The win ensures that the Pipers will finish the season above .500 for the first time since the 1993-94 campaign in which the team went 14-10 overall. It is also the first time the Pipers have posted a 14-win record since that year.

Carl Hipp (Jr., Little Canada, Minn.) opened the game with a dunk and a pair of free throws to get the Pipers going against the Royals. The score knotted up at 8-8 just over four minutes into the game before the Pipers scored five straight points to open up a 13-8 lead at 13:16.

The Pipers led by a dozen at the mid-point of the half when Brandon Rieg (So., Riverside, Calif.) drained a three-pointer for a 25-13 advantage. They led by double-digits until the Royals started clawing their way back into the game in the final six minutes of the half.

With the Pipers up 34-22, Bethel scored seven straight points to cut their deficit to five, 34-29, at 4:16. They closed the gap to two, 37-35, on a pair of Daniel Baah (So., Farmington, Minn.) free throws with 12 seconds to play in the half, but Andy Voigt’s (Fy., Minneapolis, Minn.) lay-up as the buzzer sounded gave Hamline a 39-35 halftime lead.

Hipp led the Pipers in the opening half with 14 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks. Baah had 17 points to lead the Royals in the first half.

A tight opening four minutes of the second half started to open up for the Pipers as Brown snagged a steal and dunked it at 15:49. Christian Taber (Fy., Brooklyn Park, Minn.) added a pair of points before Hipp converted on a lay-up and free throw combo to put Hamline up 51-43 at 14:38.

Bethel responded with a 7-2 run to close to within three, 53-50, at the 12-minute mark. The teams exchanged a series of lay-ups to get the Pipers’ five-point lead back at 59-54 with 10 minutes to play in the game.

Hamline then opened it back up, going ahead by 10, 66-56 with seven minutes to play on a three-pointer from the top of the arc by Brown. The Pipers never looked back from there as Rieg hit a trio of threes within a two-minute span around the five-minute mark to put the game away.

Hipp finished with 29 points, 14 rebounds, and five blocked shots. He now stands 25 points away from the 1,000 career point milestone.

Brown tallied 15 points, eight boards, and six assists, while Rieg scored 12 and Taber had 11. Nick Carroll (Sr., Mendota Heights, Minn.) stepped up on defense with three blocked shots

Bethel was led by 21 from Baah and 19 from Nate Robertson (Sr., Forest Lake, Minn.).

Hamline improves to 14-7, 10-6 MIAC with the conference win while the Royals fall to 10-10, 6-9 MIAC. The Pipers remain at home at Hutton Arena to host Gustavus on Saturday, February 6, at 3:00 p.m. The game will be the second in a women’s-men’s double-header.