By: Tyler Semenas led Ripon with 14 points and three other players added 13 apiece as the Red Hawks had little trouble on Saturday afternoon.
Box Score
RIPON, Wis. – The Illinois College men's basketball team struggled from the floor and on the glass on Saturday, falling to Ripon College by a score of 73-56. The loss was the seventh straight for the Blueboys, falling to 7-16 (2-14 Midwest Conference). The Red Hawks, who have already qualified for the MWC Tournament, stayed alive in the race for the No. 1 seed, improving to 15-6 (12-4 MWC).
Ripon opened up the scoring with the first five points of the game before
Max Stutsman got Illinois College on the board two minutes in. The Red Hawks again countered with five points before Stutsman canned a jumper to make it 10-4 after four minutes. A three-pointer from
Mason Speer, the only IC triple of the first half, made it 20-15 in favor of the Red Hawks after 10 minutes, but the Blueboys only scored four points the remainder of the half and went to the break trailing, 33-19.
The Blueboys opened the second half on an 8-0 run with points from Stutsman,
Tim Parks and
Sean McDonald, but that was answered with a 12-0 run from Ripon to go up, 45-27. The lead continued to grow for the Red Hawks, peaking at 71-42 with less than five minutes left.
Illinois College played well down the stretch to shrink the deficit.
Isaac Collins sank three three-pointers in the final five minutes and
Brandon Shaon closed the scoring in the final minute of play.
Collins ended with a team-high 11 points for Illinois College. Stutsman had 10 points before fouling out and Parks had eight. The Red Hawks were led by Tyler Semenas with 14 points, and three other starters ended with 13. Isaac Masters had five points and eight assists.
Illinois College heads to Monmouth College for its final road game of the season on Feb. 13. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.
