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The Lawrence University men’s basketball team hung on for an 89-86 double-overtime win over Knox College Friday night in a Midwest Conference game at Alexander Gymnasium.

Tyler Crisman hit seven 3-pointers, one shy of the school record, and finished with a career-high 25 points to pace Lawrence (8-6, 7-2 MWC). Erik Borresen added 24 points and a game-high 15 rebounds for the Vikings.

Tanner Carlson paced Knox (1-14, 0-10) with a triple-double of 11 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. David Jones scored a team-high 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Prairie Fire.

Knox led by as many as nine points in the second half before the Vikings rallied. Lawrence trailed 55-46 before the Vikings went on a 15-2 run to take a 61-57 lead with 5:48 left. Chris Siebert scored five points in that run and Jon Mays added four.

The teams then traded the lead six times in the final 4:48. Crisman hit a 3-pointer with 47 seconds left to give Lawrence a 72-71 lead. He added a pair of free throws with 27 seconds left to put the Vikings up 74-71.

Carlson then hit a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left to tie it and force overtime.

Knox quickly jumped out to an 80-75 lead in the first overtime before back-to-back layups from Siebert and Conor Klusendorf trimmed the lead to 80-79. After a layup from Matt Goedeke, Siebert threw down a dunk to cut the lead to 82-81 with 55 seconds left.

Jones missed a jumper for Knox, and Siebert was fouled with seven seconds left. He hit one free throw to tie the game at 82-82, and Goedeke missed a layup at the buzzer to force a second overtime.

The game was tied at 86-86 when Borresen scored and was fouled with 1:31 left. He converted the conventional three-point play to give Lawrence an 89-86 lead.

Freshman Brian Gryszkiewicz then stole the ball from Ian Horvath with 59 seconds left. The Vikings turned it over to give Knox another shot to tie the game, but Joe Kozak missed a 3-pointer with seven seconds left. Horvath grabbed the rebound for Knox, but the Prairie Fire didn’t get another shot off before the buzzer.

Lawrence returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Grinnell College.

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The Lawrence University men’s basketball team is hoping Dorothy was right and there really is no place like home.

The Vikings are playing their next four games in the friendly confines of Alexander Gymnasium before facing a brutal stretch of road games in February.

“It’s a crucial stretch because it could put us in good position,” Lawrence coach Joel DePagter said. “We need to be in a good position because February is going to be tough. It always is and we’re going to be on the road a lot.”

Lawrence faces Knox and Grinnell at home on Friday and Saturday, respectively, and then hosts St. Norbert on Jan. 26 and Carroll on Jan. 29. Lawrence’s schedule in February features six games, including five on the road.

If the Vikings want to be one of the four teams playing in the Midwest Conference Tournament at the end of February, the Vikings will have to take care of business on the home court.

“It’s nice to be back at home where we’ve played very well, especially after last weekend when you realize how brutal and tough the road trips to Iowa and Illinois are,” said DePagter, citing Lawrence’s split of games at Grinnell and Monmouth on Feb. 14-15.

“After you take one of those trips, you get very excited when you don’t see a bus pull up in front of Alexander for a few weeks.”

The Vikings are 6-2 in Midwest Conference play and are just a half-game behind first-place St. Norbert. Lawrence is 4-0 against MWC opponents at home this season, and DePagter needs his team to maintain its winning ways at Alexander Gymnasium.

“This weekend is huge,” DePagter said. “It’s a chance to be 8-2 going into the second half of the season, which any of us would have taken entering the season.

“We’ve got to take care of business this weekend at home. The guys have played well at home and are confident.”

In its four home games against the MWC, Lawrence has shot 53.8 percent from the floor, including 46.6 percent from 3-point range, and is averaging 74.5 points per game. The Vikings have limited the opposition to 34.6 percent shooting from the floor, including 24 percent from beyond the arc.

“We can score. We are eighth in the nation or something like that in field goal percentage,” DePagter said.

“Our defense has been pretty solid this year, and we have unbelievable team chemistry. Our guys love playing with each other. That certainly is something that makes an average team a good team and a good team a great team.”

While DePagter knows February is going to be tough for his team, he also realizes the rest of league faces problems of its own.

“The conference is so balanced from one to 10. Any team could beat any other team on a given night this year,” DePagter said. “The only solace you take, knowing how hard our schedule is going to be, is that everyone else’s schedule is hard.

“If we do the things that we’ve been doing, we’ll get to play some extra games this year. All we can control is what we do, and hopefully that will get us into some postseason play.”

Raymond picks up weekly award

Defenseman Jameson Raymond has been named the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association Defensive Player of the Week.

The junior from Flint, Mich., won the honor after Lawrence’s sweep of a weekend series at Finlandia University. Raymond scored two goals, including the game-winner, in Lawrence’s 5-3 victory over the Lions this past Friday. Raymond was a plus-4 on the weekend, which included a 3-2 win over Finlandia on Saturday.

This is the third time in his career that Raymond has won a MCHA weekly award. He was the Freshman of the Week and the Defensive Player of the Week during the 2008-09 season.

Editor’s Note: Inside LU Athletics is a weekly notes package written by Lawrence University Sports Information Director Joe Vanden Acker. It will feature teams and individual players, recap weekly awards or highlights and take a look at what’s ahead for the Vikings.

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Jon Mays poured in a career-high 27 points, and the Lawrence University men’s basketball team topped Monmouth College 75-67 in a Midwest Conference game Saturday at Glennie Gymnasium.

Mays was 12-for-19 from the floor, including 3-for-7 from 3-point range, to pace the Vikings (7-6, 6-2 MWC). Chris Siebert added 17 points, seven rebounds and a game-high seven assists.

Tyler Crisman chipped in with 13 points and six assists for the Vikings. Lawrence’s Erik Borresen pulled down 18 rebounds, matching the career high he set Friday night at Grinnell College.

Corey Gruber led Monmouth (3-10, 2-7) with 18 points, and Bryce Donaldson added 17 points.

Lawrence led by as many as eight points early in the first half, but Monmouth rallied to take a three-point lead at one point. Lawrence closed the first half with five consecutive points, including a 3-pointer from Siebert with five seconds left, to take a 43-38 lead at the break.

It was a tight second half and Monmouth grabbed its final lead of the game at 66-63 on back-to-back baskets from Gruber and Michael DeDecker with 6:19 remaining.

Lawrence then scored the game’s next 10 points with Siebert leading the way.

Siebert answered with a layup to cut the lead to 66-65, and then he buried a 3-pointer with 5:06 left that gave Lawrence the lead for good at 68-66. After a missed 3-pointer by DeDecker and Gruber, Brian Gryskiewicz scored on a layup to give Lawrence a 70-66 lead with 4:00 left.

A Monmouth turnover and another missed 3-pointer was followed by Crisman’s layup that gave the Vikings a 72-66 edge. After three consecutive missed jumpers, the Scots were forced to foul.

The Vikings then hit three free throws, including two by Siebert, in the final 40 seconds to seal the win.

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