SHERMAN, Texas - The Ripon College men's basketball team found themselves playing in their second consecutive overtime game, but they could not pull this one out as the Red Hawks fell, 87-85, to Austin College.

Ripon showed no ill effects of the short turnaround and travel to go from Saturday's overtime win at UW Oshkosh to Austin, Texas for this afternoon's game as the Red Hawks led for most of the first half and took a 36-28 lead into the break as Jaylen Mahone beat the buzzer with a layup.
 
Ripon maintained their lead well into the second half, but Austin College clawed their way back into the game and tied it with under 10 minutes to play. The lead changed hands multiple times over the final 10 minutes, but Ripon found themselves trailing by 3 after a pair of made free throws with 25 seconds left. Luke Meinholz missed his three-point attempt but Cade Tackmier came up with a huge offensive rebound and kicked it out to Mahone who buried the three-pointer to send the game to overtime.
 
The teams continued to trade blows in the overtime period with neither Ripon nor Austin leading by more than 2 points at any time of the extra frame. Ryan Steffes' layup put Ripon up by 1 with 21 seconds left, but Austin answered with a three-pointer that had the Red Hawks trailing by 2 with 9 seconds to play in OT. Owen Theune got his layup to drop to tie the game at 85 apiece, but as play continued down the floor, Steffes was whistled for a foul on Austin's three-point attempt and the Roos hit 2-of-3 free throws to win the game, 87-85.
 
Ripon shot 56% from the field, compared to just 44% from Austin, but lost the turnover battle 23-16, which led to 23 points off turnovers for Austin. Ripon's starting five carried the bulk of the scoring, registering 71 of the 85 points scored on the night.
 
Mahone led Ripon with a game-high-tying 24 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, today marking his first 20-point game since November 29^th against Carthage. Steffes poured in a season-high 22 points and hit 4-of-5 three-point attempts and Theune rounded-out the double-digit scorers with 12 points of his own. David DeValk had 8 points and a game-high 9 rebounds before fouling out after just 22 minutes played.
 
Ripon finishes their Lone Star State trip with an afternoon meeting at the University of Dallas tomorrow, December 21^st. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.