Alma, Mich. - The Alma College men's basketball team dropped a 95-86 decision to visiting Calvin College on Saturday (Jan. 14) afternoon, snapping the Scots' 16-game conference home winning streak at Art Smith Arena.

Alma (6-9 overall, 2-2 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association) had five players in double figures, led by senior Trevor Gernaat (McBain, Mich./Northern Michigan Christian/Mid-Michigan), who scored 16 points. The Knights (9-6, 4-0 MIAA) were led by Michael Wilks, who scored a game-high 28 points.

Freshman Ryan Stevens (Lowell, Mich./Lowell) added 14 points, collected a team-high eight rebounds and dished out a season-high nine assists, while freshmen Preston Laketa (Concord, Mich./Hanover-Horton) added 13 points and a team-high four three-pointers. Freshman Steven Harvey (Grand Rapids, Mich./Ada) and junior Kevin Scheibert (Sanford, Mich./Sanford-Meridan) rounded out the Scots' top scorers with 12 points each.

Alma led by as many as nine points in the first half and held a 42-33 advantage with 4:07 to play in the opening frame, but Calvin climbed back with a 10-0 run to take the lead with 1:38 to play. After trading leads on the next three possessions, the Scots were able to take a 47-45 lead into halftime after a layup by Stevens and a free throw by Scheibert.

In the second half, Alma increased it's lead to seven points, leading 60-53 just under five minutes into the stanza, but the Knights responded with a 7-0 run to tie the game at 60-60. After Alma went back up by four points, Calvin tied the game again at 66-66, then took the on a three-pointer by Tony Dewitt with less than 11 minutes to play.

The Scots knotted the game at 79-79 with 4:52 left in the game when Laketa hit a three, but a 10-0 by Calvin in response allowed the Knights to capture the victory.

"The things that we thought could go wrong went wrong, and the things that went well we thought could go well, just more went wrong than went right," Head Coach Sam Hargraves said. "The first stat everyone will look at is the offensive rebounding, and that's just toughness, and that's what we lack - flat out toughness and desire and confidence, and those things are all related.

"They (Calvin) fly in, they miss shots, and they go get it - that's what they do and that's what we talked about for two and a half days. That's what they did. To their credit, we didn't dig enough of them out, we didn't go get enough of our own, and part of that is because our spacing is so good in our offense, which is why we shoot the percentage that we do."

Alma shot over 50 percent from the field for the fifth straight game, but was out rebounded 43-31 and struggled from the free throw line.

"We just didn't have enough effort, we were allergic to the paint on both ends of the floor and didn't have guys that wanted to go in there," Hargraves said. "This was a huge game and we folded and they didn't."

The Scots return to Art Smith Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 18, to host Trine University in the first meeting between the two schools since last season's MIAA Tournament Championship game. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. at Art Smith Arena.