Four other Pioneers reached double-figures, led by senior Jason Scheper with 19 points. Junior Paul Toshner recorded a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds while juniors Buck Colomy and Adam Ligocki came off the bench to score 17 and 15 points, respectively.
Carroll held a slim 42-21 lead at halftime after shooting just 38.9% from the field in the opening 20-minutes. The Red Hawks scored the first bucket of the second-half and led by as many as six points with 18:16 remaining in the game.
The lead see-sawed back and forth until a Colomy three-pointer with 7:13 to play gave Carroll a 73-70 lead, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way. Ripon managed to pull within two points at 88-86 with 47-seconds remaining but four free-throws by Ligocki and two from freshman Trevor Stratton sealed the win for Carroll.
The Pioneers, ranked #22 in the latest D3hoops.com poll, improve to 19-2 overall, 13-1 in the Midwest Conference, while Ripon falls to 7-14 overall, 6-9 in the MWC.
The win also keeps Carroll in contention for their first Midwest Conference title in school history. The Pioneers trail Lawrence University by one-game but host the Vikings on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. A Carroll win on Wednesday would put Carroll in a tie with Lawrence with one game remaining. Both teams end the regular-season on Feb. 18 – Carroll at Beloit College, Lawrence hosting St. Norbert College.
Admission to the game is free. If you cannot attend, you can follow live, in-game stats at http://athletics.cc.edu/livestats/xlive.htm or listen to WCCX on the web at http://wccx.cc.edu .