MOUNT VERNON, Iowa - Ripon's women's basketball team shot 48 percent (25-52) from the field Wednesday night, en route to a 59-48 road victory against Cornell College. The win keeps the Red Hawks atop the Midwest Conference standings, one and a half games ahead of second-place Monmouth.

Ripon (11-9, 10-1 MWC) scored the first six points of Wednesday's game, and they would never look back, leading for the entirety of the contest. After taking a 10-7 lead into the second quarter, Ripon took their largest lead of the first half when Kiana Fall connected on a layup on the first basket of the second period. Cornell (11-7, 6-5 MWC) would cut that lead to two in the final minutes, but a Kassidy Walters basket just before halftime gave the Red Hawks a four-point advantage at the break.

Ripon began the second half on a 5-0 run to open up a nine-point lead. They would lead by as many as 12 in that quarter when Walters drained a 3-pointer to put the Red Hawks up 40-28. They continued to pour it on in the final period, leading by as many as 19 after an Alison Leslie 3-ball gave the Red Hawks a 55-36 advantage with five minutes to play, helping them coast to victory.

The Red Hawks were led by Leslie's 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting off the bench, to go along with a team-high seven rebounds. Bonnie Jensen added 12 points and four boards, while Walters scored 10 points in just 14 minutes.

Madison Wauters led Cornell with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Madison Osborn and Rachel Adewusi each scored 10 points. Ripon's bench outscored Cornell's reserves by a 20-4 margin.

Riding a current three-game win streak, the Red Hawks will try to keep their momentum going this weekend when they'll travel to second-place Monmouth College on Saturday. That game will begin at 3 p.m. in Monmouth, Ill., and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.