Kevin Vande Streek recorded his 400th victory as head coach as Calvin men’s basketball coach Wednesday night with a 66-64 win at Trine University.
The victory came in dramatic fashion as the Knights received a driving layup in the final second of play from junior guard Tony Canonie (South Haven, Mich./South Haven HS) to defeat the host Thunder 66-64. The layup was the second of clutch hoops by Canonie in the final 21 seconds of play.
Canonie converted an off-balance drive from the left-hand side of the lane with 21 seconds remaining to give Calvin a 64-62 lead. After a Calvin timeout, Trine (5-7 overall, 0-1 MIAA) was able to tie the game on a layup by Myles Copeland with eight seconds remaining but Canonie followed with a length-of-the-court drive the ended with a layup in traffic from the right side of the lane to give the Knights the win.
Calvin (6-6 overall, 1-0 MIAA) was able to win the game despite converting only 10 of 21 from the free throw line.
“I’m not quite sure what exactly to say,” said Vande Streek who is now 400-175 in 21 years as Calvin men’s basketball coach. “It was not pretty by any means but I can’t recall too many games that we have won here (Trine) that have been pretty. It’s tough to win when you shoot only 10 of 21 at the free throw line but we will gladly take the win. To the credit of our guys, they kept grinding and maintained their mental toughness to pull out a victory.”
Calvin was led in scoring by junior forward Mike Siegel (Fremont, Mich./Fremont HS) who popped in 17 points off the bench. Siegel played significant minutes down the stretch at the power forward position and came up with a key offensive rebound and put-back that tied the score at 62 with 1:09 to play.
“We decided to go with a little smaller lineup inside the last two minutes and spread the floor,” said Vande Streek. “We played Mike (Siegel) at the ‘four’ position which we really have never done before but we wanted to spread the floor and give ourselves a chance to score by driving to the basket. We practice our ‘two-minute’ drill in every one of our practices. We have not had a lot of success scoring in the last two minutes of games but tonight we got the job done and I’m proud of our guys for that.”
Calvin led 29-28 at halftime but Trine opened the second half with an 8-2 run to take a 36-31 lead. The Thunder led by eight at 46-38 and maintained a lead until Siegel’s put-back with 1:09 remaining.
Siegel and freshman Tony DeWitte (Grandville, Mich./Calvin Christian HS) converted key three-point shots inside the final five minutes of play to help lead Calvin’s closing charge.
“Tony Canonie came up with two huge baskets but I also want to credit him and (senior) Nick Kronemeyer (Hamilton, Mich./Hamilton HS) for their defense on (Trine senior guard) Will Dixon,” said Vande Streek. “Dixon is a tremendous player and he finished with 16 points but I thought Tony and Nick made him work for everyone of those points. Their defense was huge.”
Calvin featured a balanced scoring attack behind the 17-point effort by Siegel as DeWitte, Canonie and junior Michael Wilks (Hudsonville, Mich./Unity Christian HS) collected eight points apiece. Senior Cam Denney added seven points and six rebounds while sophomore Luke Van Boxel (Montague, Mich./Montague HS) also had seven points.
Myles Copeland led Trine with 19 points while Dixon had 16 points for the Thunder, converting 6 of 18 of his field goal attempts. Ellis Cummings also had 12 points for Trine.
Both teams snared 35 rebounds. The Knights were 25 of 52 (.481) from the field while Trine was 24 of 56 (.421) from the floor.
Calvin is now 20-1 in MIAA openers under Vande Streek. Wednesday’s victory marked the first time Calvin has put together back-to-back wins this year. Calvin is now 3-1 in games decided by six points or less this season.
http://www.calvinknights.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/releases/20170104z0a7lm
