RIPON, Wis. - Ripon's women's basketball team won their second conference game in as many days Saturday afternoon, defeating Illinois College 61-52. The Red Hawks dominated the paint, outscoring IC 42-16 in the lane, while out-rebounding the Lady Blues 43-34, with 17 of their 43 rebounds coming on the offensive end of the floor. That moves Ripon to 2-0 in the conference standings, and improves their conference record during the last two-plus seasons to 31-5 (.861 winning pct.).

After Illinois College (3-5, 0-2 MWC) broke a scoreless tie with a basket on their first possession, Ripon (2-5, 2-0 MWC) scored nine consecutive points, with the first five coming from Maggie Oimoen, who became just the ninth player in program history to surpass the 1,000 point mark during the game. Illinois College tied the score at 11 with under four minutes left in the opening quarter, but the Red Hawks ended the period on a 7-2 run. Ripon took a double-digit lead in the final minutes of the second quarter, and would go into halftime with a 32-25 advantage.

Illinois College wasn't done yet however, beginning the third quarter on an 11-4 run to tie the score at 36 mid-way through the period. Oimoen would answer with a jumper to give Ripon the lead again, which they would hold until the final horn. Ripon took their largest lead of 11 mid-way through the fourth quarter on a layup by Natalie Geiger. Illinois College would pull within four points with under two minutes remaining, but that's as close as they would get the rest of the way.

Oimoen led Ripon with 21 points and 12 rebounds (six offensive) for her fourth consecutive and 13th career double-double, while converting 8 of her 16 shots. Geiger tied a career-high with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting, while Laurissa Johnson set a career-high with 10 points, to along with four rebounds and six steals, which is tied for ninth in program history for a single game.

Illinois College was led by 14 points and six rebounds from Carly Cameron. Krista Bass added 13 points, three rebounds, four assists, and three steals off the bench, while Brielle Greenleaf scored 11 points for the Lady Blues.

Ripon will be in action again on Wednesday when they'll host Beloit College at Weiske Gymnasium. That game will begin at 5:30 p.m., and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.