SUPERIOR, Wis. – Junior Kobe Kirk scored a game-high 23 points to lead the St. Olaf College men's basketball team to a 61-56 season-opening victory over UW-Stout at the Merrill Thompson Classic on Friday evening at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium.

After piling up 12 20-point performances a year ago, Kirk added another to start the season by shooting 9-for-20 from the field to lead St. Olaf (1-0) to its sixth win in the last seven meetings with UW-Stout (0-1). The Oles held the Blue Devils to 32.7 percent shooting (18-for-55) and enjoyed a 24-14 advantage in bench scoring in the victory.

Sophomore Chris Willis and first year Liam Roche joined Kirk in double figures for St. Olaf with 10 points apiece. Willis did most of his damage by going 6-for-10 at the free-throw line, while Roche was 4-for-4 from the field and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe in 12 minutes before fouling out.

St. Olaf fell in a 9-0 hole early before Kirk got the Oles' first points of the season on a layup just over three minutes in. After trailing 11-4, the Oles went on a 10-0 run to take their first lead of the night at 14-11 midway through the half, with first year Jaxon Strinmoen draining a three-pointer and Willis adding a three-point play to conclude the run.

The Oles extended their lead to six twice late in the half before taking a 30-27 lead into the locker room. St. Olaf shot 48.0 percent (12-for-25) in the opening half and held UW-Stout to a 28.6 percent clip (8-for-28), as the two teams combined to go just 3-for-17 (17.6 percent) from behind the arc in the opening 20 minutes. Kirk led all scorers with 10 points at the half.

Early in the second half, the Blue Devils tied the game at 32-32 with a mini 5-0 run, but Roche hit back-to-back buckets to break the tie and put St. Olaf back on top for good. The first year started an 11-2 run that ended in a three-pointer by Kirk with 11:18 to go that gave the Oles their largest lead of the night at 43-34.

UW-Stout did not go away, however, and trimmed its deficit to 51-48 with 3:01 to go on a three-point play by Justin Nelson. Kirk hit jumpers on St. Olaf's next two possessions on either side of a turnover by the Blue Devils to quickly push the Oles' lead to seven inside the final two minutes. UW-Stout hit a pair of late three-pointers, but St. Olaf was 6-for-8 at the free-throw line down the stretch to lock up the win.

The Oles will wrap up the tournament against host UW-Superior in a 3 p.m. tip-off on Saturday, Nov. 9.