by Greg Chandler

The Hope College women's basketball team could not have picked a tougher game to prepare themselves for NCAA Division III postseason play Saturday night.

Playing in front of a loud, boisterous crowd of more than 1,300 fans at the MTI Center in Angola, Indiana, the second-seeded Flying Dutch mounted the game's final run, battling back from a fourth-quarter deficit to defeat top-seeded Trine University, 54-50, on Saturday.

The Flying Dutch won their third consecutive Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament championship.and 17th in team history in 21 tries.

Hope, now 26-1, will host an NCAA Tournament first- and second-round pod on Friday-Saturday, March 4-5, at DeVos Fieldhouse. The Flying Dutch will face LaRoche University (Pa.) on Friday at 7 p.m.

Saturday's win avenged a 70-62 loss to Trine at DeVos Fieldhouse Jan. 26 that ended the Flying Dutch's school-record 61-game winning streak.

It was a matchup of top-five teams in both the d3hoops and Women's Basketball Coaches Association polls.

"We wanted to play this game since the night we lost to them," head coach Brian Morehouse said. "The fact that it was on the road did not faze the kids one iota. They said 'Let's go. Anytime, any place, anyone,' is what they said. I think that's a beautiful mindset."

The Flying Dutch needed that fearlessness late.

Trine (24-3) took a 43-38 lead with seven minutes to play after going on a 15-3 run over an eight-minute stretch .

The Flying Dutch clamped down on the Thunder defensively, and Hope chipped away. Finally, Hope grabbed the lead for good at 47-45 on a 3-point basket by senior guard Kasey DeSmit of Hudsonville, Michigan (Hudsonville HS). They were her first points of the game, with exactly three minutes remaining.

After a missed layup by Trine, senior guard Sydney Muller of Grand Rapids, Michigan (Grand Rapids Christian HS) grabbed the rebound and drove coast-to-coast for a layup to give the Flying Dutch a 49-45 lead with 2:27 left.

Trine made one of two free throws, then DeSmit delivered a 3-point dagger from the corner with 1:46 to play to boost the Hope lead to 52-46.

Photo by Lynne Powe

The Thunder pulled to within two at 52-50 on two Kayla Wildman free throws with 37.2 seconds remaining. Muller responded with two clutch free throws with 25.9 seconds left to boost the lead to four.

The defense did the rest, as senior center Olivia Voskuil of Holland, Michigan (Holland Christian HS) blocked a Trine shot and junior guard Meg Morehouse of Zeeland, Michigan (Zeeland East HS) came up with a steal to seal the championship.

"It was an unbelievable environment here at Trine. Their students were into it," Coach Morehouse said. "We talked about it before we left today ... I said it's going to be full, it's going to be loud, they're going to be talking everything about you … I said, 'Don't get on the bus unless you live for that environment.'"

Muller led the Flying Dutch with 15 points, seven of them in the fourth quarter, and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds. 

Junior guard Ella McKinney of Haslett, Michigan (Haslett HS) had the hot hand for Hope in the first half, scoring all 13 of her points in the first 20 minutes off the bench. Hope led, 31-25, at halftime.

Senior guard Kenedy Schoonveld of Zeeland, Michigan (Holland Christian HS) added eight points. Voskuil chipped in with seven points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots.

Tara Bieniewicz led Trine with 17 points, nine of them during that 15-3 second half run. She made four 3-pointers. No other Thunder player scored more than seven points.

Morehouse is looking forward to returning to the NCAA tournament after having its 2020 tournament run cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic and having the 2021 tournament canceled by it. With six seniors on the team, he is confident the Flying Dutch have the experience to make a deep tournament run.

"We don't have to change who we are," he said. "We're going to see different names [on the jerseys] than we do in our league, that's okay. We're going to see different styles, that's okay. We have prepared for all this stuff, whether it's a press, whether it's a zone, whether it's a different kind of defense. We have prepared for this all season long. Our league has prepared us – the Albions, the Calvins, the Almas, the Trines … now let's play."