Champs.

I'm hoping these students (not pictured) were at the volleyball match.

Calvin 84, Grace Bible 53 (box score)

Calvin 83, North Park 54 (box score)

Not the sports apparel retailer, that’s Champs Sports, and not the sports bar and grill chain, that’s Champps Americana Restaurant (notice the extra ‘P’, someone over there is too clever); I’m talking about the Calvin Tip-off Tournament Champs.

It’s kind of a big deal. People know it.

I find it hard to write words after horrible, horrible losses and blowout victories, but at least I can justify typing random words after the latter (I think that means the second one), because no one’s reading this anyway. They’re all out celebrating the championship. Still.

The results of the two games this past weekend were nice – it’s rarely a bad thing to win by 30 – and we don’t know how the respective seasons for Grace and North Park will shake out, but winning both of these games by 30 (or 31 and 29, if you’re a stickler for details) should put Calvin right where they want to be. In order to be a good team one must beat these two soundly, and Calvin did just that.

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Calvin Tip-Off Tournament Preview

	Game Preview
Who	Grace Bible Tigers (NCCAA-II)
	North Park Vikings
	Cairn Highlanders
What	Calvin Tip-off Tournament
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Friday 5:30 PM,  7:30 PM Saturday 1 PM, 3 PM
Audio	Calvin Stretch Internet
Video	Calvin Live Stream
Live Stats	Live Stats
Tickets	$5 at the door or online

When We Last Met
Last year's Tip-Off Tournament marked the first time in three years that Calvin had won the title. Having lost to the Grace Bible Tigers the two years previous, Calvin eked out a double-over time win against a Grace team that probably "should have won" in regulation and in the first overtime. No one on the current Calvin team has beaten Grace in regulation. We're all getting itchy.

It's been a number of years since Calvin has played North Park. More than 15, and perhaps many more than that. They're in-region, so it would be a good game for Calvin to play (and win).

Cairn (known alias: Philadelphia Bible) came to the Calvin Tip-off Tournament in 2004-05, but they lost their opening game versus Eastern (PA) and didn't meet up with Calvin.

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