GRINNELL, Iowa – One school record was attained and another nearly so as the Grinnell College men's basketball team is off to its best start since the 2013-14 campaign.
The Pioneers won their sixth consecutive game Sunday afternoon, knocking off Colorado College 140-107 at Darby Gymnasium. The win pushes Grinnell to 8-2 overall, while the Tigers fell to 4-6.
Zachary Stice '21 tied the school record for 3-point success rate in a game, hitting 6-of-7 shots for 85.7 percent. That tied five other players, most recently Julian Marx in 2015. Brad Geiman '21 was a force down low, blocking nine shots for the second-most swats in program history. He now ranks 10th at Grinnell for career blocks with 60. Grinnell's 12 blocks as a team ranks second.
Vinny Curta '19 scored 33 points for Grinnell and had eight assists, boosting his career total to 377, which ranks fifth in program history. Jackson Qualley '22 scored 22, Stice tallied a career-high 20, Ky-Sean Johnson '19 scored 18 and Will Bebee '22 added a career-high 12.
Johnson and Christian Brookens '22 each had career-highs of five steals and Griffin Boehm '19 tallied three. Geiman added nine rebounds among his totals. Boehm now ranks 10th in program history with 173 career offensive rebounds and Curta is 10th in field goal attempts with 1,286.
It was tight most of the first half before Grinnell went on a run to give itself some breathing room. Trailing by a point, Bebee hit a layup, Johnson drained a 3-pointer, Geiman added a free throw and Curta a layup for a 51-44 lead.
The Pioneers led 64-55 at halftime and were later up by nine before going on a 26-6 run. Stice, Qualley and Johnson each had a pair of 3-pointers in that span, Tyler Grumhaus '21 and Morgan Walser '21 added one each and Patrick Simms '22 a layup as Grinnell opened up a 101-72 lead. The Pioneers cruised from there.
The Pioneers are off until next Sunday when they entertain Illinois College at Darby Gymnasium. Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m.