Holland Christian girls basketball holds off Hamilton surge, 32 from Geurink
HAMILTON - The Holland Christian girls basketball team fought off a rival and a dominant performance by an opposing player and still came away with a victory.
The Maroons defeated Hamilton 57-45 on Friday night despite a career-high 32 points from Kaitlyn Geurink of the Hawkeyes.
Holland Christian wasn't able to pull away until the final 1:30 when a couple of baskets followed turnovers and put the game away.
"Geurink, Geurink, Geurink. Our game plan was all around her and she still had 32. That is not good enough," Holland Christian coach Kyle Phelps said. "We had to get the ball down low and we did. We have 3-4 girls who can score (in the paint). If we had played like this the first few games of the season, we would have lost. But we kept fighting."
Camryn VandenBosch hit a 3-pointer and made some free throws late after a couple of turnovers.
The Maroons improved to 14-4 and 9-3 in the OK Blue. The Hawkeyes dropped to 8-0 and 4-8 in conference play.
"It was a testament to how even this matchup is and how fun this rivalry is," Hamilton coach Jacquelyn Malloch said. "I think we ran out of steam. Their shots went in in big moments, and ours didn't."
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How it happened
The Maroons led 15-4 behind 3s from Adelyn Nyhof and Brooklyn Phelps. But Hamilton's Geurink scored nine in the first quarter and Leah Brink hit two 3s that pulled the Hawkeyes within 17-15.
Brink then hit her third 3 and the Hawkeyes led 18-17.
It was back-and-forth the rest of the half with Geurink scoring on a layup to put the Hawkeyes up 26-25 at halftime. She had 15 points in the first half.
The Maroons opened the second half on a 9-0 run behind a 3 from Nyhof.
But Geurink nailed a 3, then grabbed a steal and converted a three-point play to pull the Hawkeyes within 34-32 - six points in about 10 seconds to keep it close the rest of the way.
Nyhof scored 19 points, while Phelps had 16 and VandenBosch scored 12.
Brink had 12 for the Hawkeyes.
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland Christian girls basketball holds off Hamilton, 32 from Geurink
