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Finlandia loses to Calvin, 82-47

Photo provided by Finlandia Athletics Finlandia’s Toria Nagy looks for a teammate while bringing the ball through mid-court during a game against Calvin College Friday at the Paavo Nurmi Center.

HANCOCK — A young Finlandia women’s basketball team fell to the Calvin College Knights, 82-47, Friday night at the Paavo Nurmi Center with the Lions missing the mark inside the paint and the Knights’ more accurate on 3-pointers.

The Knights were able to aggressively control the court for much of the game.

“Calvin is a really good program,” said Lions coach Mariah LaPointe-Dunham. “They play super intense (and) press the entire game. We’re so young. We have so many new faces out there who have never seen pressure like that for four quarters.”

It is often hard to match the high-compete level needed for a real game in practice, but Friday’s loss, coupled with an exhibition loss to Northern Michigan, gave the Lions an idea of what they need to work on this season.

“To simulate that in practice is super tough,” said LaPointe-Dunham. “I think our girls got a glimpse of what a high quality Division lll-caliber team is. I think once we settled down, we actually did look better out there.”

The Knights jumped out to a strong lead early in the first quarter and held onto it until the fourth quarter-buzzer sounded with a 22-12 lead in the first, 43-26 lead in the second, 63-34 in the third and 82-47 in the final ten minutes of play.

LaPointe-Dunham wants to take her squad back to the drawing board and focus on rotations and the fundamentals of her system of play.

“I really want to focus on our half court defense and really (get players to) understand when the ball goes at certain places, where we need to be in rotation-wise and focus on boxing out and getting clean rebounds (by) taking care of the ball,” she said.

With seven new freshman of his own, Knights coach Chuck Winkelman was pleased with how well his team played on the road for their first game of the season.

“I’m really pleased to come (out ahead) on the road,” said Knights coach Chuck Winkelman. “We are starting several freshman (and) are are really young team, so (I’m) actually really pleased for our first night out with so many new contributors.”

The Knights are on the rise with a group of young players who look to grow this season.

“I think we just continue to grow as a time (by) staying present and staying in the moment (by) keep them working hard everyday and just continue to try to get better,” Winkelman said. “Our young players are freshmen. We (just need) to continue to grow and learn how to play better together.”

The Lions will play Concordia-Moorhead at 4 p.m. at the Paavo  Nurmi Center Sunday.

Scoring

Calvin 22  23 18  9 – 82

Finlandia  12 14 8 13 – 47

Totals

CC: Richards 13, Timmer 12, Coors 12, Vander Zwaag 9, GalanBrowne 8, VanSickle 7, Cooley 4, Warners 4, Allen 4Cassel 3, Minderhoud 3, Ediger 3, Demaree 2; Fouls: 19; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Richards 3, Coors 2, Vander Zwaag 1, Minderhoud 1

FU: Pertile 11, Lundeen 8, Berg 6, Nagy 5, Makela 5, Ritchie 4, Froberg 3, Loman 2, Showers 2, Faccio 1; Fouls: 20; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Pertile 3, Berg 1, Nagy 1, Froberg 1, Makela 1

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