Wednesday night saw the Alma College men's basketball team head to Adrian to take on the Bulldogs in a MIAA contest. The visitors built a big 18-point halftime lead en route to a 71-60 road victory for their second win in a row.

After the triumph, Alma is now 6-18 overall this season and 5-8 in the MIAA, while the Bulldogs dropped to 5-19 in 2013-14 and 1-12 in the league.

"Our defensive energy again was really good, especially the first 10 minutes of the game," said Alma Head Coach Sam Hargraves. "We missed several good looks to start the second half and they made a nice run. We did what we needed to do to get the win. If we had limited our turnovers, it would have been a more comfortable finish."

The Scots led the way from start to finish and it started with the first four points of the game as So. F DJ Beckman (Shelby/Shelby) made it 4-0 on a lay-up 2:12 into the contest. Alma led 12-6 on a lay-up by Fr. G Chase Fairchild (Rockford/Rockford) at the 15:08 mark.

Alma increased their advantage to nine at 25-16, when Sr. F Isiah Law (Grand Haven/Grand Haven) hit a free throw and were still leading by five, 27-22, at the 7:41 mark. It was at that point the Scots put the dagger into the Bulldogs by finishing the first frame on a 16-3 run.

The final two points came from Fr. C Quinton Cook (Ortonville/Ortonville-Brandon), who drained two free throws to give the Scots the 43-25 lead heading into the break.

Adrian was not in the mood to go away quietly however, as they outscored the visitors by a margin of 18-3 over the first seven minutes of the second half to cut the Scots lead to 46-43 with 13:17 left in the game.

Although the Scots never lost the lead, it was still a nail biter for a good deal of the second half. It was a 49-47 game at the 10:20 mark and still just a four-point contest at 57-53 with 6:37 remaining.

However, the Scots scored the next six points and took a 63-53 lead when Sr. G Brandon Krause (Sanford/Meridian) put in a lay-up at 2:28.

After a Beckman basket put Alma up 65-55, the Scots were challenged to sew up the game from the free throw line. They would not fail in that area as they closed out the game with six consecutive points from the charity stripe - the final four from So. Malcolm Thurmond (Middlebury/Northfield).

The dead eye from the line allowed Alma to walk off the hardwood with a well-earned 71-60 victory over the Bulldogs.

As a team, the Scots shot 49% (24 of 49) from the field and hit on seven of 17 attempts from beyond the three-point line, while Adrian finished the game at 35% shooting (21-60) and hit on just one of nine from behind the arc.

Beckman led the way for the Scots with 24 points and added a team-high eight rebounds. Three players finished the game with 10 points in the win - Fairchild, Krause and Thurmond - while Law contributed four assists.

The Scots conclude the 2013-14 season on Saturday afternoon when they host Kalamazoo College at Art Smith Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.