RIPON, Wis. -- Chris Page scored 24 points to lead five Lawrence University men's basketball players in double figures, as the 22nd-ranked Vikings downed Ripon College 87-83 Wednesday in a Midwest Conference game at the Storzer Center.
The victory completed the second season sweep of the Red Hawks in the past three years. Lawrence (17-2, 12-1 MWC) has now beaten Ripon seven of the last eight times the teams have met, which is the best stretch of success by the Vikings in the modern era of the century-old rivalry.
Page, the league leader in field goal percentage, hit 11 of 14 shots from the floor and pulled down eight rebounds. John Dekker came off the bench to add 17 points in 17 minutes of action. Andy Hurley had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Vikings. Chris Kellett had 24 points and Scott Gillespie added 22 for Ripon (9-12, 4-10).
Lawrence led all but the first three minutes of the game but couldn't put the Red Hawks away in the fierce rivalry game.
The Vikings led 71-68 after Gillespie's layup with 3:29 remaining. Doug Kadison then buried back-to-back 3-pointers, sandwiched around a Josh Bailen miss, to put Lawrence up 77-68 with 2:27 left. Page followed with a putback to give the Vikings a 79-68 edge, matching their largest lead of the game, with 2:07 remaining.
The game then became a free-throw shooting contest, and Ripon was able to narrow the margin to 86-80 with 26 seconds left. Ryan Kroeger, one of the top free-throw shooters in the conference, missed a pair of free throws, and Kellett hit a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left to cut the lead in half.
Following a turnover by Ben Rosenblatt, Kellett missed a 3-pointer that would have tied it. Rosenblatt grabbed the rebound and made the first free throw to put the Vikings up 87-83. A lane violation cost the Vikings the second-free throw attempt, but Tommy Schmidt stole the ball in the final seconds to seal the win.
Lawrence returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Beloit College at Alexander Gymnasium.