In what was a rematch of last weekend's regular-season finale, which Ripon College won by 10 points, the Red Hawk women's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking 64-61 loss to Knox College in the 2023 Midwest Conference Tournament Championship Game Saturday afternoon.
 
The loss keeps Ripon on the outside of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament for now, as the Red Hawks, after not receiving the Midwest Conference's automatic qualifier, will need to earn an at-large bid to keep their 2022-23 season alive. In the event that does not happen, the Red Hawks will have concluded the season with a 20-7 record and a share of the Midwest Conference Regular Season Championship, winning 14 straight games prior to Saturday's defeat to continue their run of excellence seen in recent years.
 
Unlike most of the games won during the 14-game winning streak, the Red Hawks surrendered a fourth quarter lead. Ripon trailed 16-10 after the first quarter, but the Red Hawks flipped the script in the second quarter, shooting 60 percent from the floor and 80 percent from three-point range to win the quarter by 12 points and take a 6-point lead, 32-26, into the locker rooms.
 
Ripon came out of halftime and began to assert themselves, something seen many times since the calendar flipped to 2023, eventually pushing their lead from 6 to as many as 14 points in the quarter, the last time coming with 5:41 on the clock. From there, however, Ripon's offense cooled and allowed Knox to get back in the game. The Red Hawks shot 1-for-6 over the final 5-plus minutes and tallied 3 turnovers, allowing Knox to trim the lead from 14 all the way down to 5 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Even with the momentum swing towards Knox's favor, the Red Hawks were holding steady as they eyed a championship. Ripon continued to lead well into the fourth quarter, but with 4:37 to play, Knox tied the game at 56 points apiece. Neither team found the tiebreaking bucket for several minutes, but Knox followed up a missed Ripon layup with a layup of their own at the other end to go up 2 points with 1:28 to go. The Red Hawks came right back and tied the score on their next possession, but they couldn't get the defensive stop they needed to keep that going, with Knox eventually squeaking out the three-point victory.
 
Skyylar Brescia was dominant in what could be her last game in a Ripon uniform, posting game-highs of 18 points and 15 rebounds for the Red Hawks. Bella Opelt and Bonnie Jensen each had 12 points, with Jensen filling up the stat-sheet with 9 rebounds and 6 assists.  Alison Leslie chipped in 10 points and 6 rebounds to round out the double-digit scorers.