BY Ross Weener

Sports Editor

If you boil away all the hype and circus atmosphere that surround a Calvin-Hope game, then all you have left is basketball. On Wednesday night the Knights showed they were the better of the two teams, steady on offense and dominant on defense, sending the Flying Dutch home with a 78-64 loss.

The game, like all Calvin-Hope match-ups, flashed of playoff intensity as both squads needed a win to stay in contention in the tight MIAA title race. Coming into the game Hope stood a game ahead of Calvin with a 8-2 conference mark, while the Knights checked in with a 7-3 record. A Calvin win on Saturday and a Hope loss to Albion at Kresge Gymnasium will vault Calvin into the outright MIAA title. But lets first attend to the business at hand, as the Knights travel to Alma face a winless Scot squad who will be fired up to face Calvin. The 0-11 Scots always play Calvin hard and this will be no different.

If Calvin wins and Hope looses on Saturday then Calvin will garner the first seed and win the MIAA title outright. On the other hand, if Calvin wins and Hope beats Albion then there will be co-MIAA champions and Calvin and Hope will move into a tie-breaker to see who gets the number one seed. If a tie-breaker occurs Calvin will retain the higher seed because they hold the tie-breaker over Hope with a pair of conference victories head-to-head. The sequence for the tie-breaker system in the MIAA is as follows; record versus each other head to head, records against the highest opponent until a winner is found. With a Calvin win on Saturday and any combination of wins or losses for Hope or any other MIAA team, the Knights will receive the first seed, and the coveted first round bye.

The first half was marked by hot shooting for the Knights as they connected on 16 of 33 shots, earning them a 48.5 percent clip. Calvin was also very diligent in the area of ball handling as they only turned the ball over three times as the Flying Dutch were guilty ten times. Junior Rob Dykstra and sophomore Chris Prins each added 11 points to the Knights total at halftime, as Calvin jumped to a 46-35 intermission lead. Chad Carlson held the hot hand for Hope as he netted 14 points on 5-7 shooting from the floor.

Calvin built its lead as big as 13 points at points during the second half, but no Calvin-Hope game would be complete without some sort of comeback. Well, a mini-comeback anyway. After a furious 8-4 run the Flying Dutchmen narrowed the Calvin lead to 66-59 with 4:11 remaining. After a media timeout at the four minute mark, Calvin went on a big run to finish the game. The Knights outscored the Dutch 10-3 over the final four minutes of the game, to seal the win.

Hope coach Glenn Van Wieren did not think that his defense was to blame for the loss. ``I think they defended the ball very well, but I think we still got the ball where we wanted to--to Don Overbeek. Don did a very good job passing the ball out of the post of our open wing men. I did not think that the second half our defense let us down.''

Prins had a huge performance not only on offense, but also on defense, turning in 20 points on 8-10 shooting, five rebounds, and a pair of assists. The crowd favorite, junior center/forward Jeremy Veenstra added 16 points, and 11 rebounds, extending his double-digit scoring streak to 42 games. Dykstra finished the game with 11 points and nine rebounds.

Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek had nothing but praise for Prins. ``The thing I like most about Chris is that he is extremely coachable. When he came here he was offered a number of D1 scholarships and he never had an negative stigma about him.''

``Chirs played very, very good,'' Van Wieren noted. ``He hurt us in many ways inside and outside. We knew we were going to have problems with him coming into this game. Chris just played outstanding.''

A modest Prins added, ``All around this was my best game here at Calvin, it felt good. My shots were falling and I had my jumper working, which opened up a lot for me.''

The Dutch were led by Carlson who contributed 16 points, four assists, and three steals in the losing effort.

Calvin will return to action on Saturday, traveling to Alma to complete the league season. With a win on Saturday Calvin's next game would be next weekend in the league tournament.

``We are tied for first and that is a major setback for us,'' noted VanWieren. `` Mentally we were ready, we were prepared, we knew what to expect, we just needed to execute and perform better. If and when we get a chance to play them again we will have to overcome this incredibly big mental block for us.''