Box Score

RIPON, Wis. - The Ripon men's basketball team won for the third time in their last four outings Tuesday night, defeating Beloit College 76-71 to earn a season sweep over the Buccaneers. The win also keeps the Red Hawks in a second place tie in the Midwest Conference standings with six games to play.

Ripon (11-6, 8-4 MWC) knew they were in for a tough challenge from the outset, as Beloit (6-10, 4-7 MWC) scored the first four points of the contest and led for the majority of the half, going up by as many as nine points in the period. With the Buccaneers leading by nine with just under five minutes before halftime, Ripon went on a 13-4 run to tie the score at 31 at the half.

Beloit broke that tie in the second half, only to see Ty Ketz score six consecutive points to give Ripon the lead, which they would then hold for the majority of the half. After trading baskets for much of the period, the Red Hawks took their largest lead of seven with under four minutes to play. Beloit just wouldn't go away however, cutting that lead to one on a James Lazarcik basket with 44 seconds remaining. The story of the game proved to be Ripon's offensive rebounding, as Brad Brooks grabbed the Red Hawks' 16th and final offensive board with under 20 seconds to play, scoring on the putback to put Ripon up by three. After a Beloit missed 3-pointer that would have tied the game, Ketz sealed the victory with a pair of free throws in the final seconds.

Ty Sabin led Ripon with a career-high 28 points, 15 of which came in the second half. Ketz added 12 points, all of which came in the second half, to go along with a team-high four assists, while Kyle Loughrin scored 10 points and Brendan McCoy scored nine off the bench. Ripon finished the game shooting 46 percent (28-61) from the field and 50 percent (8-16) from 3-point range.

Beloit was led by Lazarcik's 21 points and eight rebounds, while Steve Dowden and Sean Fancsali scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, off the bench. Beloit shot 52 percent (27-52) from the field, while converting 44 percent (7-16) of their 3-pointers.

Ripon will be in action again on Wednesday, February 5 against Carroll University. That game will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Ripon and can be seen live on http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ripon.portal. That game will also be Ripon's annual "Play For The Cure" event in which fans are encouraged to make donations and wear pink to raise awareness for cancer.