ALMA, Mich. – The Kalamazoo College men's basketball team got 23 points and five rebounds from Lukas Broadsword to claim its first MIAA conference victory of the season Monday night, a 65-63 road victory over the Alma College Scots.
The game, which was postponed from last Wednesday due to weather, saw Alma jump out to a double-digit lead, 26-16, with 5:11 left in the first half. Broadsword then answered with a pair of quick buckets to keep the home team from getting too far in front, and his free throw with 44 seconds remaining completed an old-school three-point play and cut the lead to four, 29-25.
Facing a 31-25 deficit to begin the second half, it didn't take long for the Hornets to seize the lead. Ty Horky's three-pointer brought the Hornets to within a point, 33-32, with 17:12 remaining, and Nicholas Olmeda dialed long-distance just over a minute later to give K its first lead since it was 7-5 at the 16:30 mark of the first half.
The game remained a nip-and-tuck affair the rest of the way, with neither team able to stretch out a lead larger than seven points. Olmeda seemed to be all over the court in the final minutes. His assist on a Broadsword layup with 2:35 left gave the Hornets a 59-58 lead, and he had an answer after Alma converted a jump shot to retake the lead; Olmeda's layup with 1:47 left gave Kalamazoo the final lead change of the evening and a 61-60 advantage.
Broadsword's basket with 12 seconds left extended the lead to three points, leaving Alma a chance to tie, but Olmeda, who gobbled up a trio of huge defensive rebounds in the last two minutes, then grabbed the biggest one of the night. Fouled after Alma's potential game-tying three-pointer missed the mark, he calmly sank two free throws, giving the Hornets (4-9, 1-1 MIAA) a five-point advantage and rendering Alma's three-point make at the buzzer irrelevant.
Olmeda finished with nine points, seven rebounds, and three assists. He made all of his three shots from the field, including a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws. Horky added 14 points and six rebounds.
The team statistics were very similar, with one large exception: Kalamazoo converted five of six free throws (83%), while Alma was just 8-17 (43%), including four misses in the final 64 seconds.
Next up for the Hornets is another MIAA road game. They will head to Albion on Wednesday to face the Britons for a 7:30 tip off.