Camryn VandenBosch 'steps up big' in Holland Christian's district win over Hamilton

BYRON CENTER - Holland Christian girls basketball coach Kyle Phelps and his team had talked about the old sports cliche of it being difficult to beat a team three times in the same season before stepping on the court Wednesday night against rival Hamilton.

Holland Christian junior guard Camryn VandenBosch wasn't going to allow a letdown to happen, though, scoring 14 of her game-high 21 points in the second half as the Maroons beat the Hawkeyes 54-37 in the Division 2 district semifinals at South Christian High School.

Holland Christian (18-5) advanced to the district finals on Friday night at 6 p.m. against host South Christian (13-10), a team that beat the Maroons by 21 in the second game of the season. Hamilton finished its season with a .500 mark of 12-12.

"It's districts, so everyone has jitters," said Phelps. "I knew the first two or three minutes (of the game) was gonna probably look a little bit ugly, but once we get on a little bit of a roll, we can be pretty tough. We've got a deep bench and we got good energy off the bench. We took care of the ball well and had a couple of lucky bounces here and there.

"I've played in games where we've won twice (during the regular season) and we've gotta play them a third time and we've lost. I've been on the other end as well where we've gotten beat twice and we won (the third time). It is hard to do, I don't care who it is."

Hamilton got baskets from senior Bethany Behnke and freshman Leah Brink to jump out to a 4-0 lead midway through the opening quarter, but Holland Christian answered back with the next 17 points of the game to go ahead by double digits. The highlight of the run was VandenBosch's off-balance, falling to the left banked-in 3-pointer from 24-feet at the end of the first quarter.

Behnke and Kaitlyn Geurink drained back-to-back 3s to move the Hawkeyes back within seven at 17-10 with 4:53 left in the first half, but buckets in the paint from Adelynn Nyhof and VandenBosch helped the Maroons maintain a 10-point (21-11) lead at the halftime break.

"We tried to play as a team and start moving the ball around more (in the second half)," VandenBosch, who also had five rebounds and three assists, said. "Our defense really transitioned well to offense, which got us a lot of open looks as well. We didn't really focus on (beating Hamilton for a third time). We knew that if we took care of what we needed to take care of on both offense and defense that we could pull out the win. We got the inside-out kicks going as well tonight.

"We've got to stay locked in for all four quarters (on Friday) and really tone in on our defense because that's where it all starts."

Geurink had nine of Hamilton's 12 points in the third quarter, but VandenBosch countered with eight of Holland Christian's 15 as the Maroons extended their advantage out to 36-23 heading into the final quarter.

"(Vandenbosch) stepped up tonight," Phelps said. "She's gonna turn the ball over and throw up a brick here and there, but I'm OK with that. I want her to keep taking (the ball) to the basket because she hits the shots and scores when we need it."

Hamilton would never get within single digits the rest of the way.

"Every time we hit a shot and closed the gap, (Holland Christian) answered," said Hamilton coach Jacquelyn Malloch. "To get back in the game, you've gotta get stops and scores. We never quite put a run together to get back in it. But I'm proud of the way our girls fought and executed the game-plan all night long. They did everything we asked of them, but tonight HC scored more points, so they won.

"We were so young this year, but we learned so much. We're a completely different team in March than we were in November."

Tianna Stygstra had a nice all-around game for Holland Christian with 10 points, six rebounds, and four steals.

Geurink led Hamilton with 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Behnke chipped in 10 points in her final game for the Hawkeyes. Raquel Martinez is the other senior who played her last game for Hamilton.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Camryn VandenBosch big in Holland Christian's win over Hamilton