BELOIT, Wis. – Grinnell College's men's basketball team kept its perfect mark intact Friday night with a 102-84 victory over Beloit College in the Pioneers' Midwest Conference opener.
Vinny Curta '19 again led Grinnell with 27 points, while Hannes Kogelnik '21 added 21. Ky-Sean Johnson '19 was also in double figures with 16 as the Pioneers moved to 6-0 for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
Curta, Griffin Boehm '19 and Jacob Ekstrand '18 all had five rebounds, and Curta also came up with five assists and four steals. Tyler Grumhaus '21 added a career-best three steals.
It was tight most of the first half and tied at 40-all with 2:56 to go when Grinnell opened things up with an 8-0 run. Ikaika Phillip '18 began the spurt with a layup, Johnson drained four free throws in a row and Curta had a layup for a 48-40 lead.
After Beloit had a traditional three-point play, Ekstrand drained a trey to make it 51-43 at halftime.
Grinnell led by nine early in the second half before going on a key 11-point run. Ekstrand had a 3-pointer, Dawson Keller '21 added a layup and Sean Cullinane '18 drilled back-to-back treys to make it a 70-50 lead with 14:53 left.
Grinnell never looked back while moving to 1-0 in the league. Beloit fell to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the MWC.
The Pioneers play at Lake Forest College at 1 p.m. Saturday.