Grinnell men's basketball team keeps MWC Tourney hopes alive with big win at Beloit

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BELOIT, Wis. - Trailing with just over six minutes remaining in Wednesday's game, Grinnell College's men's basketball team knew its Midwest Conference Tournament fortunes hung in the balance.

But like so many times, the Pioneers stepped up and rallied for a 107-94 victory at Beloit College. The win kept the Pioneers in the hunt for a repeat trip to the MWC Tournament as they improved to 9-8 in league play and 13-11 in all games.

Grinnell is tied for fourth place in the league standings with Monmouth College and just a half-game behind Lake Forest College. The Pioneers close the regular season with a huge game at Lake Forest Saturday, with tip-off set for 1 p.m.

Hannes Kogelnik '21 and Aiden Gilbert '23 provided Grinnell a solid one-two scoring punch, tallying 36 and 29 points, respectively. Gilbert was 10-of-18 from 3-point range and Kogelnik 10-of-20.

Jackson Qualley '21 added 18 points, Tommy Smith '21 added a career-best eight boards and Jackson Breshears '21 a career-high seven rebounds. Tyler Grumhaus '21 came up three steals and Breshears, Christian Brookens '22 and Gilbert all had two assists.

Grinnell got out to a 17-9 lead early in the game, but the Buccaneers rallied for a 51-48 halftime lead. Beloit kept up the momentum, going up by 11 at 67-56.

Grinnell didn't go away, though, as Qualley made consecutive jumpers and Kogelnik a trey to make it a four-point game. It was back and forth after that, with the hosts holding an 87-85 lead with 6:41 remaining.

Gilbert then came up with two free throws and Kogelnik hit a jumper and the Pioneers never trailed again. There were two ties, the last being 91-all with 5:34 left, when Grinnell all but put the game away with a 9-0 run. Gilbert began the spurt with a 3-pointer, Grumhaus added another and Gilbert sank a basket and free throw to make it a 100-91 lead with 4:33 left.

Beloit never got closer than six after that while falling to 6-11 in the MWC and 8-16 in all games.

Grinnell had movement on its all-time season-best chart in the game. Bebee boosted his blocked shots to total to 60 in 2019-20, good for third in program history. As a team, Grinnell's 1,043 rebounds rank eighth in program history and 882 field goals are 10th.