Hope beats Colorado College by 24, which beats Calvin by 3, which beats Ohio Wesleyan by 25 . . . making Hope a 52 point favorite against Ohio Wesleyan? . . . to which it loses by three . . . a demonstration of the unpredictability that makes sport fun, and is why the only comparison that counts is head-to-head on the court.

Hope fans who have endured heartbreaking losses in past years got some redemption today, with an amazing comeback win on this buzzer beating three by Marcus Wourman: https://youtu.be/14PF-IuNoxc?t=6779

The game was the inverse of Hope's last two games, where they faded in the last five minutes. Today they came from 10 points behind with 3.5 minutes to go, and five points behind with less than a minute. As often happens, Marcus shifted to another gear with the game on the line, with his heroics including 22 points. Also noteworthy was frosh Avery Sanchez who, in 21 minutes, played a near-perfect floor game and ended with 13 points on perfect shooting. An essential part of the unlikely win was a 4-point play with 42 second left, as Marcus missed a second free throw, with the rebound going to frosh star Brendan Cargill, who drained a 3 for the last of his 12 points.

Wheaton fans can take heart (and other CCIW teams should be alerted) that this did not look like the Wheaton team that Hope dominated last year, with that ridiculous 46 to 11 halftime advantage. I'd say they have two legitimate all-American candidates in Soren Richardson (despite his 4 of 17 off day) and (today) the even more amazing 6' 8" frosh, Carson Grier, who finished with 24 points. Grier often brought the ball up the court, and could drive and spin to the basket. I expect Wheaton, which led almost the whole game until the last second,  to be a CCIW force this year.

On Saturday a cold-shooting Hope was 12 points behind Franklin in the first half and came back to tie the game with 5 minutes left, before fading at the end. Last night was wash, rinse, repeat...coming back from a 10 point halftime deficit to lead by two with 3.5 minutes left, before a good Elmhurst team (predicted CCIW 3rd place) controlled the end.

Hope, which gave playing time to 14 players, had a slight rebounding and turnover advantage, but were outshot from the 3-point line, where Elmhurst went 10 to 24. After a hot shooting first game, Hope has been 3 of 23 from 3-point land the last two games. Hopefully, the home court will be friendlier to Hope shooters on Saturday (with a game time that overlaps the football game, though that game's outcome should be decided by halftime).

Quote from: sac on November 08, 2025, 11:50:27 PMFranklin 73 Hope 58 F

Hope struggled to put the ball in the hoop most of the night, fell behind at halftime by 12 shooting under 30% and 0-8 from 3 allowing Franklin to shoot 50%+

A nice stretch of 2nd half play put Hope back in the game, helped by Franklin forgetting how to make baskets themselves.  Tied at 55 with 5 1/2 minutes to play and the wheels came off.  Outscored 18-3 which included 5 ugly turnovers in 5 possessions.


Hovey 13, Wourman 13, Cargill 11


Next Wed night at Elmhurst, will be the Bluejays first game. 

Excellent synopsis, Sac. Hope went from 57% shooting Friday night (including 46% of 3's) to 36% last night (including 2 of 17 3's)...making me wonder how much sleep they got. Nonetheless, coming from 15 down to tie the game with 5 minutes left made them look--before the collapse--like a team awakened.

Outside shooting was a soft spot for Hope last year, so to have the frosh guards Cargill and Sanchez combine for 44 points, including 8 of 14 3-point shots . . . combined with outstanding post play from Kyle Blauch . . . is a hopeful sign for Hope this year (actually the next 4 years). 
P.S. Cargill also had 5 steals and was co-leading rebounder with 8. All in all, an amazing first game of a college career, and,, facing the Anderson press, Sanchez had zero turnovers.

SVSU 80, Hope 76 in a back-and-forth well-played game.

Three game notes:

• Marcus Wourman turned on the afterburners in the 2nd half and ended wth 25. After he missed the first 7 games last year, having him start the season healthy helps Hope.
• SVSU, with its 4 D1 transfers, played 11 players, while Hope gave quality minutes to 16 players.
• Hope has three frosh in its top 10 playing rotation--each of whom look like players with a great future.

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on September 27, 2025, 03:53:43 PMHope 26 Alma 29 in OT is the official score. Actual score is Hope 26 Alma 23. Why?  Well Alma ran the hook and ladder play, and the lateral from the receiver to his teammate was fumbled and recovered by Hope - game over!!!  Somehow the officials met (with the Alma coaches prompting) and called it an incomplete pass. How can it be incomplete if the receiver possessed the ball enough to lateral it??

That's how I (and the Hope team) also saw it FDF. But we need to see a replay--perhaps it was a forward lateral/pass from the first receiver? Clearly he caught it.
P.S. I found the replay (also available below), and we saw it correctly FDF. The Alma receiver caught it at the 21, turned and lateraled it to the trailing back at the 23, who dropped it. A ref mistake seemingly costs Hope the victory (despite the Alma coach insisting it was an incomplete pass) . . . but it all happened in a flash and, without D3 replay, refs are human--perhaps thinking the first receiver dropped the pass instead of lateraling it? or thinking he lateraled forward? Or are we missing or misinterpreting something?

That said, it was a great even game for which an ESPN Gametracker odds maker would have gotten seasick in the last minute and OT. Too bad someone had to lose.

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on June 30, 2025, 10:12:07 AMAgree about Hope's schedule, and it looks to be a bit better than Calvin's - at least based on last years records and NPI.  Quick comparison below:

Calvin:
9 known games (Kuyper doesn't count being non D3) and a TBD in the Wisc Dells Tourney. 
Those 9 opponents last year had a 0.550 W/L, NPI average of 129, and 1 of them (Denison) was an NCAA tourney team last year

Hope:
All 11 oppponents are known. 
Last year they had a 0.596 W/L, NPI average of 111, and 3 of them (Franklin, UW Platteville, and WashU) were NCAA tourney teams last year.

I concur with Sac and FDF's liking of Hope's schedule...and for an additional reason--fewer doubling up with women's games on same night (pushing jv's to a different day and leaving other game days with no home games). Before St. Mary's joined the women's league, men and women would, as I recall, play the same school home/away on the same night...so there was always a Wednesday and a Saturday game, with associated jv games.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on April 12, 2025, 12:45:30 PM

Quote from: goodknight on April 11, 2025, 08:04:00 PMhttps://x.com/natettucker/status/1910758344253468919

That post has been deleted. What did we miss?

Pat, try: https://x.com/natettucker

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on March 27, 2025, 10:19:51 AM

Quote from: sac on March 26, 2025, 08:54:55 PMBrendan Cargill 5-11 G Forest Hills Central will attend Hope

Brendan had an impressive senior season at FHC.  In 24 games he averaged 27.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg, and 2.4 apg.  Excellent "get" for the Dutchmen!!

As OldKnight might say, a very good pickup for the Dutchmen. Coach Jordan George tweets:
"One of FHC's all-time greats is headed to Holland!! A dream to coach and a total difference maker for our program. A next-level worker, leader, shot-maker, competitor. You've worked for this @brendancargill1 go be great!!"

At the end of each half, the referees went to the monitor, apparently to assess the timing as a ball went out of bounds. Thanks to Calvin's excellent broadcast, we can--as morning after fans--see what the referees saw.

In the first, Marcus Wourman collides with Calvin players in the basket circle and falls to the floor while attempting a layup at 1.4 seconds. https://youtu.be/cimPQAze4JM?t=3443 After reviewing the play, the referees declared the half over with (a good? bad?) no call.

At the game's end, as you can see by pausing play, the ball hits out of bounds at 2.7 seconds. But the clock continues running to 1.4 seconds. (Likely the person running the clock couldn't see where the ball hit.) After presumably seeing what you can see, the referees reset the clock to 1.8 seconds. https://youtu.be/cimPQAze4JM?t=7427 Not that it would have mattered . . .

Regardless of where they go from here, kudos to Calvin for an amazing season, after losing Jalen for the year and starting the season 1-6. Who would have guessed?

An exciting game, with no discredit to Hope players and coaches for taking favored Calvin to the wire, and holding them to 62 points. After a great first half, coaching wasn't responsible for the missed point-blank layups at the start of the second half, for the missed free throws, or the 1 of 12 3-point shooting. Nevertheless, when Hope went ahead by 12 with less than 16 minutes to play, I was feeling optimistic and I daresay the inestimable Mrs. OldKnight was growing pessimistic.

Varnado for Calvin and Wourman for Hope were both pretty sensational. I'm looking forward to watching them (well, one of them) again next year.

Kudos to the seniors for all they've invested in developing their talent and gifting us with it, with a special shout-out to Zach Hawes for ending his career so impressively the last four games. Both Hope and Calvin are graduating some players that will be greatly missed, but bring back a lot of talent as well.

A fun day at DeVos, as Hope reversed their loss at Albion with an 81 to 56 win before 2325 fans.

The really fun part—-for fans and for their ecstatic, supportive teammates-—was having seniors Josh Decker, Ben Wagar, and Zach Hawes move into the senior-honoring starting lineup, and promptly draining 5 of 5 3-point shots in the first 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

They ended the game having played a combined 35 minutes, and scoring 38 points, including 10 of 13 triples. So cool . . . and for the team (shooting 53% and with only 9 turnovers) quite the turnaround from the dismal prior game at Olivet.

Kudos to Calvin men's BB. Who among its fans expected, after their 1-6 start, that on February 16th they'd be 17-6, nationally ranked, and league champions--all without Jalen Overway. Even Mrs. OldKnight must be happily surprised.

TUAngola, wow, Trine was amazing, besting Hope 80 to 63 on 53% shooting and a 42 to 29 rebounding advantage against the taller Dutch, for whom there was a lid on the basket today. That third quarter--where Trine, with super hot shooting, scored 29 points against Hope's legendary defense--was the best women's BB performance I've seen at Hope this winter, and more than enough to overcome Hope's perfect 21 for 21 at the free throw line (I don't recall a free throw even touching the rim).

And Sidney Wagner surely will be league MVP? It's not just her shooting (9 of 13 and 23 points) that impressed, but her amazing quickness and ball handling, which enabled her 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 5 steals as well. An All-American-level performance.

A class act after-game moment. I love that Hope's women's and men's coaches both, in the post-game handshakes, make a point of congratulating opposing players who have had exceptional games. Today Coach Morehouse, after the exchanges, took Sidney aside for a full minute giving his extended congratulations (I inferred) for her exceptional game and career. That was the DIII athletic spirit--of mutual respect after competitive play--at its best.