BELOIT, Wisconsin – The Ripon men's basketball program fell behind early against Beloit on Wednesday night and succumbed to the host Buccaneers 70-60 inside Flood Arena.

After leading 3-0, Ripon (1-8, 0-2 MWC) trailed for the final 37 minutes of the game as Beloit (6-2, 3-0 MWC) defeated Ripon at home for the first time since 2016.

STANDOUT HAWKS

• Senior guard Connor Spielvogel scored a game-high 15 points off the bench, making 5 of 12 three-pointers to tie a career-high in threes made. He also had 3 rebounds.
• Senior guard Cade Tackmier had 14 points and 5 rebounds.
• Junior forward Jayden Fitch contributed 12 points and 7 rebounds off the bench, shooting 60% from the field (4-6).
• Junior guard Luke Meinholz did a little bit of everything with 5 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Ripon scored the first three points of the game, but Beloit countered with a 13-0 run to prompt a Ripon timeout while the Bucs held Ripon scoreless for five minutes. Beloit took advantage of a multitude of Red Hawks' turnovers to keep at least a seven-point cushion for the foreseeable future. However, an 8-0 run trailing by 13 brought Ripon within five at 25-20 with 4:27 left in the half. Fitch scored the final four points of the frame for Ripon but the Red Hawks trailed 35-27 at the break.

Beloit held Ripon without a basket for the first 2+ minutes of the second half before Ripon went on an 8-2 spurt to pull within a bucket at 40-37 following Spielvogel's third triple of the night. With the Red Hawks trailing 52-44, Spielvogel willed Ripon back into the game with two consecutive threes to trim the deficit to two. Unfortunately, two would be the closest Ripon would get the rest of the game as Beloit closed the game on an 8-4 run and stayed perfect in Midwest Conference play.

KEY STATS

• Beloit went 46.9% from the floor (23-49) while Ripon shot 33.3% from the field (20-60).
• Beloit had a healthy advantage behind the three-point line, making 8 of 17 attempts (47.1%) and limiting the Red Hawks to 29.2% from deep (7-24).
• Ripon had a slight rebounding edge, corralling 37 to the Bucs' 36.
• Anthony Carter scored 12 points off the bench to lead Beloit. Ryan Nixon (11 points) and Azeez Ganiyu (10 points) also scored in double figures.

UP NEXT
Ripon continues Midwest Conference action at Knox on Saturday (December 9). Tipoff from Galesburg is scheduled for 3 p.m.

FOLLOW
Follow Ripon College Red Hawks Athletics on Facebook and @RiponRedHawks on Twitter for immediate updates, results and more. Go to riponredhawks.com for all information, releases and schedules.