posting three consecutive wins against conference foes to improve to 5-0, a half-game against of Wooster and Wittenberg. The Little Giants (10-3 overall) defeated Hiram and Allegheny on back-to-back nights over the weekend. Wooster, which slipped out of the Top 10 in D3hoops.com poll after a holiday tournament loss to Kalamazoo, chalked up its 10th win in 12 games by clobbering Denison 100-73. Wittenberg, meanwhile, kept pace with an 82-59 victory against Ohio Wesleyan.

In the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Calvin (10-2) bounced back from a pair of tournament losses against highly rated NAIA Division I powers. The Knights opened conference play last Tuesday with a statement win -- a 104-74 pounding of Defiance, which had been picked to finish second behind Calvin in the coaches' preseason poll. It was all over early as the Knights raced to a 50-18 first-half lead, as Calvin avenged a loss to the Yellow Jackets in last year's MIAA tournament semifinals. The Knights followed the Defiance blowout with a 70-61 win over Alma on Saturday.

This week, Calvin (10-2, 2-0) must travel to the Holland Civic Center Saturday to face archrival Hope. The two West Michigan rivals are meeting for the 143rd time in what might be the most intense and most competitive Division III rivalry in the country. Each team has won 71 games, though Hope (6-6, 1-1) has won 11 of the last 12 meetings. Before Hope, however, Calvin must travel Wednesday to Adrian, where the Bulldogs stunned the Knights last season for one of its only two conference wins.

In the Ohio Athletic Conference, preseason favorite Ohio Northern, traditional power Otterbein and upstart Marietta continue to battle for the top spot. ONU (4-1, 8-4) broke a three-game losing streak with a 71-62 win against Heidelberg, then took a hard-fought 71-68 win against Mount Union.

Otterbein improved to 4-1 in league play, 8-4 overall, by edging John Carroll 81-79 and downing Capital 82-68. The Cardinals also scored an impressive non-league win on the road, defeating Wittenberg 79-67 in Springfield behind a school record-tying 12 three-point baskets.

Marietta, meanwhile, continued to stay hot with a 59-53 victory against Capital, then took down John Carroll 87-70 behind sophomore forward Chad Spence's 22 points. At 11-1 (4-1 OAC), the Pioneers are off to their best start since 1954-55, when they went 20-1.

Elsewhere in the OAC, Muskingum (3-2, 9-4) narrowly missed pulling a major shocker against then-No. 4 Christopher Newport last week in a tournament at the Virginia school last week. The Captains had to come from behind to defeat the Muskies in overtime 68-64. Muskingum then bounced back the following night to roll up 98 points in a 98-48 blowout of Hunter, shooting 64% from the field and nailing 16 three-pointers in the process.

Top performances: Defiance's Chad Kahle bounced back from the Calvin blowout to score 34 points Saturday in the Yellow Jackets' 88-81 win against Olivet. Kahle's 34 was the most by an MIAA player this season, and the fourth time he's gone for 25 or more points in a game so far. Kahle leads all MIAA players in overall scoring (19.6) and rebounding (10.9).

Olivet's Bruce Lawrence had a monster game in an overtime win against Hope, scoring 25 points and pulling down 19 rebounds. He followed that up with a 14-point, 10-rebound performance against Defiance to win MIAA player of the week honors.

Baldwin-Wallace junior forward Jason Woleben and junior post Eric Fritz both had double-doubles against Muskingum. Woleben had 24 points and 13 rebounds, while Fritz tallied 11 points and 10 boards.

Marietta's Brett Cahill is deadly from the foul line. He made 11 straight free throws last week, extending his current streak to 34 in a row.

Bethany's Nevada Smith is still sizzling from long range, hitting 54% of his three-point bombs (35 of 65). Smith's marksmanship is a big reason why the Bison are sixth in the nation in long-range shooting, hitting nearly 41% of their three-point tries.

Defiance's Kris Hinchcliff has been even hotter than Smith from long range, hitting 61% of his three-pointers (28 of 46). Thiel's Vince Manzella has been a master thief during his career -- he just became the school's all-time steals leader with 180.

Women's hoops: Baldwin-Wallace and Capital continue to maintain dominance in the OAC women's race. B-W bounced back from a holiday loss to unbeaten Simpson by posting a 71-59 win against Mount Union, then defeated Muskingum 78-72 to maintain a one-game lead over Capital in the conference. The Yellow Jackets are now 6-0 in league play and 12-1 overall. Capital (12-2, 5-1) stayed close with a 79-45 victory against Marietta and by beating third-place Otterbein (9-4) 71-51.

In the NCAC, Denison is on top of the NCAC with a 5-0 conference record, one game better than Kenyon (4-1) and a game and a half ahead of Ohio Wesleyan and Wittenberg (3-1). The Big Red improved to 10-3 with an 83-60 win over Earlham and a 76-48 romp over Oberlin. Denison guard Molly Baumann went 5-for-5 from three-point range in a 17-point performance against Oberlin.

Ohio Wesleyan improved to 10-1 by defeating Thomas More 76-60, Oberlin 77-54 and Wooster 69-58. Junior forward Jessica Viertlboeck matched her career high with 28 points against Thomas More, while sophomore center Katy Sturtz had three straight double-doubles (17 points and 11 rebounds against Thomas More, 18 points and 11 rebounds against Oberlin and 14 points and 16 rebounds against Wooster).

In the MIAA, Calvin holds a half-game lead over Hope, with the two teams facing off on Saturday in what should be a battle for first place. The Knights improved to 5-0 in league play with wins over St. Mary's (Ind.) and Adrian, while the Flying Dutch kept pace by defeating Albion and Defiance, the latter a 59-55 road victory.

After an 0-2 start, Hanover has asserted itself, winning 10 of its last 11 games and establishing itself as one of the favorites in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. I'm still trying to figure out how the HCAC is in one region for the women and a different region for the men.

Bits and pieces: Alma's Shannon Gross surpassed the 1,000-point plateau earlier this month in the Lady Scots' 66-58 win against Saint Mary's (Ind.). The senior guard-forward now stands seventh on Alma's all-time list. Baldwin-Wallace senior forward Anjee Beard had 16 points against Muskingum to become the seventh B-W player to reach the 1,000-point plateau in her career. She currently has 1,012 points. Heidelberg junior forward Nicole Camper had 25 points, 14 rebounds and a school single-game record eight blocks against Ohio Northern last week.

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