MANCHESTER, Ind. - The Kalamazoo College men's basketball team went on the road to play Manchester in the 2022-23 season opener on Friday night (Nov. 11). The Hornets completed a comeback victory over the Spartans by a score of 90-86. This victory is the first time that Kalamazoo has won a season opener since the 2018-19 season.
Newcomer Caleb Caul made the first basket of the season for the Hornets, hitting a trey from beyond the arc. After that, the Spartans went on a 16-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 13-point lead. However, Kalamazoo did not back down and slowly chipped away at the deficit, eventually tying the game up at 28 with 5:50 remaining in the first half. Nicholas Olmeda was the primary catalyst in the run, scoring nine points, including the game-tying basket. After that, Manchester went on a 6-0 mini run, but the Hornets finally regained the lead for the first time since making the game's first basket with 2:18 left on the clock. Kalamazoo ended the half on a 14-4 run to take a four-point lead heading into the locker room.
The Hornets came out of the gates hot and grabbed a 10-point lead early in the second half, thanks to two threes by Josh Decker and another by Addison Atwater. However, Manchester worked its way back into the game, tying the score at 57-57 with 11:26 on the clock. Kalamazoo turned around and opened the game up with a 22-6 run over the next nine minutes. Another nine points by Olmeda helped the Hornets blow the game open. The Spartans dwindled the Kalamazoo lead to as little as three a couple of times, but the Hornets were resilient and pulled out the four-point win.
Leading Kalamazoo was Olmeda with 20 points on 9-10 shooting and two free throws off the bench. He also added five rebounds and two assists. Lukas Broadsword was just behind him at 19 points and filled up the stat sheet with four rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks.
Also coming off the bench was Decker, who went 5-9 from three-point land and finished with 17 points. Ty Horky was the team's leading rebounder at eight while also scoring 10 points and dishing out five assists.
Atwater was the highest assist-getter at six, with nine points and six rebounds. Rounding out the scoring for the Hornets were Bobby Samples (7), Caul (6), and JJ Stevens (2).
Kalamazoo had a 55.8% shooting percentage compared to Manchester's 47.8%. The Hornets also hit a third (7-21) of their three-point attempts and went 25-38 from the free-throw line. The team also finished with more rebounds (40-29), assists (22-16), fastbreak points (13-10), and bench points (39-8). The Spartans held advantages in points off turnovers (22-11) and points in the paint (46-44).
Kalamazoo will play their second game of a back-to-back tomorrow (Nov. 12) at Anderson, beginning at 5:30 p.m.