Hope hoops victorious

Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams were victorious this weekend, winning the conference championship games and heading into the NCAA tournament. The men’s team won their 12th conference title against Olivet College with a score of 106 to 94, while the women beat Trine University in overtime 68 to 62 on the home court. The men’s team set their season’s highest scored points in the game despite losing to Olivet just ten days prior with their season low of 70-49. Junior Jason Beckman brought in the most points at 32, reaching a total of 602 points for the season, the fourth player in Hope history to reach over 600. Sophomore Riley Lewis followed, scoring 21 points and junior Teddy Ray  scored 13 points, with a career and MIAA tournament record high of 18 rebounds during the game. Ray’s rebounds matched Calvin’s Jeremy Veenstra (2003) and Olivet’s Jalen Adams (against Trine). The team outrebounded Olivet 46-32.

The women defeated Trine for the MIAA championship, coming back from their only loss of the season to Trine on Jan. 27 with a score of 58-55. Junior Francesca Buchanan scored the game high of 21 points, followed by freshmen Kenedy Schoonveld at 18 points and senior Madison Geers with 13 points. The team came back from a first quarter deficit at 23-10 to win the game in overtime with Geers scoring the game-tying layup with a heart stopping two seconds left on the clock, making the score 60-60 to go into overtime.