By: The Lady Blues had no answer for Ripon’s Maggie Oimoen, who shot 12-of-14 and scored a career-high 27 points.
Box Score
RIPON, Wis. – The Illinois College women's basketball team struggled to find consistent offense on Saturday, shooting under 29 percent from the floor in a 72-55 loss at Ripon College. Ripon's Maggie Oimoen led all scorers with a career-high 27 points and the Red Hawks used a 42-18 advantage in points in the paint to pick up the victory, improving to 11-6 (9-3 Midwest Conference). IC sinks to 10-7 (7-5 MWC) for the season.
The Lady Blues led only once on the afternoon.
Brielle Greenleaf was fouled on the opening possession of the game and made one of two at the line for a 1-0 lead. Quickly down on the other end, Oimoen scored on a short jumper and the Red Hawks would not trail from there. Illinois College stayed in contact for much of the first quarter, with
Jaicie Halleman knocking down a three-pointer that cut IC's deficit to 12-10 with less than four minutes remaining. Ripon ended the quarter on an 11-3 run however, taking a 10-point lead into the second quarter.
A solid stretch of play by Illinois College closed the gap to 26-23 following a pair of Greenleaf free throws halfway through the second quarter and the Ripon lead was still only three points with less than four minutes until halftime, but the Red Hawks were able to extend out to a 37-29 halftime lead.
After Ripon scored the opening two baskets of the third quarter,
Sydney Lett connected on a short jumper to get the Lady Blues on the board. Ripon maintained and grew the lead from there though, going ahead by 15 points late in the quarter before
Melissa Solorio was able to hit the last shot of the quarter to make it 56-43 entering the fourth.
Solorio opened the fourth quarter by hitting a three-pointer, but Illinois College would only make three more field goals the rest of the way. After Ripon took a 65-48 lead, IC went on a 7-0 run with five points scored by
Shannen Quehl, but less than five minutes remained at that point and the Lady Blues wouldn't score again the rest of the way.
Solorio led IC with 15 points on the day, with Quehl adding 13 points off the bench. Greenleaf had 11 and a team-high seven rebounds.
Illinois College returns home to Sherman Gymnasium on Jan. 31 to host Knox College at 5:30 p.m. The Lady Blues enter the game tied for fifth place in the MWC with Knox currently occupying the fourth and final spot in the MWC Tournament with six regular-season contests remaining.
