GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Calvin men's basketball team opened the 2021 MIAA Tournament with a 60-54 first round victory over Kalamazoo Tuesday night at Van Noord Arena. 

With the victory, Calvin advances to the MIAA Tournament semifinals Thursday night where they will travel to top-seeded Trine. Hope will visit Albion in the other semifinal game Thursday evening. 

Calvin started the game strong by going on an 8-1 run which was capped off with a jumper from senior Thad Shymanski (Ada, MI / Grand Rapids Christian). Kalamazoo answered right back with a 10-1 run and took an 11-10 lead with 14:42 left in the half. Both teams were going back-and-forth with the lead, but the Knights found themselves trailing 20-16 with 7:47 left in the half. 

They Knights started to gain momentum towards the end of the half as they went on a 15-5 run after made free throws by Emmett Warners (Grand Rapids, MI / Grand Rapids Christian). They took a 31-25 lead with 48 seconds left in the half before the Hornets scored one more bucket to give the Knights a 31-27 score heading into halftime. 

Calvin was lead in scoring by Shymanski and junior Jordan Katje (Kalamazoo, MI / Kalamazoo Christian) with each having 7 points. The Knights shot 12-32 (37.5%) from the field and 2-15 (13.3%) from the three-point line. The teams were tied in rebounds at halftime with each of them having 21 rebounds. The Knights also had 9 assets, 6 steals and 6 blocks in the half. 

Kalamazoo shot out of the half as they went on a 10-0 run to take a 37-31 lead with 16:06 left in the game. The Knights battled on the defensive end, but the Hornets held a steady lead for a majority of the half. Calvin fought back into it and after a clutch three-pointer by freshman Uchenna Egekeze (Huntley, IL / Huntley), the Knights took a 48-47 lead with 4:38 left in the game. 

Shymanski hit a three on the next possession to extend Calvin's lead to 51-47 with 3:19 left to play. The Hornets had no answers in the final minutes of the game and the Knights continued to make their free throws to seal the win. 

The Knights had four players in double digit scoring and were led by Thad Shymanski with 15 points. Emmett Warners finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds while teammate Jordan had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Uchenna Egezeke also finished with 11 points as well. Calvin shot 22-57 (38.6%) from the field and 6-27 (22.2%) from the three-point line. They also had 17 assist and 11 blocks as a team. 

COACHES COMMENT: "It's all about survive and advance at this point of the season," said Calvin men's basketball coach Bill Sall. "We didn't have it tonight but somehow we found a way to gut things out, make a few hustle plays at the end and get the win. I think we all know we will have to play way better on Thursday."

UP NEXT: Calvin will head to play Trine in the MIAA Semifinals on Thursday March 4. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.