Coming off an emotional victory on Monday evening, the Alma College Men's Basketball team hit the road Wednesday night to take on Kalamazoo College. Despite only being down by three at half time, the Scots were bested by the host Hornets 82-62 at the Anderson Athletic Center.

With the loss, Alma drops to 3-14 overall with a 2-4 mark in the MIAA. Kalamazoo improves to 8-9 on the year and 3-3 in conference play.

"It certainly was not our night tonight," said Alma Head Coach Sam Hargraves. " We are still going through some major growing pains."

Sr. G Brandon Krause (Sanford/Meridian) dropped in a layup and got fouled to give the Scots the early 3-0 lead to start the first half. Kalamazoo would take the lead at 5-3 before Krause got another lay up to fall to knot the game up at 5-5 with just under 16 minutes remaining. The Hornets responded with a 7-0 run to take the 12-5 lead at 13:28.

The game remained close throughout the half with Kalamazoo holding the slim advantage. A triple by Fr. C Ivy Johnson (Rockford/Rockford) at 4:19 would tie the game at 30-30. A foul shot by Sr. F Kyle Aho (Gwinn/Gwinn) would give Alma the 31-30 advantage late but the Hornets would end the half on an 8-4 run to take the 38-35 lead into the locker room.

The Scots shot 44% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc in the first half. Krause led all scorers in the half with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting.

So. F DJ Beckman (Shelby/Shelby) sank a lay up early in the second half to keep the Scots within three at 43-40 with just under 19 minutes to go. Kalamazoo then went on an 11-2 run to take the 54-42 lead at 15:14. The Hornets would keep applying pressure for the remainder of the half, keeping the Scots at a comfortable 19-20 point deficit to close out the game. When the final buzzer sounded, Kalamazoo took the 82-62 victory on its home court on Wednesday.

Krause was the only Scot in double figures Wednesday, finishing with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor. Johnson added nine points and four boards and Fr. C Quinton Cook (Ortonville/Ortonville-Brandon) chipped in seven points off the bench.

Mark Ghafari led Kalamazoo with a game-high 27 points. Adam Peters added 12 points and eight rebounds in the victory.

Alma will travel to Calvin on Saturday, Feb. 1, to take on the Knights at 1:00 PM.