The Vikings took a pair of Midwest Conference games from Ripon College. The Lawrence women beat Ripon 82-60 and earned a berth in the conference tournament in the process. The Lawrence men beat Ripon 65-62 to keep their conference tournament hopes alive.
The Lawrence women are now 11-9, 10-4 in the conference. St. Norbert College, Lawrence's opponent on Wednesday, and Lake Forest College have also secured spots in the league tournament. Ripon (9-11, 7-7) was knocked out of contention for a tournament berth with the loss. The Lawrence men improved to 9-10, 6-7 in the conference, and remain in fifth place in the league. The Vikings face a critical game Monday at Carroll, which is also 6-7 in the conference. The top four teams make the league tournament.
In the men's game, the Vikings (9-10, 6-7) trailed by as many as seven points in the second half before rallying. Down 39-32, the Vikings went on a 9-2 run, capped by Mike Cogill's 3-pointer, to tie the game at 41-41.
It was a see-saw battle from that point, and the Vikings managed to build a 59-54 lead. Ripon's Josh Glocke then hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 59-57. The Red Hawks (16-4, 10-4) tied the game at 59-59 on a pair of Steve Kohl free throws, but Dustin Pagoria countered with a layup to put the Vikings ahead 61-59.
Ripon took its last lead of the game when Steve Brooks nailed a 3-pointer to put the Red Hawks up 62-61. A pair of free throws from Adam LaVoy, who finished with 23 points, put the Vikings ahead 63-62 with 1:38 remaining.
Brooks then missed a 3-pointer, but the Red Hawks got the rebound. After a foul by Pagoria, Kohl went to the free-throw line with 56 seconds left but missed the front end of the bonus and LaVoy rebounded.
Cogill then hit a pair of free throws with 25 seconds left to put Lawrence up 65-62. Glocke missed a 3-pointer but Ripon got the ball back when the ball went off a Lawrence player out of bounds with two seconds left. Ripon failed to get off a shot as the buzzer sounded.
Glocke finished with 24 points to lead all scorers, and Brooks added 11 points for Ripon. Cogill finished with 16 points, and Mark Conard had a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Lawrence women used an outburst over the final 6:29 of the first half to take control against the Red Hawks. Lawrence trailed 19-18 but went on a 14-4 run to take a 32-23 lead at the half.
The Vikings steadily built their lead from that point and led 47-27 at the 13:54 mark of the second half. Ripon never got closer than 15 points the rest of the way.
Lawrence had five players score in double figures. Beth Pollnow had a game-high 17 points and hit 11 of 12 free throws. Jenny Carney added 13 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Joy Rogatzki had 11 points and Gina D'Amico and Sara Snyder had 10 points apiece.
AnnMarie Ibis led Ripon with 17 points, and Molly Kneip added 14.