The Ripon College men's basketball team overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to post a 67-61 road victory over Lawrence University Wednesday night. Ripon moves to 8-7 overall and 4-2 in Midwest Conference games.
 
Ripon fell behind early in the first half and would trail for the entirety of the opening frame. The Red Hawks were able to keep the game within reach for most of the first half, trailing by 3 with under 10 minutes left, but cold shooting in the back half of the stanza allowed Lawrence to close the half on a 14-6 run and put Ripon behind, 31-20 at the half.
 
The Red Hawks scored the first six points of the second half and had the deficit at 5 twice, both at 31-26 and 33-28, but Lawrence answered with a 9-0 run of their own over the next 4 minutes to make it a 42-28 game with 14 minutes to go. Despite facing their largest deficit of the game, Ripon slowly chipped away at the lead. As the clock ticked under 10 minutes to play, Ripon had cut it to 47-41 and continued to build on their momentum. The defense clamped down which spurred a 7-2 run, making it a 1-point game with a little over 7 minutes left.
 
2 minutes later, Ripon took their first lead on a Luke Meinholz layup and from there, the two teams battled down the stretch. The lead changed hands just a couple times, but it was tied on several occasions in the final 4-plus minutes, the last of which came with 1:30 remaining in the second half after a Lawrence layup tied it up at 57-57. But on the ensuing possession, Jaylen Mahone hit a three-pointer to put Ripon up for good. The Red Hawks hit 7-of-10 free throws in the final minute to seal the 67-61 comeback victory.
 
Mahone scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, helping bring Ripon all the way back for the win. He shot 10-of-17 from the floor and grabbed 5 rebounds in the win. Ryan Steffes was second on the team with 12 points and David DeValk had a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double for the Red Hawks. Ripon bounced-back from an uncharacteristic, 25 percent shooting display in the first half to drop 47 points on 68 percent shooting in the second half. That performance, coupled with limiting Lawrence to just 34 percent shooting in the second half, helped spur the comeback.
 
Ripon will look to build on this victory and keep things rolling in Midwest Conference play on Saturday, January 14th when the Red Hawks travel to take on Monmouth College. The game is set to start at 3:00 p.m.