Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Grinnell College men's basketball team remained atop the Midwest Conference standings, and Griffin Lentsch '13 reached a milestone, as the Pioneers avenged an earlier loss to Illinois College by winning a 106-102 thriller Tuesday night.

Lentsch reached the 1,500-point mark for his career during the game, making him just the eighth Pioneer to accomplish that feat. He finished with 16 points.

Luke Yeager '15 led the Pioneers' scoring charge with 24 points, including 10-of-15 from the field as Grinnell improved to 8-2 in the MWC and 11-3 overall. Tague Zachary '15 and Aaron Levin '14 had 12 points apiece, with Levin making four 3-pointers and Yeager and Zachary three apiece. For the game, Grinnell was 15-of-37 from 3-point land.

Garrett Nitz '13 led the team in assists with five, Yeager had three steals and Marques Valdez '13 grabbed seven rebounds.

Brandon Berry scored 27 points for the Blueboys, who are 4-6 in the league and 7-8 in all games.

It was tight for a good portion of the first half before a late run by Grinnell helped the visitors pulled away. Leading by a point, Yeager hit consecutive 3-pointers and Cody Olson '14 made a layup for a 48-38 lead. Zachary finished off the 11-point run with a trey for a 51-38 edge with 2:44 left.

The Blueboys rallied a bit after that and were down 56-48 at halftime.

Grinnell went up by as many as 16 in the second half before Illinois College slowly rallied to make things interesting. The hosts got within one with 1:30 left, but Yeager converted a steal into a layup to put the Pioneers ahead 103-100 with :44 remaining.

Berry hit two free throws to again bring Illinois College within a point at the :33 mark before Joe Rogers '13 was fouled, hitting one free throw to make it a two-point game. Illinois College then missed a 3-pointer and fouled Lentsch, who calmly sank both charity tosses with :09 left to make it 106-102 and secure the victory.

Grinnell plays a MWC contest at Ripon College on Saturday. Game time is 3 p.m.