The Vikings beat Carroll College 87-76 in front of a capacity crowd of 1,380 Friday night in the semifinals of the Midwest Conference Tournament and are back in the tournament title game for the second consecutive season. Lawrence beat Carroll for the title a season ago.
Lawrence (18-5) will face Ripon College in the title game at 3:00 p.m. Saturday at Alexander Gymnasium. The Red Hawks (18-6) defeated Lake Forest College 75-60 in the other semifinal.
Jason Holinbeck scored 19 points to pace Lawrence. Chris Braier and Kyle MacGillis both had double-doubles for Lawrence. Braier finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds and MacGillis had 14 points and 10 boards. Matt Osland also pitched in with 12 points.
Lawrence, ranked 15th this week by D3hoops.com, built a huge lead before styming a Carroll rally to earn the victory.
Lawrence led 42-34 at the half and began steadily building its advantage. The Vikings went on a 25-7 run to open the second half and had their largest lead of the game, 26 points, at 67-41 with 10:39 left in the game.
The Pioneers (15-9) went on a run of their own at that point. Carroll's 19-3 outburst trimmed Lawrence's lead to 10 points at 70-60 with 6:44 remaining. The Pioneers would cut the lead to 10 points five more times down the stretch but could get no closer.
MacGillis was big in the final minutes. He scored nine of his 14 points in the final 6:27.
Ben Hickethier paced Carroll with 20 points, and Paul Toshner had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.