APPLETON, Wis. -- The Lawrence University men's basketball team pulled away early and rolled to a 65-38 Midwest Conference victory over No. 19 St. Norbert College on Saturday.
The victory pulls Lawrence (15-6, 11-3 MWC) to within a half-game of St. Norbert (18-4, 12-3) and Grinnell College for first place in the conference. The Vikings wrap up the season next week with games against Beloit College and Ripon College.
John Dekker scored 17 points, and Chris Page and Ryan Kroeger added 11 points apiece to lead Lawrence, which has now beaten the Green Knights 10 straight times. Lawrence also improved to 4-0 against ranked teams this season.
Dave Wipperfurth led St. Norbert with nine points. Lawrence held the Green Knights to 21.1 percent shooting (12-57) from the floor, including 9.5 percent (2-21) from 3-point range.
Lawrence hit seven of its first 11 shots from the floor and blasted out to a 17-3 lead with 12:18 left in the first half. Jayce Apelgren scored seven of his nine points in that opening stretch. Lawrence continued to pull away and led 31-10 on Dekker's jumper with 3:55 left in the first half.
St. Norbert closed the gap to 31-17 at the half by scoring the final seven points of the opening 20 minutes.
Dekker and Doug Kadison scored seven points apiece as Lawrence went on a 19-4 run to open the second half. Tyler Cullitan's layup with 12:34 left capped the run and gave Lawrence a 29-point lead at 50-21.
St. Norbert countered by scoring 13 straight points to cut the lead to 50-34 with 6:43 left, but Lawrence responded by scoring eight straight points, five by Page, to take a 58-34 lead and put the game away.
`