APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University men’s basketball team opened the second half Saturday with a 3-point shooting blitz, and that sparked the Vikings to a 63-54 Midwest Conference victory over Illinois College at Alexander Gymnasium.
Lawrence made its first five 3-point attempts and seven of its first eight in the opening five minutes of the second half to turn 10-point deficit into a five-point lead. The Vikings went 8-for-15 from beyond the arc in the second half.
Pete Winslow had his second consecutive hot shooting night for Lawrence (6-6, 6-2 MWC). Winslow went 6-for-10 from the floor, including 5-for-7 from 3-point range, to finish with 17 points. Winslow went 5-for-6 on 3-pointers in Friday’s win over Cornell to finish 10-for-13 from long distance in the two games.
Jeremy Stephani led Lawrence and all scorers with 23 points and added six rebounds and three assists with no turnovers in 34 minutes.
Mason Speer scored the first 11 points for Illinois College (3-10, 0-8) and finished with 22. Mitchell Patterson added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Blueboys.
Lawrence struggled mightily in the first half and trailed 30-20 at the break. After the Vikings missed the opening shot of the second half, Winslow grabbed the rebound and Stephani drained a 3-pointer.
That started a 21-6 outburst for the Vikings over the first 4:52 of the half. Winslow then hit a triple and rookie Quinn Fisher followed with another 3-pointer. Winslow then buried back-to-back 3-pointers before a miss by Stephani. Stephani came right back to hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Lawrence led 41-36.
Illinois College recovered and tied the game for the final time at 43-43 with 11:26 left. The Vikings then inched away as Illinois College missed its next five shots from the floor and committed a pair of turnovers.
Connor Weas went 4-for-4 from the foul line, and the Vikings got baskets from Winslow and Eric Weiss to build a 51-44 lead with 6:25 left.
The Blueboys closed to within 53-47 on a pair of Tim Parks free throws with 3:29 left, but Winslow countered by draining another 3-pointer. Speer made a very long 3-pointer to get the Blueboys to within 57-52, but the Vikings sealed the win at the foul line.
Lawrence made 6-of-8 free throws in the final 48 seconds and went 13-for-18 from the line in the second half.