PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – The 11th-ranked Calvin University men's basketball saw its season come to an end with a 73-61 loss to 22nd-ranked Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night at UW-Platteville.
 
Calvin (21-7) could not overcome a slow start in the defeat as WLC (26-3) built a 25-6 lead through the first 11 minutes of the game.
 
The Warriors pushed the pace from the start with a full court press that caused eight Calvin turnovers, while the Knights were unable to hit from the outside on the way to 2-19 shooting from beyond the three-point arc in the first half.

Calvin cut the deficit to 30-20 on a lay-up from Uchenna Egekeze (Huntley, Ill./Huntley) with 2:27 to play in the half, but WLC closed the final stretch with an 8-0 run that ended with a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Grayson Goetz to send the Warriors into halftime with a 38-20 lead.
 
Ryan Broekel was the difference for the Warriors in that opening half, scoring 23 points on 9-11 shooting (3-3 from three-point range). Egekeze led the Knights with six first-half points.
 
The Knights made a run to cut the lead to 10 points at 53-43 with 8:18 remaining on an Owen Varnado (Muskegon, Mich./Western Michigan Christian) and remained in striking distance the rest of the way, but could not cut the deficit into single digits as the Warriors held off the Knights down the stretch to secure the win.
 
Calvin held WLC to 40.6 percent shooting for the game, but shot 39.0 percent on offense and finished 6-31 from distance for the game.
 
Varnado scored 14 of his team-high 16 in the second half and also led the team with eight rebounds. Egekeze finished with 12 points, three assists and two steals. Trevin Winkle (McBain, Mich./Northern Michigan Christian) and Ty Horky (Manchester, Mich./Manchester/Kalamazoo College) joined them in doubles figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
 
The win snapped the longest NCAA III winning streak in the nation at 20 games for Calvin. The streak started with a win on December 7 at UW-La Crosse and extended through the MIAA Tournament with the Knights taking home both the conference's regular season and tournament championships with a 16-0 record against conference foes.
 
This was the Knights' third straight NCAA III Tournament appearance and the third in the last four seasons.
 
Egekeze finished his career as the program's all-time leader with 221 career steals. He also finished fourth in career assists (277), fifth in career blocks (135), and ninth in career points (1,581).

COACHES COMMENT: "I thought Wisconsin Lutheran came out with a ton of energy and put together an amazing first half," said Calvin head men's basketball coach Bill Sall. "I was really proud of our effort in the second half, fighting back and not giving up. We just couldn't get some of the shots to fall that we needed in our comeback effort but credit Wisconsin Lutheran for a great performance and putting us in a big hole early. This has been a great group to coach. To win 20 games in a row after starting the season 1-6 is pretty special. This team made a lot of great memories and captured a league and (conference) tournament champoinship. It's a group that we will look back fondly on and I've been proud to coach this team."