The Calvin men's basketball team got off to a strong, balanced start in its season opener on Tuesday evening. Traveling down to Anderson University, the Knights claimed a 72-58 victory at the Ravens' O.C. Lewis Gymnasium by leading from start to finish.

Calvin jumped out to an 8-0 lead on baskets from four different players. The Knights continued to share the ball evenly and held a 15-11 lead with 10:12 remaining, with seven different players scoring the Knights' seven field goals.

Calvin finished off the first half on a 21-9 run over the remaining 10 minutes, taking a 36-20 lead into halftime. Senior Mickey DeVries had seven points and eight rebounds at the break to lead the Knights.
Calvin out-rebounded the Ravens 21-7 in the first half.

The Knights continued to dominate on the boards in the second half as their first field goal of the second period of play came off of an offensive rebound.

A pair of free throws and a baseline jam by senior Tyler Kruis then gave Calvin a 19 point lead with 17:39 remaining.

The Knights saw their largest lead of the game with 5:26 left as junior T.J. Huizenga stole a pass and then finished with a layup on the fast break for a 69-46 advantage.

Trying to get back into the game, Anderson shot mostly threes for the remainder of the game and whittled the Calvin lead to 14 at 72-58 before the clock read all zeroes.

The Knights claimed a 40-21 rebounding advantage by the end of the game. Junior Jordan Brink led the Calvin offense with 14 points while Kruis added 13 points and eight rebounds and DeVries a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards. Huizenga contributed eight points and three steals off the bench.
Anderson's Max Mollaun led all scorers with 20 points, and was 8-of-12 from the field. No other Raven reached double figures.

"We knew coming in that our front court would be a strength – returning Kruis, Dykstra, and DeVries," said head coach Kevin VandeStreek. "In the back court, we had just Brink coming back who had played significant minutes. Jordan hadn't played since the tournament because he was recovering from injury, but he did a good job, shaking off the rust. There was going to be a curve playing (sophomores) Jordan Daley and Austin Parks at the point as well, but I thought they did a good job tonight."

Calvin is now 1-0 while Anderson falls to 0-3. The Knights return to action on Friday evening when they host the Calvin Tip-off Tournament, facing Kuyper College at 7:30 p.m.