JACKSONVILLE, Ill. - Ripon defeated Illinois College 73-62 Saturday afternoon during a game in which the Red Hawks never trailed. That win, coupled with St. Norbert's loss at Grinnell, moves Ripon (16-5, 13-3 MWC) within one game of first place in the Midwest Conference standings with two games left in the regular season. That gives Ripon more than 15 wins for the first time since the 2004-05 season.

The Red Hawks didn't waste any time Saturday, taking a 13-2 lead just four minutes into the contest. Illinois College (7-14, 4-12 MWC) would battle back to cut that lead to a single point with just under two minutes left in the half, but Ripon answered by scoring the last nine points of the game, including 3-pointers by Brendan McCoy and Ty Sabin, to take a 10-point lead into halftime.

Illinois College scored the first basket of the second half, but Sabin answered with a jumper to extend the lead to 10 and the Red Hawks would never trail by less than double digits the rest of the day. Ripon shot 47 percent (26-55) in the game, including 44 percent (8-18) from 3-point range. The Red Hawks also out-rebounded the Blueboys by a 42-23 margin.

Sabin paced Ripon with 35 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range, to go along with a career-high 11 rebounds for his second career double-double. With that scoring output, Sabin becomes the first player in school history to score at least 600 points in three different seasons, while also moving into second place in MWC history with 2,388 career points. Sabin, who leads the NCAA, across all divisions in active career scoring average (25.7 ppg), also has made 260 career 3-pointers, which is just 17 shy of the school record, which is held by Brad Alberts '92. McCoy added 15 points against Illinois College, making 5-of-10 shots, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range.

Illinois College was led by David Bauer, who scored 12 points off the  bench, to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Tim Schappaugh added 11 points, two blocks, and two steals, while Mason Speer chipped in with 10 points and five assists.

The Red Hawks will continue their quest for the top seed in the MWC Tournament on Tuesday when they'll travel to Illinois College, whom Ripon defeated by 38 points earlier this week. Tuesday's game will begin at 7:30 p.m. and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.