The Grinnell College men’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the 2011-12 campaign Saturday afternoon, falling 109-106 to Carroll University in Waukesha, Wis.
The Pioneers, who are 11-1 overall and 7-1 in the Midwest Conference, got a big game from Patrick Maher ’14. He had 29 points, with the help of 3-of-7 shooting from 3-point range, and also had team-highs of nine rebounds and five assists.
Griffin Lentsch ’13 had 20 points, Luke Yeager ’15 scored 15 and Matt Chalupa ’13 tallied 10. Joe Rogers ’13 grabbed eight rebounds and Brian McManamy ’13 had seven.
Two players scored 27 points apiece for Carroll, which moved to 8-5 overall and 4-4 in the league.
The first half was tight most of the way before Carroll raced away to an 13-point lead. The hosts were still up by 11 late in the half before Yeager hit a layup, McManamy sank two free throws and Rogers had a charity shot to bring Grinnell within 55-49 at the break.
Carroll was up by as many as 15 in the second half, but the Pioneers again chipped away. Trailing by 11 with 5:51 left, Grinnell went on an 11-2 run to come within 93-91 with 4:01 left. Maher had four points during the run and Chalupa three.
Grinnell twice cut the gap to one, once at the 1:36 mark on a 3-pointer by Lentsch and again when a trey by Lentsch made it 107-106 with :05 left. However, Carroll made two free throws with :02 left and Grinnell’s final 3-pointer was off the mark to preserve the win for the hosts.
Grinnell entertains Beloit College this Friday at 7 p.m. in Darby Gymnasium.
