MOUNT VERNON, Iowa - One day after winning their conference-opening game, the Ripon women's basketball team suffered their first conference loss, a 69-47 defeat at Cornell College. Ripon turned the ball over 32 times, which resulted in 23 Cornell points, while the Rams committed just 14 turnovers.

The first half was tightly contested, featuring five ties and five lead changes. Ripon's first lead came three minutes into the contest on a Megan Jensen 3-pointer to give the Red Hawks a 6-4 advantage. The lead would change hands several times after that, with neither team leading by more than four points. Ripon (3-3, 1-1 MWC) took a two-point lead with four minutes left in the second quarter on a layup by Jonalee Elliott, but that would be the team's last lead of the contest, as Cornell (4-2, 2-0 MWC) ended the half on a 12-0 run.

Cornell extended their lead in the third quarter, which saw the Rams outscore Ripon 17-6, leading by as many as 21 points. Cornell's largest lead of the game came towards the end of the fourth quarter when they held a 27-point advantage.

Ripon shot 31 percent (15-48) in the game, making 3-of-10 from 3-point range, with all three of their made 3-pointers coming in the first half. Jensen led the Red Hawks with nine points, while McKenzie Banasik scored six points off the bench. Nicole Herkert and Jonalee Elliott each pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.

Diamond Boyd led Cornell with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting, to go along with nine rebounds and six steals. Sierra Bisso added 14 points and three steals, while Haley Grana scored eight. The Rams shot 37 percent (22-59) from the field. They made 43 percent (13-30) of their second half shots, including 42 percent (5-12) of their 3-pointers in that half.

The Red Hawks will be in action again on Wednesday when they'll travel to Beloit College for what will be their seventh consecutive road or neutral game to start the season. Wednesday's game will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Beloit, Wis. and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.