By Mark DeHaan
Coming off a big win over Albion that put the team in a tie for third place, the Knights traveled down to Kalamazoo to face off against the Hornets at the Anderson Athletic Center. Calvin responded with its second road of the win, defeating the Hornets 77-65. The victory was the 400th of head coach Kevin Vande Streek's collegiate career. In 22 years at the collegiate level, Vande Streek is 400-213. Earlier this year, Vande Streek collected his 300th victory at helm of the Calvin men's basketball program. Prior to coming to Calvin, Vande Streek spent six years coaching at the University of Sioux Falls men's basketball.
Calvin jumped out to an early 11-3 lead on a pair of jumpers by junior Tom Snikkers and a three-pointer by senior Brian Haverdink. With just over eight minutes remaining, Calvin extended its lead to 24-15 on a dunk by sophomore Nate Van Eck.
Up five at that point, single free-throws by Van Eck and freshman Tyler Dykstra kept the Knights in the lead as a pair of three-pointers by Kalamazoo cut Calvin's lead to 34-33 at halftime.
The Knights were extremely balanced at the break, with nine players in the scoring column and none tallying more than six points. Calvin was shooting 55.6% at half, and limited its turnovers to only four in the opening period.
Kalamazoo senior forward Joe Prepolec hit the first shot of the second half to give the Hornets the brief 35-34 lead before a 6-0 run by the Knights, capped by a jumper by junior Matt DeBoer, gave Calvin a 40-35 lead.
The Hornets then cut the Calvin lead to 40-38 before an 11-5 run by the Knights extended their advantage to 51-43.
After a Kalamazoo layup, Calvin went on another 6-0 run to build its largest lead of the game at 57-45.
The Hornets cut the Knights advantage to single digits a number of times the rest of the way, but Calvin answered each time, pushing its lead to as much as 16 with just over a minute remaining on its way to a 77-65 victory.
Leading Calvin on offense was sophomore Tyler Kruis with 16 points while junior Bryan Powell added 15 points and six rebounds. Snikkers had his second straight game with a double-double as he chipped in 12 points and led the team with 10 rebounds and six assists. Snikker's scoring total brought the junior to 1000 points for his career. DeBoer also ended with a solid game of nine points and five boards.
The Hornets were led on offense by junior Eric Fishman who scored a game-high 18 points. Sophomore Mark Ghafari added 11 points while Prepolec chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds.
"You think about us trying to get in the (MIAA) tournament now, with only four teams in. That's what we've been after, to have two tough road wins is really big," said Head Coach Kevin VandeStreek. "As a coach, you talk about each game being a big game, but these certainly were, and we're going to have another one on Wednesday against Alma."
Calvin, now 11-10 and 6-4 in conference, will host Alma Wednesday night for an 8 p.m. contest.