RIPON, Wis. – On day two of the Ripon College Tournament, the Edgewood College women's basketball team faced another Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opponent, UW-Stout. The Eagles fell behind early, but battled back and held a nine point halftime advantage. However, the Blue Devils came out firing in the second half and had to hold off the Eagles for the 66-62 victory.

The Blue Devils (1-2) grabbed the early lead and earned their largest lead of the first half just over five minutes into the contest when Amanda Daleiden made a three-point basket.

Edgewood College (1-2) then came back and tied the game at nine and Danielle Dixon gave the Eagles their first lead with a free throw with 11:33 left in the first half. With the scored tied at 21, the Eagles started to make their move after Sadie Ewing connected on a layup.

After a Blue Devil bucket, Brittany Bylsma sparked a 7-0 Eagle run with a jumper. On the run, Ewing made a pair of free throws and Melanie Walker drained a jumper, followed by a free throw. Edgewood College closed the half on a 13-6 run, but Daledein made a three-point basket with three second left to swing momentum and make the halftime score 38-29 in favor of the Eagles.

The Blue Devils opened the second half with a barrage of baskets, started by a Sami Schoeder three-point basket in just five seconds into the frame. Walker answered with a jumper of her own, but that did not slow the Blue Devils as they scored the next 10 points to take a 42-40 advantage.

Ewing finally ended the drought with jump shot to tie the contest. However, UW-Stout went on another run, this time they scored 11 consecutive points to take a commanding 53-42 lead before Edgewood College began to mount a comeback.

Walker hit a jump shot with 6:27 left to pull the Eagles within three, but the Blue Devils answered with three free throws to push the lead back to six.

Still trailing by six with 2:48 left, Bylsma knocked down back-to-back jumpers in the paint to pull the Eagles within two with 1:40 remaining. Walker then got Edgewood College within one when she made a free throw with 49 seconds to go and again with 35 seconds left when she made a layup and got fouled. However, she missed the free throw and the Blue Devils made two free throws to push the lead back to three.

With 20 second left, the Eagles had three opportunities to tie the game after grabbing two offensive rebounds, but they could not convert and UW-Stout held on for the 66-62 victory.

In the contest, there were a combined 69 free throws attempted, with UW-Stout shooting 62.2 percent (23-for-37) from the charity stripe and the Eagles going 14-for-32 or 43.8 percent.

The Eagles dropped their second consecutive game playing without their two senior guards, Amber Hemp and Shae Beckwith, who were sidelined due to injury. Bylsma and Walker both scored career-highs of 16 and 13 points, respectively. Dixon also scored 13 points while going 5-for-5 from the free throw line. Bylsma led the team with eight rebounds. Edgewood College went 0-for-13 from three-point range, marking the first time since February 11, 2010 they have not connected on a three-point attempt in a game.

Whitney Rawdon led the Blue Devils with 16 points while Schoeder and Kayla Windt tallied 14 and 10 points, respectively.

The Eagles will open conference play next Saturday, November 27 when the host Concordia University Wisconsin at the Todd Wehr Edgedome. Edgewood College will provide both live video and live stats for the 2:00 p.m. tip-off.