RIPON, Wis. - The Ripon men's basketball team defeated Beloit 70-58 Wednesday night to remain in second place in the Midwest Conference standings with a 9-2 conference record, which is their best start to a conference season in 19 years.

Ripon (13-3, 9-2 MWC) shot 58 percent (18-31) from the field in the first half of Wednesday's game, which helped them build a 45-26 halftime lead. The score was close for the first 10 minutes of the opening half, before Ripon turned a four-point lead into a 16-point advantage with 12 consecutive points in a four-minute span, which was keyed by eight points from Ty Sabin. The Red Hawks took their largest lead of 19 just before halftime on a layup by Brendan McCoy.

Despite the deficit, Beloit (4-12, 2-9 MWC) came out firing in the second half, scoring seven quick points in the first minute and a half of the period. That was the beginning of a 17-4 run to start the half, which cut Ripon's lead to six with 14 and a half minutes still to play. That's as close as Beloit would get the rest of the way however, as the run was ended by a Liam Lesniak basket to put the Red Hawks up by eight and push the momentum in Ripon's favor once again.

Sabin led all scorers with 21 points, to go along with six rebounds and a game-high five assists. That gives Sabin 2,228 career points, which moves him into third place in MWC history. McCoy added 11 points on Wednesday night, while Isaac Masters scored 10, marking his fifth consecutive game scoring in double figures. Freshman Kyle Rutkowski also scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds.

Beloit was led by Cody Risseeuw's 13 points and eight rebounds (three offensive). Mason Jones added 11 points and six rebounds (four offensive), while Mike Gulve chipped in with 10 points.

Ripon will try to build on this victory on Saturday when they'll face Illinois College at 3 p.m. in Ripon. That game will also serve as Ripon's annual Alumni Basketball Day, with the men's Alumni game being played at 10:30 a.m.