ANGOLA, IND.— Hot shooting and tight defense paced Hope to a 67-56 victory over Trine's men's basketball team in MIAA-action Saturday afternoon in Hershey Hall.
The Flying Dutchmen hit 49 percent of their shots on the afternoon (23-of-47), while holding Trine to a 29 percent clip (16-of-56). The Hope bench outscored their Thunder counterparts by a 25-4 mark. Leading the way for Hope was Alex Eidson with 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Jared Holmquist (Reed City, Mich./Reed City) notched his fifth double-double of the season for Trine with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Hope improves to 12-6 on the season, 6-1 in the MIAA. The Thunder fall to 11-8 overall and 4-4 in the MIAA.
Will Dixon (Indianapolis, Ind./Zionsville) scored a team-high 18 points for Trine. Todd Watkins (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Bernard) added eight points and six boards.
Ben Gardner notched 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting for Hope. Caleb Byers added 10 points off the bench.
The Dutchmen got off to a hot start, shooting 59 percent from the field (13-of-22) in the first half. A late 6-0 run gave Hope a 10-point lead in the closing seconds of the half. A pull-up jumper by Dixon cut the lead back to single digits, but Grant Neil threw in a three from well beyond half-court to give the Dutch a 39-28 halftime advantage.
Hope would push their lead to as much as 15 in the second half. Trine made a late 6-0 run to pull with 63-56 with 1:29 remaining, but Eidson converted a layup-and-one at the other end to put the game out of reach.
Holmquist hit 5-of-13 from the field and 7-of-8 from the line on his way to earning the double-double. The sophomore is tied for the conference lead in rebounding in MIAA games.
Trine returns to action Wednesday, Feb. 5 when they travel to Adrian. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
