APPLETON, Wis. — The Cornell College men’s basketball team rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to post a 72-61 Midwest Conference win over Lawrence University on Saturday at Alexander Gymnasium.
Nick Bobb scored 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead Cornell (4-11, 3-7 MWC).
Ryan DePouw led Lawrence (5-9, 3-6) with 16 points, and Jamie Nikitas added 14 points. Mitch Willer came off the bench for Lawrence to score 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting in just 10 minutes of action. Trace Sonnleitner added 11 points for the Vikings.
Lawrence pulled away in the final three minutes of the first half to build a double-digit lead. The Vikings scored eight of the half’s final 10 points, with six coming from Nikitas, to grab a 40-29 lead at the break.
The Rams scored the first six points of the second half before DePouw hit a 3-pointer with 14:35 left to push the lead back to 43-35.
Cornell kept chipping away at the advantage and took the lead at 53-52 on Bobb’s layup with 8:05 remaining. The Rams steadily pulled away from that point and were up 65-58 after a pair of DePouw free throws with 1:55 left.
Lawrence was forced to foul at that point, and Cornell converted 7-of-8 free throws in the final 1:47 to seal the victory.
The Rams went 10-for-20 from the floor, including 4-for-8 from 3-point range, in the second half. Cornell’s defense also limited Lawrence to just 21 second half points on 24 percent shooting (6-for-25). Lawrence also committed eight of its 12 turnovers in the second half.