RIPON, Wis. - The Ripon Men's Basketball team opened the 2022-23 season with a near-wire-to-wire, 68-55 victory over St. Norbert College Friday night.
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Ripon shot a blistering 55 percent from behind the arc in tonight's game, led by Dominic Galati's 3 on 3-of-5 shooting. Four other players made 2 three-pointers each, Ryan Steffes, Jaylen Mahone, Drew Jorgensen, and Jack Brady.
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Galati led the Red Hawks with 15 points while also tying for the team-high with 3 steals in 33 minutes of play. Steffes and Mahone each tallied 12 points and Jorgensen had 10 to round out the double-digit scorers for Ripon. Mahone led the team 4 assists and grabbed 4 rebounds, a category led by senior big-man David DeValk who posted a 9-rebound night.
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St. Norbert scored the game's first basket, but that early 2-0 lead would be the only time the Green Knights led on the night. The game, however, was not a runaway for Ripon, especially in the first half, as St. Norbert was able to keep it close. Ripon's largest lead over the first 15 minutes was just five points, but St. Norbert erased that to tie the game at 16 halfway through the opening half. Ripon never seized control though and pushed their advantage to seven late in the first half and brought that lead into halftime.
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Ripon began to assert their dominance in the second half, quickly ballooning their lead to 10 just four minutes into the second frame. St. Norbert, however, strung together a 7-0 run in just under 2 minutes to bring it back to 3 points. The Red Hawks, though, never showed any signs of wavering and began to pull away down the stretch. They regained a double-digit advantage at around the 10-minute mark in the second half and kept St. Norbert at bay before closing out the 13-point victory.
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Ripon continues their season-opening homestand with a matchup against UW-Platteville on Tuesday, November 15
th with a tip time of 7:00 p.m
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