Contact: Heather Benning, Executive Director, benningh@midwestconference.org

GRINNELL, Iowa – The 2020 NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament opened Friday with a field of 64 teams, two of which are from the Midwest Conference. Ripon College got its opportunity to participate in the post-season by winning the league’s end-of-season tournament and earning the Automatic Qualifier, while St. Norbert College was the recipient of one of 21 at-large bids awarded across the country. 

The Ripon Red Hawks faced Saint John’s University on the Johnnie’s home court in the second of two games at the Collegeville, MN site. Saint John’s concluded the regular season ranked No. 2 in the NCAA DIII West Region rankings with a 25-2 overall record and a 19-1 mark within the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The unranked Red Hawks (20-7, 14-4 MWC) entered Friday night’s game on an 11-game winning streak and kept the score close until St. John’s extended the lead from a consistent four points to eleven with just over six minutes left in the first. The lead continued to grow as Ripon went scoreless for a four-minute period, ultimately resulting in a 45-22 Johnnie’s advantage at the half.

While the Red Hawks were successful in closing the gap in the second period, the 23-point deficit ultimately proved too large to overcome and Ripon concluded its season with an 87-75 loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Senior Trent Jones led the Red Hawks with 31 points, while classmate Seth Kostroski contributed 19 including 15 on 5 of 9 shooting from beyond the arc.