Joseph Vanden Acker

Author: Joseph Vanden Acker

Cornell rallies past Vikings in second half

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.

Box score

Rams hold off Lawrence

APPLETON, Wis. — It took two-time defending Midwest Conference champion Cornell College the entire second half Saturday to put away a pesky Lawrence University women’s basketball team by the score of 64-50 in a league game at Alexander Gymnasium.

Cornell (8-7, 6-4 MWC) led by just four at the half, and the Vikings (0-13, 0-9) were within striking distance until the final two minutes of the game.

Rikki Mulloy scored 17 points to pace the Rams, and Taylor Dicus added 14 points and eight rebounds.

Freshman Elizabeth Arco scored a game-high 19 points, grabbed six rebounds and picked up two blocks and two steals to pace Lawrence. Fellow rookies Olivia Hoesley and Danelle Buck added 10 points apiece for the Vikings, and Kassidy Rinehart pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.

Lawrence trailed by as many as eight points in the first half before scoring three consecutive baskets to cut the advantage to 17-15. Cornell pushed the lead back to seven, but the Vikings scored seven straight, including five from Buck, to tie the game at 24-24.

Cornell led 30-26 at the half, and the Rams extended the lead to 11 early in the second half. Lawrence trimmed the lead back to six points before the Rams stretched it back to 13 at 56-43. Lawrence kept chipping away and was still as close as nine points with less than two minutes left but couldn’t get any closer.

Box score

MSOE holds off Vikings

APPLETON, Wis. — MSOE scored a pair of goals in the final 45 seconds to turn back a Lawrence University rally and post a 5-2 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association victory on Friday night at the Appleton Family Ice Center.

Lawrence trailed 3-1 when the Vikings pulled goaltender Mattias Soderqvist with just over three minutes left. Freshman Jake Kreutzer scored his second goal of the night with the extra attacker on the ice to cut the lead to 3-2 with 2:14 left.

MSOE (10-6-0, 5-4-0 NCHA) got an empty-net goal from James Ring with 45 seconds left to stretch the lead to 4-2, and Omar Mullen capped the scoring with another goal with just 13 ticks remaining.

Soderqvist made 38 saves for the Vikings (5-10-1, 4-5-0) and took the loss. Nick Kohn stopped 19 shots for the Raiders to get the win.

MSOE jumped on top just 3:51 into the game on Cody Ganchar’s goal, but the Vikings countered with Kreutzer’s first goal of the night, a power-play tally, at the 8:41 mark of the first.

The Raiders made it 2-1 on Connor Enciso’s goal at the 17:13 mark of the first. Ring then picked up a short-handed goal just 43 seconds into the second period to put the Raiders up 3-1.

The teams wrap up the series Saturday night at the Kern Center in Milwaukee.

Box score

Hockey series preview: Lawrence vs. MSOE

APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University hockey team gets back to Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play this weekend when the Vikings face the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Lawrence hosts the Raiders at the Appleton Family Ice Center on Friday at 7 p.m. and then travels to MSOE for a 7 p.m. game Saturday night.

Preview

Vikings turn back Carroll, 69-62

APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University men’s basketball team turned back a Carroll University rally on Tuesday and posted a 69-62 Midwest Conference victory at Alexander Gymnasium.

Jamie Nikitas scored 18 points, including two on a clutch jumper in the final minute, and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds for the Vikings (5-8, 3-5 MWC). Jeremy Stephani came off the bench to add 15 points for Lawrence.

Bryan Nagy had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds for Carroll (7-6, 4-4). Kyle Keranen scored a team-best 18 points for the Pioneers.

Lawrence led 30-26 at the half but stretched that lead early in the second half. The Vikings scored eight consecutive points, including 3-pointers from Stephani and Trace Sonnleitner, to push the lad to 46-32 with 13:49 left.

Carroll responded with a 12-2 run, capped by a pair of Marcus Johnson free throws, to cut the lead to 48-44 with 9:37 left. The Pioneers kept reeling the Vikings in, and finally grabbed the lead at 61-59 on a pair of Keranen free throws with 2:15 remaining.

The Vikings broke Carroll’s press on the next possession and got a dunk from Mitch Willer, who picked up six points, five rebounds and three blocks, to tie the game at 61-61.

After a Keranen miss, Willer was fouled and knocked down a pair of free throws to give Lawrence a 63-61 lead. Johnson then missed a contested layup, and Nikitas hit a 17-foot fadeaway jumper with the shot clock running out to put the Vikings up 65-61 with 38 seconds left.

Keranen was fouled on the next possession and hit one free throw to cut the lead to 65-62, but the Vikings hit four consecutive free throws in the final 20 seconds to seal the victory.

Sonnleitner added 11 points and five rebounds for the Vikings before fouling out, and Ryan DePouw chipped in with 10 points.

Box score

Pioneers pulls away from Lawrence

APPLETON, Wis. — The Carroll University women’s basketball team steadily pulled away in the second half and posted a 58-34 Midwest Conference victory over Lawrence University on Tuesday at Alexander Gymnasium.

Malory Christenson paced Carroll and all scorers with 15 points, and Julie Piech added 13 points for the Pioneers.

Olivia Hoesley, making her first career start for Lawrence, led the Vikings with nine points. Bethany Hoster grabbed a game-high seven rebounds for the Vikings.

Carroll (10-3, 7-1 MWC) led 28-18 at the half, and Lawrence (0-12, 0-8) never got closer than 11 points in the second half. A jumper from Andrea Wilkinson and an Elizabeth Arco layup cut Carroll’s lead to 35-24 with 14:24 left in the contest.

Carroll then scored the game’s next eight points to push the lead to 43-24 with 11:55 left. The Pioneers’ biggest lead of the contest was the final margin.

Carroll won the game at the foul line by hitting 25-of-32 free throws. Lawrence, which turned the ball over 43 times, shot just 12 free throws in the contest. Carroll won despite hitting just 30.8 percent of its shots from the floor.

Box score

Johnnies skate past Lawrence

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The No. 15 St. John’s University hockey team scored the game’s first four goals and went on to a 6-2 nonconference victory over Lawrence University on Sunday at the National Hockey Center.

The Johnnies (7-3-4) scored just 2:34 into the game and then added a pair of goals just 34 seconds apart late in the period to grab a 3-0 edge after the first period.

Kevin Becker scored at the 3:16 mark of the second period for a 4-0 edge before the Vikings started to rally. Renato Engler got Lawrence (5-9-1) on the board at the 15:04 mark of the second to cut the margin to 4-1. Brendan Vetter then scored on the power play with just 1:03 left in the second period to trim the lead to 4-2.

That’s as close as the Vikings would get as Dan McNamara and Phil Johnson added third-period goals for the Johnnies.

Saxton Soley made 32 saves to pick up the win for St. John’s. Mattias Soderqvist stopped 34 shots for the Vikings.

Box score

Witter paces Vikings at Chicago Invitational

CHICAGO, Ill. — Lawrence University standout Paige Witter placed in the top five in three events to pace the Vikings swim teams at the University of Chicago Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

Witter grabbed fourth in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:02.39 and placed fifth in both the 200 butterfly (2:18.34) and 500 freestyle (5:23.87). Led by Witter, the Lawrence women were fourth with 525 points.

The top finisher on the women’s side was the 800 freestyle relay team of Witter, Taylor Winter, Emily Flack and Emei Thompson, which placed third in 8:15.24.

Winter also grabbed fourth in the 500 freestyle in 5:22.48, and Flack took home fifth in the 200 freestyle in 2:03.01.

The 200 freestyle relay team and 400 medley relay team both placed fourth, and the 400 freestyle relay team was fifth.

On the men’s side, Travis Charlow was the top finisher for the Vikings with a seventh-place finish in the 100 backstroke in 59.22 seconds. The 200 freestyle relay team also took seventh in 1:37.26.

The Lawrence men were sixth in the team standings with 172 points.

Results