RIPON, Wis. - Jaylen Mahone had his second 20-point game in a row, but the Ripon College men's basketball team could not slow down the Monmouth College attack from deep as the Scots hit 52 percent of its three-pointers to defeat Ripon, 82-73. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak.
 
Monmouth got out of the gates quickly and had a 10-point lead just over 6 minutes into the contest. The Ripon deficit ballooned to 13 points just minutes later before the Red Hawks pieced together a run that brought it to a 26-21 game with a little over 5 minutes before halftime. From there, however, the Ripon offense went quiet, and Monmouth's did not. The Scots closed the half on a 21-4 run and took a 22-point lead into the locker rooms.
 
The Red Hawks watched as Monmouth's hot shooting continued in the second half to the point that Ripon trailed by 28 points, at 59-31, with 15:05 remaining. Over the next 5 minutes, Ripon began to chip away at their deficit, trimming it to 17 points at 61-44. After Monmouth pushed their lead back over 20 points, Ripon again got to work, this time using the next 6-plus minutes to piece together a run that cut it all the way down to a 4-point game with 1:13 to go. Ripon was in a position to make it a single-possession game with one minute to go, but a turnover flipped possession back to Monmouth and the Scots would hit 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch to send Ripon to defeat.
 
Mahone had 22 points and 5 rebounds while Ryan Steffes had 18 points and 8 rebounds.
 
Ripon will look to get back into the win column on Tuesday, February 14^th when the Red Hawks take on Lake Forest College. The road contest is set to tip at 7:30 p.m.