ELMHURST, Ill. – The Kalamazoo College men's basketball team opened its season on the road at No. 10 Elmhurst University with a 78-58 defeat Tuesday night.
The first half was a tight contest, with the Blue Jays taking a slim 34-33 lead into halftime. The Hornets (0-1) shot 44.8% in the first half (13-29), which featured 11 lead changes and 12 ties. Neither team was able to take a lead larger than six points.
Kalamazoo's shooting cooled off in the second half, however, as it made 6 of 24 overall shots from the field (25%), and 3-15 (20%) from behind the three-point line. Despite those difficulties, Bobby Samples' free throw cut the Blue Jays' lead to 57-54 with 6:43 left in the game, but Elmhurst then closed out the game with a 21-4 run.
A pair of freshmen led K in scoring as Josh Decker had a team-high 18 points and DJ Courtney racked up 12 points and a team-high five rebounds. Samples stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, four assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals and Lukas Broadsword tallied eight points, four rebounds, a steal and a block.
Elmhurst had advantages in fast break points (19-7), points in the paint (44-20) and bench points (21-8). The Hornets made 13-14 free throws on the evening.
Next up for the Hornets is the home opener against Manchester on Friday. The game will tip off at Anderson Athletic Center at 7:30 p.m.