Women’s basketball: Olivet loses at Calvin, 91-68
The Olivet College women’s basketball team fell to Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and unbeaten Calvin College, 91-68, tonight at Van Noord Arena in Grand Rapids.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Olivet College women's basketball team fell to Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and unbeaten Calvin College, 91-68, tonight at Van Noord Arena in Grand Rapids. The Knights, who now have a 20-0 overall record, entered the game ranked No. 6 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll and No. 7 in the USA Today Women's Basketball Coach's Poll.
The Comets scored the first basket of the game and that was their only lead in the game. Calvin's 30-point cushion at halftime was its largest lead of the game. That deficit proved to be too much overtime for Olivet despite it out-scoring the Knights by seven, 43-36, in the second half.
For the game, the Comets shot 45.5 percent (25-of-55) from the floor, with three treys, and 83.3 percent (15-of-18) from the free throw line. Calvin was 32-of-60 (53.3 percent) floor, including 13-of-24 (54.2 percent) from behind the arc, and 14-of-18 (77.8 percent) from the charity stripe. A big difference in the game was the Knights forced 20 Olivet turnovers and scored 32 points off them. The Comets had only 15 points off 16 Calvin turnovers.
Senior Stefanie Lang scored a game-high 25 points, including 23 in the second half, on 11-of-15 shooting. She also pulled down 10 rebounds for her 16th double-double of the season. Senior Carli Reid joined her in double figures with 14 points, while grabbing eight rebounds. Juniors Shauni Hankins and Bre Kidd each scored eight points.
Five Calvin players reached double figures in the scoring column, led by Breanna Verkaik's team-high 21 points. Kayla Engelhard finished with 19 points. Anna Timmer came off the bench to score 14, while Hannah Acre and Tiffany Karger contributed 11 points apiece. Acre and Verkaik each had five rebounds.
Olivet travels to play Alma College Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.
NOTES: With her 25 points, Lang eclipsed the 1,100 career point plateau and now has 1,106 points. She also now has 458 career field goals made and needs 36 to break the all-time record and inched closer to becoming the all-time leader for blocked shots. Lang has 94 blocks, and the record is 96.