Men’s basketball team tripped up by Hanover, 72-67

HOLLAND, Mich. – The Olivet College men's basketball team was tripped up by Hanover (Ind.) College, 72-67, this evening in the second day of the Holland Sentinel/Russ DeVette Classic, hosted by Hope College and inside the DeVos Fieldhouse in Holland.

The Comets led by four points, 8-4, at the 15:29 mark of the first half. The Panthers came back to take their first lead since the early stages of the game at 13-12 with 12:01 left. From there, neither team led by more than three points and there were three tied scores.

With the score knotted at 24-24, Hanover reeled off four straight points to take its largest lead of the game, 28-24. The teams exchanged baskets for a 30-26 score. Freshman Nick Niznak nailed a three-pointer to make the score 30-29 at halftime.

By virtue of a 13-3 run in the first five minutes of the second half, Hanover took its first double digit of the game, 43-32. Olivet came back with six consecutive points to stay within striking distance at five points, 43-38. The Panthers appeared to pull away, taking a 12-point lead on two occasions, with the last time being 56-44.

The Comets did not give up, cutting their deficit down to four points, 56-52, after junior Eric Ewing made a free throw to complete an old-fashioned three-point play with 5:16 remaining in the game. Hanover extended its lead to seven points, 61-54, with 1:09 left.

Olivet did not go down quietly, as Ewing made a three-pointer with 40.4 ticks left to make the score 62-59. The Panthers drained 10-of-10 free throws in the final 40 seconds to help seal their hard-fought victory.

For the game, the Comets made more baskets than Hanover, 24 to 20, including a 10-8 edge in shots from behind the arc. The difference in the game was the Panthers were 24-of-32 (75 percent) from the free throw line compared to 9-of-10 (90 percent) for Olivet.

Senior Lee Gardner, who was named to the All-Tournament team, led all scorers with 22 points. Freshman Kyle Emory came off the bench to score 18 points, with four three-pointers. Ewing grabbed a game-best eight rebounds.

Hanover placed four starters in double figures. Cameron Fails finished with a team-leading 21 points. Levi Buck contributed 13, while Wes McKinney and Michael Van Kleunen had 12 apiece. The fifth starter, V.J. Billings, pulled down a team-best seven rebounds.

Olivet will take the next 10 days off and will play its final non-conference game Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, when it welcomes Purdue-Calumet (Ind.) to The Cutler Event Center for a 3 p.m. contest.