ANGOLA, IND.-- Trine earned a convincing 77-59 victory over MIAA-foe Kalamazoo to open the conference season Wednesday night at Hershey Hall.

The Thunder never trailed over the final 35 minutes of play, and led by as much as 21 to extend their winning-streak to four games. Kayla Dunn (Columbia City, Ind./Columbia City) led Trine with a career-high 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting. Nikky Moan (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove) notched her first double-double as a member of the Thunder, scoring a career-high 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds. Trine outscored Kalamazoo 44-20 in the paint. Claire Slaughter led the Hornets with 10 points off the bench. The Thunder improve to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the MIAA. Kalamazoo is 2-3 overall, 0-1 in conference play.

Kelsey Henselmeier (Martinsville, Ind./Martinsville) added 10 points, six rebounds and five assists for Trine. The senior topped 500 career points, and now has 508 in her career. Trine outrebounded Kalamazoo by a 55-40 margin. The Thunder shot 40 percent (28-of-70) from the field against a Hornet defense that had been holding opponents to a 30.5 percent shooting clip coming into the game.

Perri Nicholson and Hannah Maness each scored nine points for the Hornets. Kelsey Adamski added eight points and four assists. Kalamazoo shot 32 percent from the field (18-of-56), and knocked down 22-of-30 (73 percent) of their free throw attempts.

After a back-and-forth battle in the opening minutes that saw three ties and six lead changes, Trine took the lead for good with an 11-1 run. A Whitney Shaffer (Tipton, Ind./Tri-Central) layup put the Thunder in front 11-10. Dunn scored five points during the run, while Alivia Recker (Arlington, Ohio/Arlington) provided a spark off the bench with four points.

Shaffer and Recker each scored eight points for the Thunder. Recker's layup pushed the score to 20-11 with 12:18 remaining in the first half. Trine pushed their lead to double-digits for the first time when a Katelyn Sager (Kell, Ill./Salem Community) layup in the closing minute put the Thunder up 37-26 at the half.

A 16-4 run over the first six minutes of the second half put Trine in command the rest of the night. Five different Thunder players scored during that stretch, which pushed the score to 53-32 with 14:01 to play.

Kalamazoo made a late run to close the deficit to 65-55 with 4:23 left, but nine straight by the Thunder over the next 1:31 ensured the Hornets would get no closer. Moan scored seven straight points during that run.

Trine will host St. Mary's as part of a doubleheader this Saturday, Dec. 6. The Thunder and Belles tip off at 1 p.m., followed by a men's game against Illinois Tech.