The Lake Forest College women's basketball team defeated Ripon College 50-44 at home Saturday afternoon. Freshman guard Danielle Canulli pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and her basket with four minutes to play gave the Foresters the lead for good.

The Lake Forest bench outscored the Ripon reserves 29-2. In addition to Canulli's six points, sophomore guard/forward Gina Ambrose and freshman forward Rose Coll tied for game-high honors with nine points apiece. Ambrose scored all of her points from three-point range and added six rebounds. Coll was 3-for-4 from both the field and the free throw line.

The Foresters shot just 29.8 percent from the floor while Ripon made exactly one-third of its field goal attempts. Lake Forest connected on six of 16 shots from three-point range and on 16 of 20 frees throws. The Red Hawks were 0-for-11 from beyond the arc and 12-for-14 from the line. Rebounds were even at 32 for each team and the Foresters committed 15 of the game's 32 turnovers.

Lake Forest's 11-4 advantage after seven minutes of play was the largest lead for either team in the contest. Ripon scored the next six points and the teams were separated by no more than three points until the final two minutes of the game. A pair of Red Hawk free throws with 10 seconds to play in the opening period gave the visitors a 21-10 lead at halftime.

The lead changed hands seven times in the second half. The 11th tie of the game, a 38-38 deadlock, was broken by a Canulli jumper with four minutes on the clock. Junior forward Liz Radtke, who finished with seven points, made a free throw 45 seconds later but a pair of foul shots by Ripon with two minutes to play trimmed the Forester lead to one. Ambrose connected on her third three-pointer of the afternoon with 1:51 left, giving the home team a 44-40 advantage. A Red Hawk layup with 34 seconds remaining cut the margin in half but two free throws each by Radtke, Canulli, and junior point guard Sam Schuring, helped secure the Lake Forest victory.

After earning a split in the season series with Ripon, the Foresters are 7-7 overall and 6-4 in Midwest Conference play. The Red Hawks fell to 6-9 overall and 5-5 in the league.

Lake Forest will also try to salvage a split in the season series at Illinois College on Wednesday. The game will begin at 5:00 p.m.