GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - After a two-week pause for the Calvin Men's Basketball team, the Knights took down Kalamazoo College with a score of 61-49 on Wednesday night.

The Knights (6-3 overall, 2-0 MIAA) were forced to shake off some early rust as they struggled to score offensively in the early minutes. The Hornets struggled offensively as well, but they took a 4-3 lead with 14:38 left in the first half. Freshman Uchenna Egekeze (Huntly, IL / Huntly) was the spark for Calvin as he scored six straight points to put them up 12-11 with 10 minutes left in the half.

It started to become a back-and-forth contest as the Hornets were answering every made shot from the Knights. Freshman Luke Scheffers (St. Charles, IL / St. Charles North) hit a three-pointer to give Calvin a 28-25 lead with 3:42 left in the half. The Knights held on to their lead heading into halftime with a score of 32-30.

Egekeze came up huge for Calvin in the first half as he scored 16 points accounting for half of their points. The Knights shot 14-30 (46.7%) from the field and 3-10 (30%) from three-point land. They also outrebounded Kalamazoo 18-15 in the first half.

The Knights caught fire after halftime as they hit back-to-back to threes by junior Nate Minderhoud (Grand Rapids, MI / Covenant Christian) and Scheffers to give them a 38-34 lead Scheffers scored four more points to extend the lead for to eight for the Knights.

Calvin continued to build on its lead and after a made free throw by senior Emmett Warners (Grand Rapids, MI / Grand Rapids Christian), they led 61-45 with 4:09 left in the game.

Calvin held on to the lead the remainder of the game and 61-49 and improved to 6-3 on the season and 2-0 in the MIAA.

The Knights were lead in scoring by Egekeze as he finished with 18 points. Scheffers had 13 points while Warners finished with a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Calvin shot 25 of 54 (46.3%) from the field and 7 of 21 (33.3%) from three. They also outrebound Kalamazoo 39-30 and had 15 team assists.

UP NEXT: The Knights will travel to Olivet College on Saturday for the final regular season game. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.

COACHES COMMENT: "I thought we did a tremendous job overall just playing with some grit," said Calvin men's basketball coach Bill Sall. "I was happy with how hard we played tonight after being off for two weeks. Our rustiness showed at times tonight. We need to get back to playing good disciplined basketball from start-to-finish."