GRINNELL, Iowa – A day after reaching a milestone victory, the Grinnell College men's basketball team added to it.
 
The Pioneers, fresh off getting their 1,000th win in program history with a victory against Lake Forest College Friday night, knocked off Beloit College 106-98 Saturday afternoon at Darby Gymnasium.
 
The Pioneers have had their way with Beloit in recent years, as the win was the fourth in a row over the visitors and seventh in the last eight meetings contested at Darby dating back to 2011.
 
More importantly, the win was key for the Midwest Conference race as Grinnell improved to 5-3 in the league and 10-4 overall. Beloit dipped to 1-7 in the MWC and 2-13 in all games.
 
Vinny Curta '19 led Grinnell with 32 points, paced by 11-of-12 shooting from the free throw line. As a team, Grinnell shot 82.6 percent from the line which is the second-best performance this season. The Pioneers' 19 steals also rank second in 2017-18.
 
Curta had a complete game, tying a season-high with five rebounds to go with four assists and four steals.
 
Sean Cullinane '18 put on a shooting display, hitting 7-of-10 shots from 3-point land and scoring 23 points. Hannes Kogelnik '21 added 16 points and three assists, while Tyler Grumhaus '21 scored a career-best 10 points.
 
Griffin Boehm '19 grabbed eight rebounds, Jacob Ekstrand '18 came up with a career-high four steals and Ky-Sean Johnson '19 added three steals.
 
Grinnell built its lead as large as 10 points in the first half when Curta's 3-pointer made it 47-37, but Beloit rallied to within 49-44 by halftime.
 
The Pioneers started the second half well, too, going up by 16 on Cullinane's 3-pointer with 13:27 left. But again Beloit rallied and was within two twice. The last of those times was at 84-82 with 6:50 remaining.
 
But Grinnell never broke, as Curta made a layup and Andrew Redhead '18 two free throws to push the margin to six.
 
That's when Grinnell's free throw shooting paid off, as Redhead's two makes marked the start of a dozen consecutive successful shots from the charity line to help the hosts secure the win.
 
Grinnell is at home again Wednesday when Monmouth College visits Darby Gymnasium. Game time is 5:30 p.m.