by Mackenzie McMahon

The Hope College men's basketball team took the court by storm in its final regular season home game on Saturday. The Flying Dutch took down Kalamazoo College, 71-55, enroute to clinching the MIAA regular season title.

This is Hope men's basketball's first outright title since 2017, and the fourth conference title under head coach Greg Mitchell's reign since 2014-15. 

The Flying Dutchmen moved to 12-2 in conference play and now 19-6 overall this season. 

"[This win] means the world because so much went into it, we weren't a favorite this season, but I think in our camp we felt like we could accomplish great things," head coach Greg Mitchell said. "To clinch it here in front of our home crowd after Wednesday for a solo championship, it just means the world….I'm glad we stayed the course, and survived the adversity that was this season, and to come out on top, I couldn't be prouder of these guys." 

Junior Evan Thomas led the charge, grabbing 17 total points. Thomas (Okemos, Michigan / Okemos HS) grabbed a team high 13 rebounds, 11 defensively. 

"It's added motivation [to not be projected to win the league], fuel to the fire. We showed that projection up there before the Calvin game, they projected us fourth, so it was really exciting to be first," said Thomas. 

Junior T.J. McKenzie Jr. came off the bench to record 16 points for Hope College. McKenzie (North Muskegon, Michigan / North Muskegon) went 6 for 11 in the field, and sunk four three-pointers in the victory. 

Senior Tyler George (Ada, Michigan / Forest Hills Central) snagged 13 points on senior day after making two of three free throws and three from behind the three-point line. 

"We knew this was a huge game for us this week just for momentum into next week as well, and Kalamazoo plays really tough, defensively they're tough to guard and they're a young athletic team, so we knew that we had to stay focused on this game right here before we could worry about winning the conference", said George.

Hope College takes on the MIAA tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. at home in DeVos Fieldhouse against Kalamazoo.