RIPON, Wis. - Ripon's women's basketball team held just one lead Wednesday night, but it just happened to come in the fourth and final quarter and it would be a lead that the Red Hawks would never relinquish, defeating Carroll University by a score of 62-53. Ripon overcame a 25 percent (7-28) shooting performance in the first half to shoot 59 percent (16-27) in the second. That included making six of their final seven shots in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

The Red Hawks (11-8, 7-7 MWC) fell behind early thanks to missing their first eight shots from the field. They trailed 7-1 mid-way through the first quarter, and 14-5 entering the second quarter. Carroll (6-12, 5-8 MWC) led by double digits early in the second period, only to see Ripon battle back to cut the lead to three mid-way through the quarter. After Carroll went back up by nine with a few minutes left before halftime, Ripon finished the half on a 7-1 run to go into the locker room trailing 26-23.

Carroll led by as many as eight in the third quarter, but Ripon battled back again, cutting that lead to one on a Maddie Koster jumper with under two minutes left in the period. The Red Hawks entered the final quarter trailing by four, but they would score the first eight points of the period to take their first lead of the game - and they wouldn't look back. Ripon outscored the Pioneers 20-7 in the final frame, which saw them lead by as many as 11.

Maggie Oimoen led Ripon with 18 points and seven rebounds (four offensive) on 6-of-10 shooting. Koster added nine points, while Nicole Herkert registered eight points, to go along with team-highs of 11 rebounds and four assists.

Carroll was led by Malory Christenson's 20 points and six boards. Brittney Wald added 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Brittany Groer grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

The win moves Ripon into fifth place in the conference standings, two and a half games out of the fourth and final MWC Tournament seed, with four games to play. The Red Hawks will be in action again on Saturday when they'll travel to Cornell College. That game will begin at 3 p.m. and can be seen live at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.