HOLLAND, Mich. – The Kalamazoo College men's basketball team concluded its season Tuesday night on the road in the MIAA Tournament quarterfinals with an 80-58 defeat at the hands of Hope College.
The host Flying Dutchmen wasted no time jumping out to a quick start. A three-pointer gave the home team a quick 11-2 lead with just a little more than three minutes gone by.
The Hornets gathered themselves, however, and when a Gabriel Sharp three found the bottom of the basket with 11:24 remaining in the first half, the visitors had completed a 10-2 run and found themselves down by just a point, 13-12.
The two squads played even for the next 6:16, as a DJ Courtney jump shot brought the margin back to one point, 23-22, with 5:08 left before the break. Hope, showing why they were the tournament's top seed, finished out the half on a 9-2 run before Courtney's buzzer-beating layup cut the Flying Dutchmen's lead to 32-26.
Hope, which claimed the outright MIAA regular-season championship with a 12-2 conference record, grabbed its first double-digit lead when a layup 1:17 into the second half gave them a 37-26 advantage. The Hornets put up some resistance and were within eight points at 42-34 with 15:42 remaining, but Hope then stretched the lead up to 18, 60-42, over the next 3:08.
The Flying Dutchmen's lead reached as much as 30 before the game reached its conclusion.
Courtney, a freshman from Miami, led the Hornets with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field. Fellow freshman Lukas Broadsword (Boise, Id.) tallied nine points and a team-high three assists. Sharp, a sophomore from Riverview, Fla., chipped in eight points, as did freshman Josh Decker (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio).
The shooting statistics were close, with Hope making 31-of-68 overall (46%) and 12-33 three-pointers (36%). Kalamazoo was right there, shooting 43% overall (22-51) and 38% from distance (8-21).
Hope had a huge advantage on the boards, claiming 45 rebounds to K's 25, and the game boiled down to the second chances that Hope manufactured. The Dutch's 17 offensive rebounds dwarfed the Hornets' four and enabled the home squad to take an 18-3 advantage in second-chance points.
The young Hornets, who have no seniors and only one junior on the roster, finish the season at 5-21.