FOND DU LAC, Wis. — The Marian University men’s basketball team rallied early in the second half to take the lead, and the Sabres never gave it back in a 74-65 nonconference win over the Vikings on Wednesday at Sadoff Gymnasium.
Cody Veleke had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to pace Marian (2-2). Jeff Harris added 19 points and six rebounds for the Sabres.
Chris Siebert led Lawrence (1-2) with 19 points, seven rebounds, three steals and three assists. Ryan DePouw added 13 points for the Vikings, and Davis DeWolfe had 11.
Conor Klusendorf recorded five blocks in the contest to tie the Lawrence record for blocks in a game.
Lawrence led by as many as eight points in the first half, and the Vikings were up 39-33 at the break. Marian outscored the Vikings 19-6 over the first nine minutes of the second half and led 52-45.
The Vikings started to creep back into the game, and Brian Gryszkiewicz scored four consecutive points, the last two coming on a steal and layup, to cut the lead to 54-51. A pair of Siebert free throws then trimmed the margin to 54-53 with 8:18 left.
Marian was able to hang onto the lead but couldn’t stretch it past three points. Max Burgess pulled the Vikings back to even when he hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 62-62 with 4:29 left.
Richard Knar countered with a jumper for Marian, and Mike Keller then hit a pair of free throws to push the lead back to 66-62 with 3:32 left. Burgess hit another 3-pointer to cut the lead back to 66-65 with 2:56 left, but the Vikings went cold after that.
Lawrence had consecutive turnovers and missed its next three shots from the floor. Marian hit six consecutive free throws in the final 1:13 to seal the win.
The difference in the game was at the foul line. Marian was 26-for-31 from the stripe while Lawrence connected on only 13 of 23 from the line.
The Vikings return to action on Dec. 2 when they travel to Illinois College.