Griffin Lentsch ’13 (pictured) of the Grinnell College men's basketball team Friday night as the Pioneers sailed by Beloit College 117-84 at Darby Gymnasium.
Lentsch scored a game-high 27 points with the aid of 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point land to surpass the 1,000-point mark for his career, the 21st Pioneer to accomplish that feat. He now has 1,016 points with still a season-and-a-half to go.
Additionally, Grinnell improved to 12-1 overall and 8-1 in the Midwest Conference.
Others scoring in double figures for Grinnell were Matt Skelly ’12 with 14 points, Luke Yeager ’15 with 12 and Matt Chalupa ’12 and Jesse Ney ’13 with 10 each.
Chalupa also had four assists, as did Dominique Bellamy ’13. Joe Rogers ’13 came up with six steals, Marques Valdez ’13 grabbed five rebounds and Jack Adams ’13 blocked four shots.
David Bremner had 19 points for the Buccaneers, who fell to 3-6 in the MWC and 4-9 overall.
Grinnell broke out to a 15-5 lead early on and continued to increase the margin, going up by 16 with 11:43 left in the first half. A bit later, at the 9:40 mark, a free throw put Lentsch at the 1,000-point mark for his career.
Beloit then rallied, coming as close as four points at 31-27 with 9:05 left before the Pioneers put together a key 20-6 run to pull away. Ney and Yeager each had two 3-pointers during the spurt, Chalupa and Skelly had one each and Lentsch a layup.
Grinnell led 68-50 at intermission and never looked back to stay unbeaten at home in 2011-12.
The Pioneers return to the home court Saturday, hosting Lawrence University at 4 p.m.
