GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Calvin men's basketball picked up a key conference win over Alma at Van Noord Arena Saturday afternoon by a score of 87-76.

With the win, Calvin takes over sole possesion of second place in the MIAA standings, moving one game ahead of second place Adrian and Trine. 

Alma started the game out with the hot hand and went on a 6-2 run in the early minutes of the game. The Knights were able to respond with a 6-2 run to take an 8-6 lead with a three by senior Derrick DeVries (Grand Rapids, MI / Covenant Christian). Calvin went on to hit back-to- back threes to give them a 14-8 lead with 15 minutes left in the half. Everyone on Calvin was getting involved with the scoring as junior Emmett Warners (Grand Rapids, MI / Grand Rapids Christian) made a layup to extend the lead to 10 with a score of 20-10 with 12 minutes left.

The Knights continued to punish Alma on the offensive end as DeVries made a layup with contact to cap off a 9-4 run to give Calvin a 29-14 lead with eight minutes left in the half. The Scots couldn't get going offensively and junior Sam LaDuke (Ludington, MI / Ludington) made them pay with a three pointer to give the Knights a 37-19 lead with 3:40 left in the half.

Calvin held a steady lead the reminder of the half and had a 45-33 lead heading into halftime. The Knights shot 44.1% from the field and were 8 of 15 from the three-point line. The team also had 11 assists and was 7 of 9 from the free throw line.

The second half started off at a slower pace as both teams were trading buckets early, but the Knights began pulling away. Warners made a fancy spin move for a right-handed layup to give the Knights a 57-43 lead with 15 minutes left in the game. Alma tried to cut into the lead, but Calvin kept them at bay. DeVries hit a jumper to give them a 62-45 lead with 11:30 left in the game.

The Scots started to pull closer by cutting it to single digits with a three pointer, but the Knights refused to give up their lead. Junior Thad Shymanski (Ada, MI / Grand Rapids Christian) got a rebound and drove it the length of the court for two to give Calvin an 83-71 lead with two minutes left. Alma was unable to cut into the lead as Calvin made its free throws down the stretch to get them the win with a score 87-76.

The Knights were led in scoring by DeVries with 37 points, 16 rebounds and 5 assists while senior Alex Bos finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Calvin shot 45.2% from the field and was 10 of 25 from the three-point line. They also outrebound the Scots 41-33 and had 14 assists.

COACHES COMMENT: "I thought we came out a little flat, but we got it going pretty quick," said Calvin head men's basketball coach Bill Sall. "We had moments of really good defense and they kept a single defender on Derrick DeVries, so we kept feeding him the ball. We did enough to keep them at bay. I would have love to see us extend and I thought we had a couple of chances to extend the lead. Overall, a good team and great effort from our guys to get us a home win which we needed.

NOTES: DeVries notched his seventh 30-point scoring performance of the season in the win…..Mark Veenstra has the most in a season with nine during the 1975-76 season while Dan Davis is second with eight during the 1988-89 campaign…The 37 points by DeVries was just one point shy of a career-high….in the process, he surpassed the 1,500 point plateau and moved past Jordan Brink into eighth place on the Calvin career scoring list….DeVries now has 1,508 points in his Calvin career.

NEXT UP: Calvin heads to Kalamazoo on Wednesday February 19 with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.