Junior forward Tristan Shoup notched a season-high 32 points, including 24 in the second half, but the Beloit College men's basketball team fell short of a comeback win in a 71-63 loss to Ripon College Wednesday evening in Flood Arena.
The Red Hawks dominated the first half shooting 52-percent (14-27) from the floor and a blistering 67-percent (4-6) from beyond the three-point arc. Beloit struggled offensively in the first 20 minutes of play shooting just 28-percent (9-32) from the field and making one of ten shots from long range in the half.
At the break, Ripon held a 32-19 advantage.
The Buccaneers picked up pace and got Shoup more looks in the second half to begin chipping away at the double-digit margin.
With 13:42 on the clock, the Bucs had whittled the lead down to four, 38-34. The Red Hawks responded and pushed the lead back to eight and eventually nine after two free throws made it 61-52 with 4:10 on left to play.
Just over a minute later, with the scoreboard reading 63-55 in favor of Ripon, an Andrew Walters Layup on a set play off a perfect alley-oop pass from Darin Empereur made it 63-57. A Red Hawk free throw pushed the lead back to seven but Shoup came up big draining a three-pointer just seven seconds later to pull Beloit within four, 64-60 with 1:26 to play.
Out of a Buccaneer timeout, the Beloit defense swarmed and nearly forced a turnover but the whistle was blown and foul called. Ripon made the second of the two opportunities. Again the Bucs pushed the pace and Mason Jones found a sliver of daylight on the left wing to elevate and get off the shot. The heave looked long right away but the bank was open and Beloit cut the margin to two, 65-63 with just under a minute remaining.
Ripon took a timeout after the Bucs had a guard trapped near midcourt but Trent Jones hit a three as the shot clocked ticked down to make it 68-63 with just 24 seconds left to crush the Bucs' momentum.
After a three-point miss on Beloit's end, Ripon was able to inbound and push the ball up the court into their offensive zone. A layup, foul and free throw with seven seconds left sealed the game.
Beloit evened the first half shooting gap shooting 54-percent from the floor and draining five threes in the second half but free throws made the difference as Ripon was 11-15 in the game compared to Beloit's 1-1.
Shoup led all players with 32 adding seven rebounds. Walters hauled in a game-high nine boards and Empereur dished out a game-high four assists in the contest.
