RIPON, Wis. - Playing in front of a packed house of alumni on their annual Alumni Basketball Day, the Ripon College men's basketball team put forth one of their best performances of the season, defeating Illinois College 73-56 on Saturday in a game that they led from start to finish. The Red Hawks dominated the boards to the tune of a 52-29 rebounding advantage, with 17 of those 52 boards coming on the offensive end, and outscored the Blueboys 15-0 on second-chance points.

Ripon (15-6, 12-4) came out firing, scoring the game's first five points, en route to a 10-2 lead just three and a half minutes into the contest. Illinois College (7-16, 2-14 MWC) closed the gap to 20-15 later in the half, before Ripon ended the half on a 13-4 run to take a 14-point halftime lead.

Illinois College began the second half by scoring the first eight points of the period to cut the lead to six, but that's as close as it would get the rest of the day. Ripon scored the next 12 points in a three-minute span, including 3-pointers by Isaac Masters and Elliot Hoerdemann, to put the game away. The Red Hawks would lead by as many as 29 points in the second half.

Ripon saw two players record double-doubles, as Tyler Semenas posted his second double-double in a three-game span with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Kyle Rutkowski tied career-highs with 13 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double. Trent Jones and Cal Schultzeach added 13 points, while Masters tied a career-high with eight assists, to lead all players.

Cornell was led by Isaac Collins' 11 points off the bench. Max Stutsman added 10 points and three rebounds for the Blueboys.

The win gives Ripon its fifth consecutive season with at least 15 wins, which is the longest such streak since accomplishing that feat in 15 straight years from 1985-2000. The win also helps Ripon keep pace with the rest of the conference, as they remain in a three-way tie for second place in the Midwest Conference standings, just one game behind Monmouth.

The Red Hawks will be in action again on Tuesday when they'll host Lawrence University. That game will begin at 5:30 p.m., and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.