RIPON, Wis. - Ripon erased a three-point halftime lead Saturday afternoon to defeat Knox College in convincing fashion by a score of 79-65. Ripon forced 15 Knox turnovers, which they turned into 26 points, all of which came in the second half. The win assures the Red Hawks of back-to-back seasons of at least 17 victories for the first time since accomplishing that feat 10 straight times from 1991-2000.

Knox (7-18, 5-13 MWC) scored the first six points of the first half, but Ripon (17-6, 14-4 MWC) used a 12-4 run to take their first lead on a Trent Jones layup with just under 14 minutes remaining in the period. Knox then scored the next eight points and they would hold that lead until the three-minute mark when Seth Kostroski tied the game with a 3-pointer for the Red Hawks. That was answered by a Marko Protic 3-pointer to give Knox a three-point halftime lead.

Knox continued to give Ripon trouble early in the second half, going on an 8-4 run to start the period, before Ripon began to show why they've been an MWC Tournament team in each of the last six years. The Red Hawks went from down eight to up by six in the blink of an eye, going on a 15-1 run, which was keyed by a pair of Tyler Semenas 3-pointers and another one by Jones. Ripon never trailed again the rest of the night, leading by as many as 19 points. One highlight of the second half was a trio of thundering dunks by Semenas, who scored 19 of his career-high 28 points in the second half.

In addition to his scoring prowess, which saw him shoot 11-for-14 from the field, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range, Semenas also wreaked havoc on the defensive end of the court, recording six steals, in addition to pulling down five rebounds and recording two blocks and a pair of assists. Cal Schultz added 15 points, three assists, and two steals, while Isaac Masters scored 10 points, while assisting on five baskets.

Jonathan Damota led Knox with 16 points, to go along with four rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Protic, Ikenna Ozor, and Bryce Wilkinson each finished with 11 points, while Protic led the team with seven rebounds.

Ripon will now get ready for next weekend's Midwest Conference Tournament in Monmouth, Ill. The Red Hawks will battle St. Norbert College in the first semi-final on Friday at 5 p.m. The winner of that game will play the winner of Friday's Monmouth/Lake Forest game on Saturday for the right to advance to the NCAA Division-III Tournament. All games in the MWC Tournament can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.