KALAMAZOO, MICH. -- The Trine University men's basketball team rebounded from its current two-game losing skid with a 90-77 win against Kalamazoo (Mich.) College in a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association game at the Anderson Athletic Center in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Seniors Langston Johnson (Elkhart, Inc./Elkhart Central) and Maurice Hunter (Monroe, Mich./Monroe) both had big days offensively with Langston Johnson scoring a game-high 24 points to go along with five rebounds and a game-tying high six assists. Hunter scored 20 points and fell two rebounds shy of a double-double with eight boards. Langston Johnson converted 10-of-19 shots (52.6 percent) and Hunter shot seven-of-11 from the field (63.6 percent) for the game. Hunter was also six-of-nine (66.7 percent) from the free-throw line.
Fellow senior Marcus Winters (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic) rounded out the double-figure scorers with 18 points in addition to having four rebounds and five assists.
The two teams swapped leads 17 times in the game with most of the lead changes coming in the first half. Neither team led by more than seven points in the first 20 minutes with Kalamazoo's (4-15, 1-7 MIAA) largest lead of five points occuring two times that included a 24-19 margin at the 9:27 minute mark.
Late in the half, the Hornets maintained a slim one-point edge, 34-33, when a layup by sophomore Brandan Johnson (Fort Wayne, Ind./North Side) began a string of eight straight points and resulted in Trine's (12-7, 6-2 MIAA) largest lead of the period of seven points, 41-34, with 1:36 to play before the break.
KZOO then scored four unanswered points of its own to get to within three points before a three-pointer by Langston Johnson ended the scoring and gave Trine a six-point advantage at the intermission, 44-38.
The second half began with a pair of free-throws by Hunter to put the Thunder up by eight points early. But the Hornets then outscored the Thunder, 15-6, over the next 4:37 and erased the Trine lead to take a three-point margin , 55-52, with 14:48 remaining. KZOO later built a four-point lead when a 15-0 run by Trine gave the Thunder the lead for good and ended in an 11-point lead after a layup by Winters.
Trine continued to pull away following the initial run and led by as many as 15 points twice, including a 86-71 score following another layup by Winters with a little under two minutes to go. The Thunder lead never dropped below the double-digit mark the rest of the way and went on to the 13-point win, 90-77.
Trine will end its three-game road trip on Wednesday (Feb. 5) when the Thunder travel to Alma, Mich. for a MIAA contest against Alma College. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.