Women's Basketball

Sweet 16-Bound Hope Women's Basketball Rallies Late vs. Illinois Wesleyan Again

-- Story provided by Hope College Athletics --

For the second time this season, the Hope College women's basketball team needed overtime to subdue a determined Illinois Wesleyan University team. This time, the stakes were much, much higher.

Trailing by six points with two minutes remaining, the nationally-ranked Flying Dutch scored the last six points of regulation, then produced big shots and key defensive stops in the five-minute extra period to defeat the Titans, 90-85, in an NCAA Division III tournament second-round game at DeVos Fieldhouse.

The Flying Dutch, who improved to 26-3 on the season, will face the University of Chicago in a Sweet 16 round game Friday, March 13, at 5:30 p.m. Central at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Nationally-ranked Illinois Wesleyan finished its season at 23-6.

"In this environment, you just want to win and advance," head coach Brian Morehouse said. "It doesn't matter how you get there. We're playing next weekend, which is a pretty great thing considering that we were sitting home last year on this weekend, and didn't have a chance to play."

Hope — No. 6 WBCA/No. 7 D3hoops — beat Illinois Wesleyan 76-73 in overtime on Nov. 22 in the Michele Schoon Classic at DeVos Fieldhouse.

The rematch mirrored the two teams' memorable 2020 NCAA second-round game the Flying Dutch hosted, where the Flying Dutch rallied from nine points down with five minutes remaining to win, 72-69. 

This time, the Titans battled back from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter to take a 77-71 lead with 2:13 remaining in regulation and seemed to be in position to post their first win ever in five tries at DeVos Fieldhouse.

Hope showed no signs of panic. Baskets by senior forward Sydney Vis (Byron Center, Michigan/Grand Rapids South Christian) and sophomore forward Maddie Petroelje (Hudsonville, Michigan/Hudsonville) cut the IWU lead to 77-75 with 1:19 left. Hope missed two shots from close range, but got the offensive rebound both times. Finally, Vis drove in for a layup to tie the game at 77-77 with 30.6 seconds remaining.

The Titans missed three shots in the final seconds, and the game went to overtime.

Illinois Wesleyan took a 79-78 lead on a pair of free throws by Asia Kobylarczyk early in the overtime. Moments later, Ava Bardic, the Titans' preseason All-American guard who had given Hope fits all night with her shooting, fouled out.

Petroelje tied the game when she made 1 of 2 free throws, then put the Flying Dutch ahead for good with a 3-point basket from the left wing with three minutes remaining, 82-79.

Hope extended the lead to seven at 86-79 with 1:46 to play on a layup by junior guard Terin Maynard (Grand Rapids, Michigan/Jenison), but the Titans weren't done. They twice pulled to within three points in the last 90 seconds.

However, Petroelje and sophomore center Leah Richards (DeWitt, Michigan/Lansing Catholic) each sank two free throws 54 seconds to seal the win. Hope finished the game 30 of 37 from the foul line – a 17-point advantage over Illinois Wesleyan's 13 of 20.

"One of our coaches told us, they're going to have runs and we're going to be down, and we're going to have runs and they're going to be down, and neither one of our teams are going to stop," Vis said. "It was a great game of basketball between both of us, but I think we had the better fight and we really wanted it tonight, especially on our home court. I think that we all just came together … We come into those huddles and we calm ourselves down, no matter what's going on out there, and I think that really helped us (when we were) down six with two minutes left."

Added Morehouse, "It was a great college basketball game. Hall of Fame coach on the other bench (IWU's Mia Smith), two All-Americans we're going up against. They had foul trouble in the second half, we had foul trouble in the first half. We sat some of our main players in the first half for significant amounts of time. We went without a post player for about four-and-a-half minutes in the first half, which is something we don't typically do. Maddie slid over and played the five, and we kind of made it up."

Vis led the Flying Dutch with a season-high 22 points, her highest point total since a 22-point performance in a 2024 NCAA tournament win over DePauw (Indiana) University. She also pulled down seven rebounds.

Anna Richards had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Petroelje added 19 points. While those three combined for the vast amount of Hope's points, Morehouse cited the efforts of his two point guards – Maynard and freshman Josie DeSmit (Hudsonville, Michigan/Hudsonville) – as crucial to the win.

"I'm proud of my point guards. They handled the press all game long. I thought they were the key to the game," Morehouse said.