Another Trine commitment and once again another 'big', although his X page says he's a SG.  This might be one of the best classes coming in that I can remember. 

Drew Matelic    6'7 SG    Speedway HS, IN

26.8 ppg, 7.9 rpg.  Had offers from Illinois Wesleyan and Wabash. 

I didn't see any on the Hope-Trine game.  But read a recap from Hope that quoted Coach Morehouse saying the girls played their best game of the year against Trine.  I was not expecting Trine to win up in Holland, but was surprised at the final score.  It will be interesting to see what that demolition does to the girls confidence level.  We aren't very experienced this year, so you never know with such a young group how they will bounce back from that kind of a loss.

Final from Angola: Olivet 84 Trine 80

Olivet wraps up the regular season MIAA championship, congrats to the Comets!

Olivet is very impressive.  I think they have the best balance in the league.  They aren't deep, just play 2 guys off the bench, but everyone is capable of hitting big shots, so you can't just key on a couple guys.  What makes them problematic for other teams is their size.  They play 2 bigs and can rotate in a 3rd big.  Richardson is the catalyst that makes them go.  Easily the best ball handler and quickest guard I've watched play.  And guess what, they are all back next year too.

Trine shot themselves in the foot multiple times in the game.  In the first half Flood hit a 3 in front of the Olivet bench to put us up 29-20, but then turned around and woofed at the Comet bench and got T'd up.  Just dumb.  That turned the momentum around and Olivet outscored the Thunder 23-10 the rest of the way to go up 43-39 at half.

Second half was a game of runs, but Trine never overtook the Comets.  Olivet would get up by 10 pts and then we'd cut it to 1-2 points, but could never get the big shot to get the lead back.  Missed free throws were huge.  Bradshaw missed 5 in a row at one point.  Other times we'd just split from the line.  If we hit free throws the outcome may have been different.  Tucker also had 3 big turnovers in the last 4 minutes or so.  The last one when we were down 2 with a chance to tie or take a lead with 6 seconds left.  I feel bad for Nate, he's such a good kid.

No first round bye for Trine, will have to go the long route in the tournament.

Another forward commit for Trine:

Jaron Witcher    6'6 F    Southview HS, Sylvania OH

Would like to see some ball handling guards coming soon.  I think that is one big area of weakness for this team.  Hope exposed our ballhandling in the frenetic 15 pt comeback in the last 5 minutes at Trine.

Trine MBB 2026 commit:

Alex Lake  6'7 F  Indianapolis Bishop Chatard HS

Had known offers from Wabash, DePauw, Hanover, Franklin and from NAIA St Francis IN.

Trine is loading up on forwards so far with the new class; 3 guys at 6'5 and 2 guys at 6'7.

Trine clinches the MIAA regular season championship with a 71-65 victory over Calvin.  A slow start to the game for Trine as fell behind 17-4 and ended the quarter trailing 18-8.  We actually shot 80% from the field in the quarter but had just 5 attempts as we struggled with turnovers.  A big offensive output in the second quarter for the Thunder as we take the 1st lead of the game on a 3 pointer from Capouch in the last 15 seconds to go up 34-33 at break. In the 3rd both teams took turns leading and the quarter ended knotted at 50.  Trine opens up an 8 point lead 5 minutes in before Calvin whittled it down to 2 with a minute left.  On the next possession Olivia Marks with a big bucket drawing a foul and converted the 3 point play. Calvin didn't get any closer.

Great effort by the girls.  Calvin is so tough and talented.  We're very young but play with a lot of poise.  Freshman Annika Southworth is tough as nails, finished with 21 points.  Ally Capouch with 19 that included a wicked cross over dribble that created seperation from the Calvin defender with a step back 3.  You just don't see that type of play at this level all that often.  It was senior night and was the last regular season home game for Erin Sherwood, Addison Hutson and Gracey Metz.  Sherwood, who is out for the year with a knee injury suffered back in January, got the ceremonial start and the game was stopped after the tip, a long standing ovation for team leader and standout.  We've had so many girls who have stepped up in her absense.

The girls have no mid-week game this week and end the regular season at Hope next Saturday. 

Quote from: sac on February 11, 2026, 09:41:23 PMTrine 84 Hope 75 F OT

All Trine in OT
Hope's first lead came in overtime and that pretty much is the gist of it.  Bonkers comeback from 14 down and just under 5 to play.  Thunder were awful closing out regulation.

Agreed sac.  This game should have never went to OT.  Turnovers, tons of missed free throws. Give credit to Hope though.  The refs let the game be physical and Hope took advantage.  But then again give credit to Trine to finish it in OT after having the life sucked out of MTI by the wild finish in regulation.  I thought no way Trine wins this game as Hope had all the momentum.  Some big buckets and 3's by the Thunder, and they finally hit consecutive FT's.  This game is fickle, it isn't over until it's over.

Top 4 in the MIAA hold serve today:

Calvin 91 Kalamazoo 55 
Hope 80 Alma 48
Olivet 71 Albion 57
Trine 71 Adrian 66

Hope 9-1
Olivet 9-1
Trine 8-2
Calvin 7-3

Next weeks games be will intense as all 4 play each other on Wednesday and Saturday. 

Wednesday:  Hope at Trine & Calvin at Olivet
Saturday:  Olivet at Hope & Trine at Calvin

I'm not sure but it seems like it's been a while since we've seen 4 teams fighting for the regular season crown this late in the season.  This might be the deepest the MIAA has been in a while as Albion is really good too.

Trine 88 Calvin 68

The Thunder shoot a blistering 72% from the field in the second half to pull away from the Knights after leading by 4 points at halftime.  I was lamenting about Trine's lack of defense in December but they probably played their best defensive game of the year tonight.  We made things tough on Overway, every time he touched the ball we ran a second guy at him, and then he collected all 5 of his fouls in the second half and was visibly frustrated with the refs on a few of the calls.  The game certainly was choppy with the teams combining for 48 fouls and 57 free throw attempts, but both Calvin and Trine shot it well at the line with Calvin at 82% and Trine at 86%.  One of the keys to the game I thought was the depth of Trine's bench as we outscored Calvin 27-0.

Trine: Bradshaw 17, McKenzie 17, Tucker 15, Brenner 15
Calvin: Winkle 18, McIllwain, 16, Overway 15, Ressler 12

Big games coming up Saturday with Hope hosting Calvin and Olivet hosting Trine.  Hope is 5-0 in conference play with Calvin, Olivet and Trine all at 4-1.

Hope commit:

Kaden Grau, 6'4 wing, Westview HS, Topeka IN.  Hope is getting a good one, with Kaden being a local kid that I was hoping would commit to Trine.  1000 point scorer, team is currently 12-1. 

Kaden had offers from Trine, Wheaton, Wabash, DePauw and others, along with NAIA schools St Francis, Taylor and Goshen in Indiana.  Hope was on him very early.

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on January 12, 2026, 08:26:05 AM

Quote from: TUAngola on January 09, 2026, 05:05:02 PMTrine MBB 2026 commit:

Brogan McNiece  6'5 F  Homestead HS  Ft Wayne IN

So Trine has 3 commits thus far, all 6-5 - interesting. 

Kalamazoo also has a 2026 commit:

Dylan Gross 5-9 PG Rockford (MI)

Trine has four commitments, all 6'5 or over.

Connor Stevens 6'5 Concord HS MI
Jake Holcomb 6'5 Holland Christian HS MI
Caleb Claerbaut 6'7 Zeeland East HS MI
Brogan McNiece 6'5 Fort Wayne Homestead HS IN

Trine MBB 2026 commit:

Brogan McNiece  6'5 F  Homestead HS  Ft Wayne IN

Nice win for Trine over Hope last night.  I wasn't sure how we'd match up with a talented Hope squad, especially with our leading scorer Erin Sherwood out with injury.  She hurt her knee in the 4th quarter of the St Mary's game last Saturday.  It didn't look good, I don't know the extent of her injury but I'm assuming it is season ending which is tough being this is Erin's last year at Trine.

We are so young, there were times we had 3 freshmen and 2 sophs on the court.  But they didn't seem to be afraid of the big matchup.  Freshman PG Annika Southworth is gonna be solid, she ended with 17 points including a couple big back-to-back 3 pointers in the 4th quarter.  Soph Madison Wagner (I don't think she is related to Sydney but don't know for certain) came off the bench with a career high 21 points including 4-5 from behind the arc.

We defended the Richard girls pretty well all night.  Vis had a nice 1st half and then Maynard did a good job in the second half getting to the rim and finishing.  Petroelje struggled with her shot but did hit a couple of 3's in the closing minute.

Trine with good team defense and rebounding considering Hope had the height advantage at almost every position.  Oliva Marks is a very good rebounder for being only 5'9.  Our bench is a bit more productive than Hope.  This is unlike all those great Hope squads in recent years who had so much quality depth.

Hope will be alright, maybe they underestimated this young Thunder squad.  That won't happen in the rematch up in Holland the last game of the regular season.

Congrats to Trine on 2 bounce back wins in Orlando:

Game 1 Monday: Trine 79 Washington & Lee 61
Game 2 Today: Trine 76 Piedmont 69

I didn't stream either game (working) but appears to be better defensive performances by the Thunder.  We sit at 6-3 and are off for 2 weeks then play at Manchester and at Wabash to finish up the non-conference portion of the season.

I...miss...Brooks... (heavy sigh)

However, it's too early to judge this new era of Trine basketball.  I understand it takes time to implement a new system, but man the defense has got to improve.  Back to back games of giving up 95 and 97 points isn't going to win you many games.  Last night it would have been 95 points if not for the bush league act of the Heidelberg player who dribbled in for an uncontested layup while we were walking off the court at the end of the game.  But I digress.  Offensively it's a mixed bag.  Shot selection is so suspect at times.  Flood and Bradshaw just had an awful night, combined 3-19 shooting.  Nate Tucker, who played so well for us the last 2 years, is just lost for the most part.  We don't get him very many touches at all.  I'm hoping he will find some success as the season progresses.  A decent effort would have beaten Heidelberg last night, we got off to a great start, but went downhill the latter part of the 1st half and all of the 2nd.  Giving up 62 points in the second half...ugh.  There is just something off with this team, and I can't quite put a finger on it yet.  The chemistry maybe?  I'm hoping VanderWal gets it figured out.  So many new guys I'm sure it's tough to gel right away.