RIPON, Wis. - The Ripon men's basketball team suffered a bit of a power outage Wednesday night. After entering the game ranked second in the Midwest Conference and 36th in Division-III with 79.2 points per game, the Red Hawks managed to score just 23 in the second half against the Buccaneers, while shooting 33 percent (9-27) in that period and squandering an eight-point halftime lead, en route to the 64-59 defeat.

The first half was much kinder to the Red Hawks (14-8, 11-6 MWC), as they shot 53 percent (15-28) in the first 20 minutes. Although most of that half was tightly contested, Ripon ended the period on a 9-2 run, which was keyed by five points from Ty Sabin, including a free throw with one second left to give them a 36-28 lead at the half.

Ripon tried to take control of the game in the second period, going up by 11 in the first few minutes on a jumper by Sabin. That lead slowly disintegrated however, as Beloit (8-15, 7-11 MWC) used a 19-9 run to cut that lead to a single point with four and a half minutes remaining. Less than one minute later, Beloit would take their first lead of the half on a pair of free throws by Steve McAfee. That was answered by a Kyle Loughrin layup on Ripon's ensuing possession, but McAfee gave Beloit the lead again on a jumper with one and a half minutes to play. Sabin then answered with a layup and a one-point Ripon lead, before McAfee scored again with under one minute left, giving the Buccaneers the lead for good. The Red Hawks had one final look at a potential game-tying 3-pointer, but the ball bounced off the rim, allowing Beloit to sink two free throws to ice the game in the final seconds.

Sabin led the Red Hawks with 25 points on 10-of-23 shooting. Loughrin added 15 points, to go along with game-highs of three assists and three steals. Ripon made just 27 percent (3-11) of their 3-pointers, which is the second-lowest percentage and fewest total 3-pointers in a game this season.

McAfee played the role of hero for Beloit, scoring a game-high 27 on 11-of-12 shooting, with 16 of those points coming in the second half and seven coming in the final four and a half minutes. Andrew Bremner jaded 13 points, while Sean Fancsali scored eight, to go along with seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

With the loss, Ripon is tied for third place in the MWC standings, with Grinnell. The Red Hawks will finish the regular season at Knox College on Saturday at 3 p.m. in a game that can be seen live at,http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.