KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Kalamazoo College men's basketball team began 2023 with its MIAA opener at home against Alma on Wednesday night (Jan. 4). The Hornets, unfortunately, fell to the Scots by a score of 75-58 as a 13-2 run in the second half helped alma create separation.
The two teams battled for most of the first half as Kalamazoo worked hard to defeat the Alma full-court press. There were seven lead changes in the first 10 minutes of the ball game, and the score was tied another four times. Then, Alma's 10-0 run pushed its lead to double digits with 6:30 remaining. After the Hornets got the deficit down to three, an 8-2 Scot's run closed out the first 20 minutes and took a 38-28 lead into halftime.
Kalamazoo came out and battled to begin the second half, going back and forth with Alma to shrink its lead to six at the 14:14 mark. The Scots then made four straight three-point shots to balloon their lead back to its largest lead at 14 points. Unfortunately, Alma continued to gain points off the full-court press from tired legs, with its most significant lead coming at 22 points. At the end of the day, the Scots took home a 17-point victory in the season's first conference game.
Coming off the bench, Ty Horky was the leading scorer for Kalamazoo with 15 points. Lukas Broadsword also had double-digits with 12 points, while DJ Courtney and Broadsword led the team with nine rebounds.
Rounding out the scoring for the Hornets was Courtney (8), Lucas Hanifan (5), Caleb Caul (4), Josh Decker (3), Addison Atwater 93), Bobby Samples (2), Nicholas Olmeda (2), Carter Bandemer (2), and Alex Rueff (2). Alma shot the ball at a 43.1% (28-65) clip compared to Kalamazoo's 34.4% (22-64). The Scots also shot the ball well from downtown at 37.9% (11-29).
Kalamazoo will continue MIAA play with a road game against Adrian on Saturday (Jan. 7), beginning at 4 p.m.