Grand Rapids, MI – On Friday night, the Tigers faced Calvin College in the opening round of the Calvin Tournament.  In the first half, the Tigers showed that they have the potential to be a competitive team.  Although the Tigers were down 38-30 at the half the team recognized that 12 first half turnovers could have made the game even closer.  The second showed that the Tigers need to gain some much needed experience.  The Knights opened up a 20 point lead after the Tigers scored a couple of early baskets.  “Once again we showed some flashes of good basketball then we showed our youth,” said Coach Gary Bailey.  We just need to work on playing 40 minutes.”  Calvin went on to win the game 84-53.

Zach Schutte led Grace with 13 points as the only Tiger to reach double figures.  Greg Salmon and Brad Rosenzweig pulled down a team high 4 rebounds each.

In the Saturday afternoon consolation game Grace faced Cairn University and came away with a 94-46 win.  “Today, we played like the team I have envisioned all summer,” said Coach Bailey.  Our offense was very good and we seemed to have matured in our shot selection.  We passed up some shots to get better shots and that is a great sign of maturity to me.  We were a good team today and hopefully can continue this through a tough stretch.”  The Tigers only get one day off after back to back games to take, Finlandia University (NCAA III) on Monday and Ferris State University (NCAA II) on Tuesday.

BJ VanLoo led Grace with 13 points.  Four other Tigers hit double figures also with Cameron Cramer, Michael Miller and Zach Schutte with 12 and Brad Rosenzweig with 11.  BJ VanLoo and Luke McKian had 7 rebounds each and Nick Mascorro handed out 7 assists.

The Tigers out-rebounded Cairne by a 49-26 margin.  The Tigers shot 39-65 from the floor for 60% while holding

CU to 16-57 for 28.1%.

Aaron Schutte

Aaron Schutte was named to the Calvin Tournament All Tournament Team.