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Coverage of the women's Final Four

2005 season

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Calvin sectional game notes

The games: No. 6 Millikin (25-2) vs. No. 11 UW-Stout (24-6), 5:30 p.m. ET; No. 20 Albion (25-4) at No. 22 Calvin (24-4), 7:30 p.m. ET; winners meet Saturday at 7 p.m. ET

Location: Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich.

On the air: UW-Stout, Albion and Calvin have local broadcasts. Check NCAASports.com for links.

The bracket has been narrowed down to the four teams that are looking to reach the NCAA Division III Final Four: Albion, Calvin, Millikin and UW-Stout.

Albion enters the game with a 25-4 record. The Britons received a first-round bye and knocked off Denison 63-44 to advance to the Sectional round. Calvin got past Franklin in the first round, 74-60, before upsetting DePauw on the road (72-63) to move into the Sweet 16. Millikin received a bye before pulling away from Washington University for the 67-58 second round win and UW-Stout beat out Edgewood (70-59, 1st round) and Ripon (62-57, 2nd round) to earn the sectional berth.

2004-05 marks the Big Blue's 11th NCAA berth under head coach Lori Kerans, and the first time the Big Blue has played in the Sweet 16 since 1996-97 (Elite 8 appearance). Millikin defeated UW-Stout to advance to the 1997 Sweet 16. Millikin, 13-11 in NCAA games under Kerans, is currently on an 12-game win streak.

After a record-setting 24 wins this season (24-6), Stout is making the program's first Sweet 16 apperance. Under head coach Mark Thomas, Stout has participated in seven NCAA Tournaments.

Albion, also making its first-ever Sweet 16 trip, is 1-1 in NCAA play under head coach Doreen Belkowski.

Calvin has earned nine NCAA berths, including Sweet 16 appearances in both 1999 and 2000 with John Ross as the head coach. Ross is 10-8 in NCAA games at Calvin.

The second Friday game marks the first-ever meeting between two MIAA opponents in a men’s or women’s sectional round Division III NCAA Tournament game. It also marks the first time that two MIAA schools have both reached the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. Albion and Calvin are meeting for the fourth time this season. Calvin is 3-0 against the Britons this season, scoring 74-60 (regular season) and 60-47 (Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Tournament Championship) victories at Albion’s Kregse Gymnasium and a 49-45 victory here at the Fieldhouse.

Stout and Millikin have met five times, with Millikin holding a 3-2 lead. The teams met in the finals of UW-Stout's Snowball Classic tournament, Dec. 30, 1999, when Millikin defeated Stout 107-104 at Johnson Fieldhouse.

Senior Audrey Minott is Millikin's lone 4-year starter and is just two games shy of tying the
career record for games played (107). She opens the sectional having playing 105 games in her career with an average of 5.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 34.2 minutes with 227 steals and 303 assists. Minott, the Big Blue's point guard, is also chasing the 100 season assist mark, needing only four. The closest she's gotten to 100 assists in a season was in 2003-04 when she logged 88 in 28 games.

UW-Stout became the first team in WIAC women's basketball history to start the conference season at 1-3 and come back to win the title.

Albion improved on the school record for most wins in a season the past two years. The Britons won 23 games last season, but that record lasted just 12 months as the current squad has reeled of 25 victories so far this season. Albion’s win total received a boost from a school-record 12-game win streak that stretched from a Dec. 1 win over Saint Mary’s (Ind.) (71-62) through a Jan. 12 victory over Olivet (64-55). Albion has also improved on the school mark for most points scored in a season with 1,994 to date.

UW-Stout players have fouled out just eight times this season, compared to 23 times last season. Stout has committed 643 fouls this year in 30 games, 656 last year in 27 games, an average of three fewer per contest.

Millikin junior Joanna Conner has been unstoppable under the basket this season. To date, she has collected 212 rebounds and has grown her career total to 577 heading into this weekend's sectional. To start the season, Conner had 365 boards, 103 shy of No. 15 on Millikin's career rebounding list. At 577, she is now tied for 10th with her senior year still ahead of her. She has picked up eight double-doubles this season, and 16 for her career.

Albion head coach Doreen Belkowski turned Albion from cellar dweller to league champion in just four years. In the year prior to her arrival, the Britons won just four games. Belkowski boasts a four-year record of 80-31 (.718 winning percentage) with one MIAA Tournament championship (2004) and one co-regular season league title (2005). Belkowski is 1-1 in NCAA Tournament games (Albion lost a 66-62 decision at eventual national champion Wilmington last March). She is 6-6 all-time vs. Calvin, but just 1-5 against current Calvin head coach John Ross.

Over its last three games, Calvin has produced lightning quick starts and strong finishes. In a 60-47 win over Albion in the MIAA Tournament Championship game February 26, Calvin opened the game with a 15-5 scoring run and closed out the game with a 17-10 run over the final eight minutes. In its win over Franklin last week, Calvin opened the game with a 12-4 run and closed the game with a 19-7 run over the final 7:12. In Saturday’s win over DePauw, Calvin scored the first 13 points of the game and then closed the game with a 12-3 run.

Millikin is playing the 2004-05 postseason without starting junior forward Karin Olson. Olson suffered a season-ending injury on Feb. 19 when she broke her foot in the first minute of a home game against Illinois Wesleyan. Millikin is also missing senior guard and captain Abby Gerlesits, who reinjured the knee that caused her to miss most of the 2003-04 season.

With her 40-point effort on February 24 at Hope, Calvin senior Kristen McDonald established a MIAA Tournament scoring record, breaking the previous mark of 34 set by Melissa VanDamme of Alma on March 1, 1997, against Hope. McDonald’s 40-point scoring effort also matched the Calvin single-game scoring mark, originally established by Eileen Boonstra on Feb. 23, 1980, in a regular season game at Kalamazoo.

Notes are assembled by D3hoops.com from releases sent by the participating schools.

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