By: Hannah McGinnis led the Lady Blues with 22 points and eight rebounds in the 60-45 victory, becoming the 10th-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder in Illinois College history.
Box Score RIPON, Wis. – The Illinois College women's basketball team bounced back from its midweek loss to Knox with a dominating defensive performance on Saturday, improving to 5-3 (3-1 Midwest Conference) with a 60-45 defeat of Ripon College on the road in Ripon's Wyman Gymnasium.
Hannah McGinnis paved the way for a Lady Blues victory with 22 points and eight rebounds – in the process, moving into the Top 10 for points all-time at IC with 1,079 and also becoming the second-leading rebounder in program history with 761 and counting for her career.
Though Illinois College would limit Ripon to 35 percent shooting in the game and force 21 turnovers, it was actually the Redhawks who got off to the quick start.
Hannah McGinnis and
Melissa Solorio each connected for buckets in the opening minute, but the Lady Blues saw that 4-0 lead dissipate at the hands of an 11-2 stretch from Ripon, who took an 11-6 lead with 14:18 remaining in the first half after a jumper from Jonalee Elliott.
That would prove to be the largest lead of the day for the Redhawks and it was promptly answered by a 6-0 run from Illinois College to reclaim a one-point edge. With the game knotted at 15-15, an
Ashley Hoegger three-pointer on one end was cancelled out by a triple from Ripon's Meg Ryan on the other to make it 18-18 with 8:26 until halftime. The Redhawks would not score again for more than six minutes, in which time IC had reeled off a 9-0 run capped by an
Alyssa Garde three-pointer. The Lady Blues took a 28-20 lead into the break.
A nice start to the second half by the Redhawks brought them within three points after five minutes. With the score 35-32 in favor of Illinois College, McGinnis started a game-changing 12-0 run with consecutive baskets in the paint, followed by a three-point play from
Jill Friedrich.
Maddy Keith then diced up the Ripon defense on a driving layup and Friedrich gave the Lady Blues a 15-point lead with a three-pointer to go up 47-32 with less than 10 minutes remaining in the contest. A Redhawk free throw momentarily stopped the bleeding, but Friedrich had the answer with two freebies of her own and McGinnis gave the Lady Blues their largest lead of the game, 51-33, with 7:02 to play. Ripon could get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
McGinnis became the 13th member of the Lady Blues' 1,000-point club earlier this season and today she passed Martha Vest (1,071 points, 1995-99) for 10th place all-time on the scoring charts. She also came into the game needing two rebounds to overtake Vickie Meiners (754 rebounds, 1989-93) for second place in that category and got those in the first half of action. Friedrich provided IC with a lift in her first start of the season, playing nearly all 40 minutes and scoring 14 points.
Illinois College is back home in Sherman Gymnasium on Dec. 17 for a key MWC battle against St. Norbert College at 5:30 p.m. The Green Knights enter the game ranked No. 22 in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 poll.
