Jan. 19, 2008

Stats

HOLLAND, Mich. - Adrian College men's basketball was on the verge of an upset on Saturday afternoon in front of a raucous crowd of 3,225 at the DeVos Fieldhouse but the Flying Dutchmen escaped with a 74-70 win over the visiting Bulldogs. The story of this one was at the charity stripe were Hope College walked 36 times making 28 which was good for 77.8 percent. Adrian went to the line 15 times and made 11 which was 73.3 percent. Adrian held Hope to 38.9 percent shooting while the Bulldogs did a good job of executing their offense to the tune of 49.1 percent shooting.

The two teams battled back-and-forth in the first half with Hope's largest lead being 10 points with 5:42 left on a pair of Marcus Vanderheide free throws. Hope either shared the lead or took the lead for 17:50 of the opening half. The Flying Dutchmen took their largest lead of the game at 52-40 with 13:14 remaining on a layup by Jesse Reimink. Adrian responded with a 9-0 run capped off by a three-pointer by Lamar Cardenas with 9:27 left in the game. Adrian tied the contest at 56-56 with 5:19 left on a pair of Desmond Young freebies for the first time since the 17:50 mark of the first half.

Adrian took their first lead in the second half on a Ryan Gallus triple making it 61-60 at the 4:11 mark. Gallus connected again from long distance with 2:19 remaining giving AC a 67-65 lead. Unfortunately it would be the last points scored by the Bulldogs until a Young triple as time expired. Hope went on a 9-0 run to close out the game basically as they went 6-of-6 at the line to seal the win. Tyler Wolfe's three-pointer at 2:04 gave Hope the lead for good.

Senior forward Ian Weber registered his fifth double-double of the year with 13 points and 11 boards. He was 6-of-10 from the floor and also had three blocks and two steals. Young led Adrian with 18 points and was also 6-of-10 shooting and 5-of-6 at the line. Brett Asher made a big impact off the bench with a season-high 10 points after entering the game scoring just seven points all season. Asher was 4-of-7 shooting and grabbed three boards before fouling out. Cardenas scored 12 points and Gallus added 10 for the Bulldogs.