RIPON, Wis. -- A scoring surge midway through the second half was the key as the Ripon College men's basketball team beat Lawrence University 87-75 in a Midwest Conference game Wednesday at the Storzer Center.
Scott Gillespie led Ripon (10-5, 6-3 MWC) and all scorers with 29 points and 10 assists. Aris Wurtz added 26 points for the Red Hawks.
Erik Borresen hit a new career high in scoring for the second consecutive game and paced Lawrence (7-9, 4-5 MWC) with 25 points and seven rebounds. John Dekker added 19 points and Dustin Lee had 12.
Ripon led by as many as nine points early in the second half, but Lawrence sliced that lead to one point on two occasions, the last coming on Borresen's jumper with 12:38 left to make it 55-54.
Ripon responded by going on a 13-1 run over the next 2:39 to stretch the lead to 68-55. The Red Hawks stretched the lead to as many as 15, but the Vikings battled back.
Dekker scored eight consecutive points for Lawrence, and Borresen added a layup to cut Ripon's lead to 76-69 with 4:21 left.
Ripon scored the next six points, and Lawrence would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
Lawrence returns home to face Carroll University on Saturday.