RIPON, Wisconsin – In its final home tune-up before the postseason, the Ripon women's basketball program cruised to a 94-61 win over visiting Lake Forest on Wednesday night inside Weiske Gymnasium.
 
Ripon (17-7, 14-1 MWC) trailed by as many as 14 in the second quarter, but dominated Lake Forest (6-18, 4-11 MWC) overall in the second 10-minute stretch, outscoring the Foresters 28-8 in the second period to comfortably win its third straight game.
 
The Red Hawks' 94 points are the most in a game for Ripon since scoring 94 at Beloit on December 10, 2021.
 
STANDOUT HAWKS

• Junior forward Ella Ten Pas notched her league-leading 11th double-double of the season, and third in a row, with 22 points and 14 rebounds (8 offensive). She made 6-of-9 field goal attempts, was 10-of-11 at the free throw line and dished out 2 assists.
• Sophomore guard Natalie Rauwolf tallied 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting with a pair of steals.
• Senior forward Bonnie Jensen scored 12 points, making all five of her field goal attempts, to go along with 2 rebounds.
• Junior guard Bella Opelt had 10 points with 4 rebounds and 2 steals.
• Junior guard Bree Miller added 10 points and 2 boards off the bench.
• Freshman guard Laney Havlovitz chipped in 9 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
After Ripon led 4-2, Lake Forest asserted itself in the opening frame with a 9-0 run to grab an early seven-point lead halfway through the quarter. Opelt made a layup to close the gap to 15-12 with 1:59 to go, but the Foresters ended the quarter on another 9-0 spurt to lead 24-12 after the first 10 minutes of play.
 
LFC scored the first two points of the second quarter, but Ripon took over from there. A 13-2 Red Hawks run, punctuated by a Rauwolf triple, made it a 28-25 Forester advantage with 5:24 left until halftime. Moments later, Jensen scored six points in a row for Ripon as the Red Hawks erased their big deficit to lead 33-30 with two minutes to go in the half. Over the final 1:53, Ripon outscored Lake Forest 7-0 and led by eight at the break – a 20-point swing in the Red Hawks' favor over 10 minutes.
 
Ripon kept its foot on the gas in the third quarter, scoring the first nine points to lead by 17. The advantage grew to as many as 21 in the quarter on multiple occasions. Ripon held Lake Forest to just two field goals in the final five minutes of the frame as Ten Pas scored 11 points – half of her game total – in the third stanza alone. Though Ripon's last five points of the quarter came at the charity stripe, the Red Hawks led 67-46 with 10 minutes to play.
 
With the outcome firmly in hand, the teams traded baskets at the onset of the fourth and final quarter. Vanessa Solano canned a trey with 4:07 left in the game to give Ripon its biggest lead of the night, 88-54. Bailey Mollen and Kyra Bisarek scored the final five points of the game as the Red Hawks held LFC without a bucket for the final 2:44.
 
KEY STATS

• Ripon shot 53.3% (32-of-60) from the field, nearly a season-high, while Lake Forest was 21-of-48 (43.8%) from the floor.
• The Red Hawks controlled the glass with 39 rebounds, allowing a season-low 18.
• Ripon forced 25 turnovers but coughed the ball up 17 times itself.
• The Red Hawks had statistical advantages over the Foresters in points off turnovers (26-11), points in the paint (50-28), second-chance points (23-5), fast-break points (12-10) and bench points (23-8).
• Maurissa Edwards led Lake Forest with 18 points.

UP NEXT
Ripon visits Lawrence on Saturday (February 17) at 3 p.m. to wrap up regular season play.
 
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