It was a thriller all the way down to the wire, but in the end the Grinnell College men's basketball team had what it took to post a huge 117-116 victory over Ripon College Friday night at Darby Gymnasium.

The Pioneers hit four free throws with 4.2 seconds to go to pull way from a tied game en route to the Midwest Conference victory. With the win, the Pioneers improved to 5-2 in the league and 10-4 overall. Ripon fell to 1-6 in league play and 6-8 overall.

Ripon tied the game at 113-all on Chris Kellett's layup with 5.1 seconds left. He was fouled on the play, but missed the free throw and Paul Wise was called for a foul and subsequent technical foul on the rebound. John Grotberg '09 calmly sank two free throws for the Pioneers and P.J. Mahaffey '11 did the same for a 117-113 lead. The Red Hawks' Andy Perrine banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to account for the final score.

Grotberg (pictured) finished with 33 points and four steals on the night, while David Arseneault '09 added 27 points and five assists. Also in double-figure scoring were Bobby Long '09 with 21 points and Mike Schmidt '08 with 13. Patrick Laine '08 had seven rebounds. Ripon was led by Scott Gillespie, who scored 23 points.

The first half was back-and-forth a fair amount of the way before a late 7-1 surge gave Grinnell a 66-55 lead at intermission. Arseneault had three points during the run, while Grotberg and Ahmed Idrissa '09 had two each. Grinnell used a nice outburst early in the second half to build a lead as big as 13 points at 87-74 on a 3-pointer and free throw by Long.

But Ripon stormed back and eventually forced a number of ties and even led by two points on a few occasions. The teams were knotted at 107-all and again at 109-all before Grotberg hit a pair of free throws, the second after Ripon's bench was assessed its second technical foul of the game. Long added a free throw a bit later for a 112-109 lead before Gillespie's basket brought the visitors within one. Grotberg sank a free throw a bit later to give Grinnell a 113-111 lead to set up the exciting finish.

The Pioneers remain at home Saturday when league leader Lawrence University visits Darby Gymnasium for a 4 p.m. contest. The Pioneers have revenge on their minds after Lawrence handed them one of their league losses last Friday. After that, Grinnell travels to Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., for a 7 p.m. game on Wednesday.
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