RIPON, Wis. - Ripon's men's basketball team defeated Lawrence University Wednesday night by a score of 85-64 in a game they didn't trail during the final 34 minutes. That gives the Red Hawks their 15th consecutive victory against Lawrence, keeping Head Coach Ryan Kane undefeated against the Vikings (15-0).

There were four ties in the first five minutes, before Ripon (7-5, 3-2 MWC) pulled away with a seven-point lead. Lawrence (7-5, 3-2 MWC) would battle back to tie the score twice more, but Ripon ended the first half on a 17-8 run to take a nine-point lead into halftime.

Owen Theune opened the second half with a Ripon basket to give the Red Hawks a double-digit lead that would never dip below 10 points for the remainder of the night. The Red Hawks' largest lead of 25 came with six minutes remaining on a pair of Justin Bartol free throws.

Ripon shot 50 percent (34-68) from the field, while holding Lawrence to 47 percent (22-47) shooting. The Red Hawks dominated the paint all night, outscoring the Vikings 42-24 in the lane. Ripon's bench also outscored Lawrence by a 31-15 margin. Trent Jones led all scorers with 22 points, while Jaylen Mahone scored a career-high 19 points off the bench. Ryan Steffes added 13 points and a career-high five assists, while Theune chipped in 12 points. Bartol recorded career-highs of 10 points, six rebounds, and three assists.

Brad Sendell led Lawrence with 17 points, while Bryce Denham scored 15 for the Vikings. Lawrence was out-rebounded 44-18, with Kyle Rutkowski's 13 boards (eight offensive) leading the way for the Red Hawks.

Ripon will be in action again on Saturday when they'll travel to Grinnell College. That game will begin at 1 p.m. in Grinnell, Iowa, and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.