RIPON, Wis. - St. Norbert entered Wednesday's men's basketball game at Ripon ranked #7 in the nation, having won a Divison-III record 72 consecutive conference games. The Red Hawks wouldn't allow that streak to reach 73, as they defeated the Green Knights handily, 81-55, in a game which they never trailed. Ripon finished the game shooting 55 percent (32-58) from the field and 42 percent (8-19) from 3-point range, while holding St. Norbert to 35 percent (20-57) shooting, including just 14 percent (3-22) from 3-point range.

Ripon (12-2, 8-1 MWC), which now moves into a first place tie with St. Norbert in the MWC standings, was firing on all cylinders from the outset, making three of their first four shots and scoring the first eight points of the game. St. Norbert (11-3, 8-1 MWC) then scored four consecutive points of their own to cut the lead to four with 15 minutes left in the first half, but that's as close as the score would get the rest of the night. Ripon took a 10-point lead on a Ty Sabin free throw with 10 minutes left in the opening period, and took a 16-point lead on a Liam Lesniak jumper just before halftime.

The Red Hawks continued to pour it on in the second half, leading by double digits for the entirety of the period. Ripon's largest lead of 28 points came in the final minutes on a layup by Brayden Peterson. The second half was keyed by two-time All-American and MWC Player of the Year Ty Sabin, who scored 22 of his game-high 33 points after halftime on 9-of-10 shooting, including 2-of-2 from 3-point range.

With his 33-point performance, Sabin joins Scott Gillespie '11 as the only two players in program history to score more than 400 points in four different seasons. In addition to his scoring output, Sabin also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, while recording two steals. Brendan McCoy added 14 points, while Isaac Masters and Elliot Hoerdemann added 10 and nine points, respectively.

St. Norbert was led by Ben Bobinski's 14 points and five rebounds off the bench, while D.J. DeValk added 13 points on 5-of-19 shooting. Tim Marshall added 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting in 18 minutes off the bench.

Ripon will try to build on their momentum Saturday when they travel to Grinnell College. That game will begin at 3 p.m. in Grinnell, Iowa and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.