Contact: Brock Reisler, Assistant Executive Director, breisler@midwestconference.org
 
MOORHEAD, Minnesota – The Ripon College women’s basketball program picked up the Midwest Conference’s first NCAA Tournament victory in women’s basketball since 2013 with an 84-81 overtime victory over UW-River Falls on Friday night inside Memorial Auditorium on the campus of Concordia Moorhead.
 
After back-to-back first round exits, Ripon (26-2) grinded out a hard-fought win against the Falcons in a contest that was within five points the entire fourth quarter and overtime.
 
After UW-River Falls took a 3-2 lead, Ripon was in front the remainder of the first half. A layup with 5:18 left in the second quarter gave the Red Hawks a 27-15 lead, their largest of the game to that point. River Falls scored twice in the final three minutes and Ripon led 35-27 at half.
 
Ripon led by double digits in the second half, but the Falcons rallied to lead 53-52 with five and a half minutes left. The teams went back and forth from there, and the Red Hawks had three shots to win the game in the final seconds, but couldn’t convert and the teams went to the extra session knotted at 70 apiece.
 
Trailing 75-74 with three-plus minutes left, Ripon’s Sophie Schlieve scored the next four points to put Ripon in front for good. River Falls made it a two-point game with 37 seconds left, but Karsyn Nelson iced the game at the free throw line to give Ripon the win.
 
Schlieve scored a game-high 23 points, while Natalie Rauwolf (17 points), Halle Van Horn (15 points), Nelson (13 points) and Laney Havlovitz (12 points) also scored in double figures. Zoey Buchan had a game-high 20 points for UW-River Falls, who received 15 points from Emily Anderson, 15 points from Savannah Leopold and 13 points from Jocely Plonski.
 
Breaking a Midwest Conference record with their 26th overall win of the season, Ripon advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005. The Red Hawks face Concordia Moorhead or UW-Superior on Saturday, March 7 inside Memorial Auditorium. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.