MONMOUTH, Ill. -- The Lawrence University men's basketball team rallied in the second half Saturday at Glennie Gymnasium but came up short in a 69-61 Midwest Conference setback to Monmouth College.
    Lawrence trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half but trimmed the margin to four on multiple occasions before Monmouth pulled away.
    Casey Schoenecker was one rebound short of a double-double for the Vikings as he finished with 16 points and nine rebounds. Nicholas Gouriotis added 12 points for Lawrence (4-14, 2-7 MWC), and Landon Key had 10 points, four assists and two rebounds. Hogan Demovsky added seven points and seven rebounds for the Vikings.
    Zay Brown paced Monmouth (13-5, 7-2) with 22 points.
    The Scots led 43-28 early in the second half, but the Vikings started chipping away at the lead. Key's fastbreak layup was followed by a Liam Graham 3-pointer, and Schoenecker added a layup to trim the margin to 45-38.
    Monmouth stretched the lead back to 10 at 52-42 with 9:08 left, but Lawrence made another run. A three-point play from Schoenecker and layups from Demovsky and Gouriotis formed a 7-1 run to cut the lead to 53-49.
    The lead hovered between four and six points, and Key's layup with 3:04 left cut the margin to 59-55. Declan Flynn hit a 3-pointer for the Scots, and after a Lawrence turnover, Kyle Taylor's jumper pushed the advantage back to 64-55 with just under two minutes remaining. Lawrence could get no closer than seven points after that.