By: The Red Hawks went up by as much as 30 points in the first half and handed IC an 88-64 defeat on Saturday afternoon.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The graduation of All-American Ty Sabin was supposed to be a death knell for Ripon College's status as a top-tier Midwest Conference men's basketball team. As it turns out, the Red Hawks had plenty waiting in the wings. Isaac Masters and Tyler Semenas each shot 9-of-13 from the field and combined for 47 points on Saturday afternoon, spurring Ripon past Illinois College, 88-64. The Red Hawks remain in a tie for second place in the MWC at 12-5 (9-3 MWC), while IC slips to 7-12 (2-10 MWC).
Each team had trouble finding the basket early in the game until
Max Stutsman opened the scoring after 100 seconds with a layup from
Mason Speer. On the other end of the floor, Masters pulled up from long range and hit the first of six three-pointers for the senior guard on the day, giving Ripon the lead for good. Following a miss by IC on the other end, Masters splashed his second triple and Semenas pulled up from the elbow for his first two of the day, making it 8-2 after three minutes.
Sean McDonald had a tough finish in the paint to make it 8-4, but that margin would be as close as the Blueboys would get the rest of the game. Ripon answered with a 10-0 run, finished off by five straight points from Masters, increasing the lead to 18-4. The Red Hawks were on fire from outside the arc, hitting 12-of-18 as a team in the first 20 minutes. Masters and Semenas each had four of those, and Semenas connected on his first seven field goal attempts, helping open up a 45-15 lead with less than 14 minutes gone. The Blueboys closed the first half out well, but even so, trailed 56-32 at the break.
Masters began the second half with another three-pointer, and Ripon took its largest lead of the day, 68-36, on a Semenas jumper at the 16:46 mark of the second half. Over the next five minutes, Illinois College would put together a solid run of play highlighted by three-pointers from Speer,
Brady Hays and
David Bauer, bringing the Blueboys within 23 at 75-52. Time was always on Ripon's side however, and the closest that IC would get in the final minutes of the game was 83-61 with 4:19 left.
Speer had a team-high 21 points along with six assists for the Blueboys. Hays added 16 points. Bauer and
Riley Dugan each scored seven off the bench. Masters ended with 24 points and eight assists for the Red Hawks, while Semenas had 23. Seth Kostroski chipped in 14 off the bench.
Illinois College looks to rebound with a road game at Knox College on Jan. 30. Tip-off in Galesburg, Ill. is set for 5:30 p.m.
