Joseph Vanden Acker

GALESBURG, Ill. — The Lawrence University men’s basketball team scored 10 unanswered points midway through the second half Saturday and surged on to a 71-57 Midwest Conference victory over Knox College.

Jamie Nikitas led three Lawrence players in double figures with 22 points. Nikitas also had game highs with seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. Troy Miller added 17 points and four assists for the Vikings (8-10, 5-8 MWC) as he hit 5-of-8 from from 3-point range. Jeremy Stephani chipped in with 15 points for the Vikings and knocked down a trio of 3-pointers.

Miller, Stephani and Nikitas combined to go 11-for-21 from beyond the arc.

Braden Adams scored 17 points to pace the Prairie Fire (1-16, 0-12).

Lawrence led by just two at 42-40 when Nikitas drained a 3-pointer with 11:57 remaining. Lawrence’s Evan McLaughlin then stole the ball, was fouled and made one free throw for a 46-40 lead.

After Knox missed a jumper, Stephani buried a 3-pointer for a 49-40 edge. Knox turned the ball over on its next trip, and Nikitas followed with another 3-pointer to put the Vikings up 52-40 with 10:07 remaining.

George Mosialos hit a jumper for the Prairie Fire and Robert Suntken followed with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 52-45, but Miller responded for the Vikings. Miller hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push Lawrence’s lead to 58-45 with 7:07 left.

Knox got no closer than nine points after that. The Prairie Fire got the lead down to 67-57 with 2:04 left, but Knox missed its final five shots from the floor after that.

Lawrence held Knox to just 39 percent shooting from the floor for the game, and the Vikings feasted on the foul line. Lawrence went 21-for-26 from the stripe while Knox was 4-for-4.

The game got off to a rough start for the Vikings as Knox scored the first 10 points. Lawrence didn’t get on the board until Nikitas hit a pair of free throws with 13:32 left in the opening half.

The Vikings rallied during a stretch of 4:17 late in the first half to turn a 10-point deficit into a one-point lead. Lawrence trailed 22-12 when the Vikings went on a 13-2 run to take a 25-24 advantage. Miller scored five points during that stretch and capped the run with a 3-pointer with 2:53 left in the first half.

Knox recovered to take a 30-27 lead at the break as Adams hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer.

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APPLETON, Wis. — Jamie Nikitas will never be mistaken for “Pistol” Pete Maravich. There’s no long hair or floppy socks, but, just like the Pistol, the points are piling up for Lawrence University’s star guard.

Nikitas is having the greatest scoring season in Lawrence’s long basketball history and ranks among the top five scorers in all of NCAA Division III.

“I never thought of myself as a great scorer,” said Nikitas, who is averaging 26.9 points per game, good for fourth in Division III.

“At the beginning of the season, the first Ripon game gave me a lot of confidence that I could go out there and score that much. I’ve been playing aggressively and getting to the hoop and getting to the free-throw line.”

Nikitas scored what was then a career-high 34 points against Ripon College in the third game of the season and that propelled him forward. He has six 30-plus point games this season, including a career-best 40-point effort at Carroll University on Jan. 12. Nikitas also has been to the foul line 169 times, the second-highest season total in school history.

“From an individual ability standpoint, Jamie is up there near the top (in Lawrence history),” Lawrence coach Joel DePagter said. “I don’t want to say he is the tops, because there’s been a pretty good list. I know Jamie would trade all of this for more wins and a trip to the conference tournament.”

With a smaller roster this season after massive graduation losses over the past two years, DePagter knew the onus would be on Nikitas to perform. The Lawrence coach said before the season the Vikings would go as far as Nikitas could take them, but even he didn’t foresee this type of performance.

“He can go from spot A to spot B in the blink of an eye,” DePagter said. “He reminds me a little bit of myself. He’s a bit of risk-reward guy. I can relate to that because coach (John) Tharp used to yell at me quite a bit. We’re not going to tone him down. He has to be Jamie Nikitas.”

Nikitas just passed DePagter on Lawrence’s career scoring list and enters play this weekend in sixth place with 1,287 points. Just like DePagter was as a player, there’s more to Nikitas than just points.

“As a senior and my last go-round, I really want to be able to do all I can do,” Nikitas said. “If that means scoring 34 points, great. If that means dishing out six assists, great. Just figuring out what I need to do and adjusting night to night.”

In addition to leading the team in scoring, Nikitas also paces the team at 7.1 rebounds per game, 3.4 assists per game and 2.4 steals per game. He ranks in the top 10 in all of those categories in the Midwest Conference, including leading the league in steals.

“Jamie’s hard to describe. He’s got great basketball IQ,” DePagter said.

“He plays at a different level than most kids play. It has nothing to do with all the combine stuff, vertical jump, bench press, shuttle run, that stuff’s irrelevant to Jamie. He just plays hard.”

With just six games left in the regular season, Nikitas is staring down the end of his college basketball career. Nikitas, who would like to take a shot at playing professionally in Europe, believes he has done all he can for the Vikings but is sad to see it end.

“I don’t know if there’s anything else individually (that I want to do). What’s going to come is going to come. I just want to enjoy competing being with my teammates and the coaches,” Nikitas said.

“Just really enjoying being on a college basketball floor a last few times and the atmosphere at Alex. It’s not something everyone gets to do so I’m just really savoring all of it.”

Nikitas said he doesn’t think about the record book when he’s playing and seems amazed at where he stands in Lawrence history. Nikitas has the chance to join three-time All-American Chris Braier as the only player in Lawrence history to rank in the top 10 in career points, rebounds, assists and steals.

“He’s doing something that no one has done in a program that has had some pretty amazing players. I would have liked to have played with the kid, that’s for sure,” DePagter said.

“I think it’s pretty safe to say that he will go down as one of the greatest players to ever play at Lawrence.”

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Lawrence University men’s basketball team enjoyed a great shooting night and held off Lake Forest College 69-67 in a Midwest Conference game on Tuesday.

Jamie Nikitas paced Lawrence with 24 points as he hit 9-of-16 shots from the floor. Junior forward Mitch Willer, who missed the last game due to injury, came back with a vengeance and hit 8-of-9 shots from the floor on his way to 17 points for the Vikings (7-10, 4-8 MWC).

Jim Schick led four Lake Forest players in double figures with 16 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Lake Forest (9-7, 7-5) lost despite a 42-22 rebounding edge.

Lawrence was hot in the first half and hit 17-of-24 shots (70.8 percent) from the floor in building a 12-point edge late in the first half. The Vikings, who shot 55.3 percent for the game, led 40-32 at the break.

The Vikings pushed the lead to 48-35 on Nikitas’ layup early in the second half. Lake Forest steadily chipped away at the advantage and got the margin down to three points inside of two minutes to play.

The Vikings led 65-62 but had a pair of turnovers on its next two possessions. Lake Forest finally cashed in on Eric Porter’s layup with just over a minute left to cut the margin to 65-64.

After a Pete Winslow free throw pushed the margin back to 66-64, the Vikings came up with some big defensive plays. Lawrence forced Mike Rueffer into a traveling violation, and Nikitas was then fouled. He hit one free throw to give Lawrence a 67-64 lead.

After a missed 3-pointer by the Foresters, Nikitas was fouled again but missed the front end of the bonus. Lawrence got the ball right back as Troy Miller stole the ball from Porter with 14 seconds left.

Miller was fouled and made one free throw for a 68-64 edge with 9.2 seconds left. Porter then banked in a long 3-pointer to cut the margin to 68-67, and Nikitas was fouled on the ensuing possession with 2.4 seconds left. He made the first foul shot for a 69-67 edge.

Nikitas missed the second free throw, but the Foresters were unable to get off a desperation shot before time expired.

Lawrence trailed 10-8, but the Vikings took command of the first half with some seriously hot shooting. The Vikings made 9-of-10 shots from the floor during one stretch to turn a two-point deficit into a nine-point lead at 33-24.

Lawrence hit 13-of-14 shots from inside the arc in the first half as Nikitas scored 13 points and Willer added 10 in the opening 20 minutes.

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