The UniSC Rip City women fell in a close one last Saturday to Ipswich 86-82. Led by Maria Blazejewski’’s 21 points, the Ipswich women were able to come away with a four point victory.

Georgia Ralph and Jasmin Howe added 19 points each while Alison Gorrell contributed 16 points to the Force’s win.

For the Rip women, it was Carlie Smith leading the way with another big performance of 25 points and 14 rebounds.

Megan Mullings had her biggest scoring output of the year with 22 points, while Steph Bairstow scored 16 points and Liisa Ups contributed 13 points.

The women will need work as a unit once again as the face off with the Southern Districts Spartans this Saturday.

The Spartans come in with a 6-4 record and are led by point guard Madelyn Allen, who is averaging 24.6 points and just under 8 rebounds per game.

Erin Gustavsson is averaging 17.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, while Krystal Liger-Walker is averaging 12.5 points per game.

The key here for the women will be to limit the impact of Maddy Allen.

With the addition of Jessica McDowell-White, Allen will be able to play off-ball more and allow her to be a more aggressive scoring option.

Spartans are statistically not a strong rebounding team, so look for there to be ample opportunity for the Rip women to put pressure on the glass, creating extra shot opportunities.

In games like this, it’s important to limit the impact of the role players, so a focus of defensive effort will need to be a key in Saturday’s matchup.

You can catch the UniSC Rip City women in action this Saturday afternoon at 5:30pm at UniSC stadium or on the NBL1 live stream!