STEVENS POINT, Wis. - Saturday's women's basketball season-opener will likely be one of Ripon's toughest tests of the season. They battled 20th-ranked Carthage College in the first game of the UW-Stevens Point Tip-Off Tournament, keeping the lead to single digits for much of the first half, before Carthage ultimately pulled away for a 70-49 victory.

The game was very tight in the early going, with two ties and two lead changes in the first four minutes. With Carthage (1-0) nursing a six-point lead with eight minutes left before halftime, Emma McDonald cut that lead in half with one of Ripon's four first half 3-pointers. That would be as close as the Red Hawks (0-1) would get the rest of the day, as Carthage scored 12 of the final 14 points in the first half to take a 13-point advantage into the locker rooms.

Carthage led by double digits for the entire second half, leading by as many as 25 points. They finished the game shooting 58 percent (27-46) from the field and 44 percent (8-18) from 3-point range. Carthage also held a 37-22 rebounding advantage.

The Red Hawks were led by McDonald's 10 points, while Nicole Herkert added eight and Megan Jensen and McKenzie Banasik each scored six. Meg Ryan led the defensive effort with four steals, as Ripon forced 20 Carthage turnovers.

Carthage was led by a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds by Taylor Boardman. Kasey Kleiner led all scorers with 19 points, while Alexis Hahn and Erin Thomas added 15 and 13 points, respectively.

Ripon will be in action again Sunday against UW-Stevens Point in the Tournament's consolation game at 1 p.m. That game will again be played in Stevens Point, Wis. and can be seen live at,http://portal.stretchinternet.com/uwsp/.
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