RIVER FOREST, Ill. -- A surge midway through the second half allowed the Lawrence University men's basketball team to post an 87-72 nonconference win Friday at Dominican (Ill.) University in the River Forest Classic.
Lawrence plays at Concordia (Ill.) University at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Andy Hurley and Ben Rosenblatt scored 15 points apiece to pace the attack for Lawrence in the regular-season debut of first-year head coach Joel DePagter. Hurley narrowly missed a double-double, as he pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. Ryan Kroeger added 11 points for Lawrence.
The Vikings began pulling away late in the first half, with Lawrence going on a 13-6 run over the final 5:17 to build a 45-38 lead at the break.
Dominican battled back and cut the lead to 58-55 on Jose Garcia's layup with 12:44 left in the game.
Lawrence scored the next five points, as Ryan Wendel hit a jumper and Tommy Schmidt buried a 3-pointer. After a basket by the Stars, Lawrence scored the next nine points, capped by Kroeger's 3-pointer, to take a 72-57 lead with 9:03 remaining.
Dominican never got closer than 12 points after that, and the Vikings led by as many as 21 points down the stretch.
The Vikings have now won seven of their last eight season openers.