The Calvin women's basketball team pulled away for a 91-56 victory over the visiting Alma Scots Wednesday evening.  Ranked 23rd nationally, the Knights improve to 19-5 overall and to 13-2 in the MIAA.

Calvin outscored the visiting Scots 34-4 in the third quarter to take control of the contest.

Alma (9-15 overall, 4-11 MIAA) connected on 9 of its first 11 field goal attempts, en route to taking a 23-21 lead after one quarter of play. Calvin responded with a 12-2 run to close out the first half however that included three pointers from junior Anna Timmer (Caledonia/South Christian HS), sophomore Ali Spayde (Lewis Center, Oh./Worthington Christian HS) and senior Tiffany Karger (Cedar Springs/Cedar Springs HS).

Calvin's defense turned up the pressure in the first four minutes of the third quarter as the Knights collected eight steals while building a 54-34 lead and never looking back from that point on.

Timmer led the Knights with 19 points and six rebounds while Spayde had 13 points and Karger and senior Kally Verkaik 12 points apiece.

Karger was 4-of-8 from three-point range while Spayde had three triples and Verkaik a pair of trifectas.

As a team, Calvin was 11 of 27 from three-point range for a 40.7 percent three-point clip.

Alma was led by Kassidi Adams Tara Padgett with 15 points apiece

"Give Alma credit tonight for coming out with a lot of energy and putting us back on our heels early on," said Calvin women's basketball coach John Ross. "Alma shot the ball extremely well in the first quarter but we showed good resolve to weather the storm and find our footing. We started to hunker down on defense and once we did that, it got our offense going."

Calvin will now prepare to host rival Hope on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Van Noord Arena. Hope clinched the outright MIAA regular season title Wednesday evening with a victory at Kalamazoo. Saturday's game between Calvin and Hope will be televised live to a West Michigan regional audio via WGVU TV 35/52.