GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The 22nd-ranked Calvin University men's basketball team defeated Kalamazoo College 108-75 on Saturday at Van Noord Arena.
 
With the win, Calvin (17-6, 12-0 MIAA) clinched at least a share of the MIAA regular season championship and the top seed in the MIAA Tournament. The regular season championship is the program's third in a row and the 34th in program history.
 
Kalamazoo (9-14, 2-10 MIAA) gave the Knights a bit of trouble in the early going with a very aggressive, trapping defense while it pushed the tempo looking for early offense on the other end, but after the opening minutes the Knights started to roll and never looked back.
 
After racing out to a 58-31 halftime lead, the Knights led by as many as 38 points in the second half and held the Hornets to 32.1 percent overall and 19.5 percent (8-41) from downtown.
 
While the Hornets' pressure caused 19 Calvin turnovers, the Knights found opportunities both inside and outside, scoring 56 points in the paint and shooting 10-22 (45.5 percent) from beyond the three-point arc for the game while shooting a season-best 65.1 percent overall.
 
Uchenna Egekeze (Huntley, Ill./Huntley) paced the Knights throughout, slicing through the lane for lay-ups while also making two early three-pointers on the way to a game-high 26 points. Egekeze also grabbed eight rebounds to go with four steals and two blocks. He also moved into ninth place on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,523 career points.
 
Parker Swartz (Grand Rapids, Mich./Northview/Ohio Dominican University) also came up big for the Knights, scoring 16 of his career-high 24 points in the first half. Swartz finished the game shooting 9-11 overall and made five of his six attempts from beyond the arc in just 21 minutes of action.
 
Owen Varnado (Muskegon, Mich./Western Michigan Christian) added 20 points for the Knights and shot 8-10 from the field. Luka Ressler (Caledonia, Mich./Catholic Central) gave the Knights four players in double figures with 13 points to go with five assists.
 
The win was the 16th straight for Calvin this season, and the three straight regular season MIAA championships marks the program's first three-peat since the program won four straight during the 1999-2002 seasons.
 
The 108 points was the program's highest single-game point total since scoring 112 against Alma College on February 4, 2019.
 
COACH'S COMMENT: "It was a little funky today," Calvin head men's basketball coach Bill Sall said. "They came out and trapped us all over the place and tried to pick up the tempo. In the beginning we struggled a little bit with that, but then we settled in really well and were able to get some easy baskets in transition. Parker (Swartz) got going and Uchenna (Egekeze) really got downhill a ton."
 
"They're always special," Sall said about the MIAA championship. "These are memories. There are only so many times you get to cut down a net. It never gets old and it never will. Great today, but really a bookmark on a really successful run we've had here in this whole league season."
 
NEXT UP: Calvin men's basketball will return to action on Wednesday (February 19) when it travels to Albion College for a game scheduled to start at 7:00 PM.