Holland, Mich. - For the first time in school history, the Alma College men's basketball team will play for the MIAA Tournament championship. The Scots, ranked 19th in NCAA Division III, advanced to the title game after a 77-64 win over Albion College in the semifinal round at the DeVos Fieldhouse on the campus of Hope College.

Sophomore Jason Beckman (Shelby, Mich./Shelby) led the Scots with 23 points, making six of his seven shots from the floor, while sophomore Kevin Gamble (Mt. Pleasant, Mich./Sacred Heart) scored 13 points. Senior DJ Beckman (Shelby, Mich./Shelby) netted 12 points, while senior Scott Nikodemski (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) chipped in 11 points.

Jordan Herron paced Albion with a game-high 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Travell Oakes netted 16 points.

Alma built a seven-point advantage just over halfway through the first half before the Britons mounted a comeback, coming out of a timeout and going on an 11-3 to take a 20-19 lead with 6:16 remaining. The Scots regained the lead and finished out the half with a 20-7 run to enter the break up by 11 points at 39-28. Alma shot 48.1 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and made five three-pointers while holding Albion to 27.8 percent shooting.

The Scots came out firing in the second half, hitting three straight three-pointers to open up a 16-point lead. Alma would lead by double-digits for a majority of the stanza, fighting off any chance by Albion to get back into the game.

The Scots, the top shooting team in Division III, shot over 50 percent from the floor for the 17th time this season, hitting 50.9 percent of their attempts for the game. Albion was held to just 35.8 percent shooting from the floor. Junior Trevor Gernaat (McBain, Mich./Northern Michigan Christian/Mid-Michigan CC) paced the Scots with eight rebounds as Alma out-rebounded the Brits by a 39-32 margin and pulled down 34 defensive boards compared.

Alma now advances to the MIAA Tournament Championship game and will face the winner of top-seeded Hope College and No. 4 seed Trine University. The game is set for an 8:00 p.m. tipoff on Saturday, Feb. 27, at the DeVos Fieldhouse on the campus of Hope College. The winner will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship tournament.

NOTES

• The Scots improved their record to 20-6 overall, marking the second time in school history Alma has reached the 20-win mark. The last time the Scots won 20 games was during the 1940-41 campaign.

• Alma won its first game in Holland, Mich., since the 1993-94 campaign, ending a streak of 32 consecutive losses on the Hope College campus.

• The Scots advance to the MIAA Tournament Championship game for the first time in school history.

• Alma is now 2-2 against Albion in the MIAA Tournament.

• Senior DJ Beckman played in his 102nd career game for Alma College, setting a school record. The old mark was 101 games, set by Carl Hill from 2002-06.

• DJ Beckman moved into seventh place on the career scoring list, surpassing Todd Kulawiak, who scored 1,300 points from 1987-91. Beckman now has 1,306 points.

• DJ Beckman also advanced into third place on the single-season three-pointers chart, making his 69th of the season. Beckman passed up Jeremy Trent, who hit 68 threes in the 1994-95 campaign.

QUOTES

Head Coach Sam Hargraves

On the win...

"The number one thing is that I congratulate Albion and how good they are and how tough they are to play against and how great of a coaching job they do getting a lot out of their talent. For us to be able to be able to beat them the way we did I thought was big for our kids mentally. Hopefully it gives us a ton of momentum and a ton of confidence going into tomorrow. I felt that emotionally, energy-wise, we stepped up to the challenge and got it done. They didn't seem to hurt us as much with the things that they do as they did down at Albion today. I think a lot of that was because we answered back much better."

On 20 wins for just the second time in school history...

"It's huge. I never really thought about that number a whole lot until recently. At our level, to be able to win 20 games is beyond what we thought the vision was. The vision was to get to this point and to try to play for a championship, whether it's regular-season or conference tournament. We played for the regular-season title for a long time and it took until the end to lose that and now we've got our opportunity of a lifetime tomorrow. Regardless of the outcome, we hope to continue on and play for another week."