By: A free throw with less than four seconds remaining was the difference as the Red Hawks defeated IC on Saturday afternoon, 54-53.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – A long second half drought from the Illinois College women's basketball team put the Lady Blues behind the eight-ball on Saturday afternoon, and the Ripon Red Hawks were able to escape with a 54-53 victory after converting a free throw with less than four seconds remaining. After a 3-0 start to Midwest Conference play, the Lady Blues fall to 5-3 overall (3-1 MWC), while Ripon ups its record to 5-2 (3-2 MWC).
Getting her first career start, freshman
Sydney Lett led all scorers in the game with 17 points in 38 minutes of action. Fellow freshmen
Brielle Greenleaf added 12 points for Illinois College in the game.
Lett and Greenleaf combined for the first seven IC points in the game to stake the Lady Blues to a 7-3 lead after nearly four minutes. Ripon's Maggie Oimoen scored inside to make it 7-5, but
Melissa Solorio dialed up a three-pointer to give Illinois College a 10-5 lead halfway through the first quarter. That early five-point lead for the Lady Blues was answered by a 6-0 run by the Red Hawks, but two free throws from
Mickalah York late in the period made it a 14-14 contest after 10 minutes and started a 9-0 run by Illinois College. A steal and layup by
Shannen Quehl gave IC its largest lead of the game at 21-14 with 8:30 to go in the first half.
Hanna Bergkoetter knocked in one of two from the charity stripe at the 6:21 mark of the second quarter to give Illinois College a 24-18 advantage, but the Red Hawks came back with a 7-0 run in the next three minutes before Lett was able to stop the run with a three-pointer. Another 7-0 run by Ripon followed however, and the lead was 32-27 for the visitors until
Alyssa Garde drove in for a tough finish at the rim and Greenleaf made a pair at the line in the final seconds of the first half. The Red Hawks went to the break with a 32-31 lead.
The basket seemed to have a lid on it in the third quarter for Illinois College. The Lady Blues went nearly seven minutes into the second half without a point, but tough defense from IC meant that its deficit was only seven when Quehl finally ended the scoreless streak at the 3:03 mark with a free throw. She later made a pair at the line, but those were the only points of the third quarter for the Lady Blues, who went into the fourth quarter facing a 40-34 deficit.
Bergkoetter and Quehl each made one of two early on in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't until Lett scored on a layup with 6:27 to play that Illinois College had its first field goal of the second half. On the other end, Emma McDonald swished a three-pointer to give Ripon its largest lead at 47-38 with 6:14 remaining.
Once the lid was lifted, a late rally seemed inevitable for the Lady Blues. York made a free throw to start a 6-0 run that was followed by a Solorio bucket in the paint and a Greenleaf three-pointer to make it 47-44 halfway through the final quarter. Later on, consecutive baskets from Lett made it 51-48 with 3:16 to play, but more than two minutes would go by before Greenleaf made one of two from the line to slice the deficit to two points at 51-49.
With less than 30 seconds to play, Oimoen made the second of two free throws to give the Red Hawks a 52-49 lead. Quickly down the floor,
Ashley Hoegger scored inside to pull Illinois College to within a point with 15 seconds left. Solorio was forced to foul – her fifth – sending IC's leading scorer on the year to the bench. McKenzie Banasik only made one though, giving the Lady Blues the ball with a chance to tie or lead. Illinois College wasted no time on the restart after a timeout, with Bergkoetter driving down the lane to tie the game at 53-53 with nine seconds left.
That proved to be just enough time for Ripon though. Oimoen was fouled near the basket with 3.7 seconds to play. She missed the first, but sank her second attempt to put the Red Hawks up by a point. With no timeouts left, the Lady Blues raced upcourt with the ball in the hands of Lett, but the freshman let the ball go a second too late and her three-pointer was waved off, giving Ripon the win.
Illinois College will look to regroup and get back in the win column on Dec. 22 with a road trip to St. Norbert College. The Lady Blues and Green Knights will meet in De Pere, Wis. at 7 p.m. that night.
