The Lawrence University men’s basketball team turned in a superb defensive effort and rolled to a 63-42 Midwest Conference victory on Saturday over Beloit College at Alexander Gymnasium.
Erik Borresen turned in his second consecutive double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to pace Lawrence (6-4, 5-0 MWC), who are alone in first place in the MWC.
Chris Siebert, who was a perfect 3-for-3 on 3-pointers, added 11 points. Conor Klusendorf added 10 points, eight rebounds, one thunderous block and a pair of steals.
Michael Horton led Beloit (3-8, 2-4) with 11 points and David Bremner added 10.
Lawrence limited Beloit to 27.8 percent shooting from the floor (15-54), including 24 percent (6-25) in the second half. The Bucs hit on only 3 of 16 shots (18.8 percent) from beyond the arc.
The game was tight throughout the first half and was tied for the eighth time when Tyler Butke converted a three-point play to even the score at 24-24 with 3:34 left.
Klusendorf answered with a layup for the Vikings and Lawrence closed the first half on a 7-0 run to grab a 31-24 lead at the half.
Lawrence pushed the lead to 39-26 on Siebert’s 3-pointer with 15:48 left, but Beloit fought back. The Bucs cut the lead to 44-37 on Butke’s jumper with 9:57 left, but that was as close as they would get.
Lawrence then scored the game’s next 12 points to take command with a 56-37 lead. Borresen had four points in that run and Jon Mays added three. The Vikings would go on to lead by as many as 23 points.
Lawrence travels to Carroll University on Tuesday for the first of three consecutive road games next week.