A valiant second-half comeback by Hope College fell short Friday night in the semifinals of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association women's basketball tournament.

Calvin University held off the Flying Dutch, 66-62, at the MTI Center in Angola, Indiana, to advance to the Saturday, March 1, MIAA tournament championship game against top-seeded Trine University, which defeated Albion College 61-34 in the second semifinal game Friday. The loss dropped Hope to 21-5 on the season.

The win for the Knights snapped a 20-game winning streak for Hope in The Rivalry with Calvin, including two victories earlier this season. It was the first time Calvin defeated the Flying Dutch since Feb. 24, 2017, when the Knights edged Hope 67-65 in an MIAA tournament semifinal – at Trine.

Hope led only once, at 4-2 after a 3-point basket by freshman guard Anna Richards (DeWitt, Michigan/Lansing Catholic HS) a little more than a minute into the game. Calvin then scored the next eight points and never trailed again.

The Knights' defense made life difficult for Hope offensively throughout the first half. Hope made just 2-of-13 shots from the field (15.4%) in the first quarter as Calvin sprinted out to a 24-12 lead. The second quarter wasn't much better, as the Flying Dutch made just 4-of-19 from the floor (21.1%).

Calvin took its biggest lead of the game at 38-20 late in the first half before Anna Richards hit a 3-point shot in the final minute to cut the halftime lead to 38-23.

"We dug ourselves a big hole in the first half," head coach Brian Morehouse said. "We were just very bad on offense … which led to some tough shots and some runouts for them. I thought they got a lot of stuff in transition."

Hope would not go away quietly, though. After Calvin scored the first basket of the second half, the Flying Dutch began to create turnovers and turn those miscues into points. Senior guard Jada Garner (Midland, Michigan/Midland Dow) scored six points during a 14-2 spurt that whittled the Knights' lead to 42-37 with four minutes remaining in the third quarter. Hope trailed 50-46 heading into the final 10 minutes.

The Flying Dutch twice pulled within a single point of the Knights in the fourth quarter – at 56-55 on an Anna Richards 3-pointer and 58-57 on a jumper by freshman guard Maddie Petroelje (Hudsonville, Michigan / Hudsonville), the latter coming with 2:46 remaining.

However, Calvin hit 5 of 6 free throws in the game's final 33 seconds, including two clutch charity tosses by Chloe Wiegers with 12 seconds to play, to seal the win.

"I'm proud of our team for how hard we played in the second half. I thought we played Hope College basketball for 20 minutes, but when you're in the league tournament, it takes 40 [minutes]. Tonight, we paid the price," Morehouse said.

Anna Richards led Hope with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Garner added 11 points and four assists. Senior guard Olivia Bellows (Lake City, Michigan/Lake City) also had 11 points along with three steals. Sophomore guard Terin Maynard (Grand Rapids, Michigan/Jenison) chipped in nine points, four assists and three steals. Senior center Courtney Lee (Fishers, Indiana/Indianapolis Heritage Christian) pulled down nine rebounds.

Hannah Sall led Calvin with 20 points and eight of the Knights' 12 blocked shots on the night. Anna Fernandez added 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Hope shot 27.6% (18 of 65) for the game while Calvin shot 44.2% (23 of 52).

The Flying Dutch now must wait to see if they receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. Hope has made 11 consecutive tournament appearances and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament last year.

"I'm really hopeful that we get another shot at playing this year. I don't think it's promised. I think we're very much on the bubble right now. We're just hoping for a good result on Monday," Morehouse said.

The announcement of the tournament field will take place at 2:30 p.m. Monday and can be seen on ncaa.com.