On Wednesday evening, the Alma College traveled to Trine University for another key MIAA match-up and in a back and forth contest, came away with a 58-53 win. The Scots now have a mark of 4-4 in the league and 5-11 overall in 2012-13, while the Thunder end the evening at 3-5 in the MIAA and 9-8 on the season.

"It has been eight years since Alma has been in the top four of the league so tonight was a big win for our program and our team," said Alma Head Coach Keisha Brown. "We had a decent first half and we came out in the second half with not as much defensive energy as we needed and Trine made a run. We were able to maintain our composure and play one possession at a time.

"We finally found our defensive energy and were able to put up pressure on their shots. Down the stretch we made some key free throws and our rebounding was also big for us."

In a game that started almost 25 minutes late due to tardy officials, Trine scored the first bucket 20 seconds in but Alma took their first lead at 4-2 on a lay-up by Jr. F Mary Schlicher (Lewiston, Mich./Johannesburg-Lewiston) at the 18:31 mark.

The contest was tied at 12-12 and 15-15 before the Scots went on an 8-0 run that was capped by a Jr. F Bailey Gooding (Gaylord, Mich./Gaylord) jumper with 5:07 left in the half. Sr. F Olivia Bishop (Haslett, Mich./Haslett) gave the visitors their biggest lead at 27-18 on two free throws at the 1:47 mark. Alma was then able to go into halftime with an eight-point advantage at 28-20.

Schlicher gave Alma their biggest lead at 30-20 just 18 seconds into the second half before Trine went on a 20-2 run that gave them a lead of 40-32 at the 13:05 mark. The Scots withstood the run and whittled away at the deficit and trailed just 45-44 with 5:13 left after two free throws by So. G Mallory Pruett (Ishpeming, Mich./Ishpeming).

The game would be tied four times in the next four minutes until the Scots made the difference at the free throw line. Sr. F Danielle Hicks (Marshall, Mich./Marshall) knocked down two that put the team ahead 55-53 at 1:28 and So. G Grace Wheeler (St. Ignace, Mich./LaSalle) drained two 40 seconds later.

The Scots were then able to play defense and walk off the court with the five-point win. In a game of runs, Alma finished the game with a 26-13 advantage to earn victory.

Schlicher led the team with 12 points, while Gooding added 10 on the evening. Hicks added seven points and a team-high nine rebounds, while Pruett contributed eight points and four rebounds in the win.

Alma will next play at Kalamazoo on Saturday afternoon beginning at 3:00 p.m.