RIPON, Wis. - The Ripon men's basketball team never trailed Tuesday night, defeating Beloit College in convincing fashion, 76-56. The Red Hawks built a 13-point halftime lead by shooting a scintillating 60 percent (18-30) from the field in the first half. Ripon, who entered the game ranking second in Division-III for fewest turnovers per game (8.8) continued that trend, committing just nine against Beloit.

The game started on a 7-0 run by the Red Hawks (4-2, 3-1 MWC) thanks to two quick baskets by Ty Sabin and a 3-pointer from Brendan McCoy. Ripon led by at least four points the rest of the game, using an 18-6 run to take a 16-point lead mid-way through the first period.

Ripon led by double digits during the final 32 minutes of the game, taking their largest lead of 30 on a Jordan Stiede 3-pointer mid-way through the second half. Ripon cooled off a little bit during that second period, shooting 41 percent (13-32) from the field, but they managed to hold Beloit to 32 percent (9-28) shooting in that half.

Sabin led the Red Hawks with 27 points on 12-of-24 shooting, including 3-for-7 from 3-point range, while adding four rebounds and tying a game-high with five assists. With that scoring output, Sabin moves into 11th place on Ripon's career scoring list with 1,287 points, which is 41 points away from passing Lud Wurtz '78 for 10th all-time.

Stiede added 13 points, making all five of his shots, including three from 3-point range, while Nathan Larson added a career-high nine points on 4-of-6 shooting.

Beloit (2-5, 1-3 MWC) was led by Steve McAfee, Jr.'s 19 points, while Rudy Bentley Jr. added 11 points and three assists.

The Red Hawks will try for their third consecutive victory on Saturday when they'll travel to Illinois College. That game will begin at 1 p.m. in Jacksonville, Ill. and can be seen live at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.