The Calvin men's basketball team beat host Hope 81-49 on Wednesday marking the largest margin of victory in the rivalry series since 1977.
The Knights used a 20-4 to take an 18 point lead in the first half and held the Flying Dutchmen scoreless for more than ten minutes.
“You never really expect to silence a crowd that early like that," Calvin junior Uchenna Egekeze said". "You always expect it to be just loud no matter what and just a game of just back and forth battles. But yeah it was a great feeling.”
Egekeze scored a game-high 23 points and played great on the defensive end as well.
Freshman Jalen Overway added 16 points and 10 rebounds.
“We really killed their chance to get momentum by digging in on defense," Overway said. "They were stuck at four points for the longest time so I think we really took pride in digging in on defense there and that’s overall I think what won us the game at the end of the day.”
The Knights shot 65% from the floor for the game improving to 3-0 in the MIAA and 11-3 overall.
“You just don’t expect that in this game," Calvin head coach Bill Sall said. "I think that’s the one thing about this season, it’s so early. We had this game now in our third game coming back in the MIAA season and no team is where they want to be right now and we fully anticipate them coming back in a couple of weeks at our place and making it a war for sure.”
The rematch in Grand Rapids is scheduled for February 15th.
