Women's Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 11)
Milwaukee 75, Green Bay 64
Oakland 78, Detroit 63
Youngstown State 69, UIC 58
Milwaukee 75, Green Bay 64
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team used a dominant second half performance to claim one of its biggest regular-season victories in recent memory by knocking off the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 75-64, on the road Saturday at the Kress Center.
"Green Bay is an amazing team and I would never take anything away from them, but that is what makes this an even more quality win because of how good of a program they are," UWM head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "But I think we made our mark today and proved to a lot of people that we can play with teams like that."
The Panthers (5-9, 1-0 Horizon League) overcame a 12-point deficit in the first half against the Phoenix (8-6, 1-1 Horizon League), knocking off the 15-time defending Horizon League champions for the first time since February of 2006.
"Going into this week of practice, we talked that the group that believed in us was the group that was at that practice," Rechlicz said. "We all believed that we could get the win. I saw it in their eyes from the minute they stepped on the court this week. Just the intensity, the level of focus, doing everything that we wanted them to do and then carrying that over to today. They played with so much passion. It is how we want to represent Milwaukee."
Senior Angela Rodriguez led the way with a team-high 23 points and eight assists, junior Ashley Green had 15 points and sophomore Avyanna Young added her fourth double-double in a row with 12 points and 13 rebounds to help UWM snap what was a 17-game slide in the series.
"I felt like Angela put us on her back this game," Rechlicz said. "She had three turnovers at halftime and ended the game with only three. She hit big shots when we needed her to and found the open person when we needed her to. She just stepped up as a leader and a senior and it was huge for us to have her playing that way in this game."
Freshman Sydney Snower was also in double-figures with 11, including a 3-for-3 effort from three-point range. That was one of the themes for the day, with the Panthers making 13-of-26 three-point attempts in the contest.
Kaili Lukan led the Phoenix with 25 points. Breannah Ranger added a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds.
"I could not be more proud of the team," Rechlicz said. "They put together not just one half, but two. Even though we were down, we really came out together in the second half. We scored 20 more points than them in the second half which is kind of unheard of at Green Bay."
The second half was the key. Down 37-28 at intermission, UWM took care of that deficit in less than three minutes to start the second half. Three-pointers by Rodriguez, Snower and freshman Bre'Zall Warren tied it and a pair of free throws by Young at the 17:19 mark capped the 11-0 run and gave UWM the 39-37 advantage, their first of the day.
"Those were key buckets and it was one right after the other and different people hitting those three's," Rechlicz said. "It was all heart. I said `who wants the ball more?', because at the end of the day if we wanted it more we could get the win."
The run ballooned to 20-3 on a layup by Green off a great pass by Rodriguez that made it 48-40 on the scoreboard and forced Green Bay to use a timeout with 12:25 to play. It eventually grew to 25-5 and UWM was held a double-digit lead down most of the stretch.
The defense was outstanding once again. In fact, it held the Phoenix to just 27 second-half points, limiting them to 31 percent (9-for-29) field goal shooting in the half. At the end of the day, UWM held its opponent to 12.5 percent from three-point range overall, a 4-for-32 showing.
Milwaukee dug out of an early 8-0 hole to start the contest and was within one at 14-13 on an early three by Green. Green Bay took the momentum the rest of the half and the Panthers found themselves down nine after getting outscored 24-4 in the paint and out-rebounded 20-14.
Oakland 78, Detroit 63
Elena Popkey recorded her first double-double of the season with 22 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Oakland women's basketball team (6-9, 1-1 HL) to its first Horizon League victory of the season over Detroit (3-13, 0-3 HL), 78-63, Saturday afternoon in Calihan Hall. The win marks the first-ever Horizon League victory in women's basketball and the 250th in the Division I era.
"Great first Horizon League win for our program," said head coach Jeff Tungate. "We really did a nice job defensively this afternoon and ran good offense in the second half. I cannot tell you how much we appreciate our fans. Seeing all the Grizz Gang, boosters, families, and friends in attendance really means a lot to our program. They played a huge part in our win."
Bethany Watterworth scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Kim Bee added 16 points with nine rebounds and Olivia Nash had 12 points. OU outrebounded UDM 51-43 and outscored the Titans 34-26 in the paint. Oakland never trailed in the contest.
The Golden Grizzlies held a 30-27 lead at the half and led by as many as 13 as OU used a 10-0 run capped by a Popkey 3-pointer and layup at 11:09 remaining. Detroit would cut the first half lead to three points ending the half on a 15-8 run as Senee Shearer hit a triple and Tayelor McCalister made a jump shot in the final minute.
The two teams battled for control early in the second half until Popkey hit a 3-pointer at the 7:59 mark to go up 60-53 and OU never looked back outscoring UDM 48-36. Watterworth and Bee combined for 23 points in the half as the Golden Grizzlies shot 50.0 percent. Oakland would seal the game going 8-of-11 from the free throw line despite being outshot 32-12 from the charity stripe.
Detroit was led by Shearer who finished with a game-high 29 points on 8-of-23 shooting and Reyna Montgomery who added 11 points. The Titans shot just 18.8 percent from behind the arc in the game.
Youngstown State 69, UIC 58
The Youngstown State women's basketball team used an early flurry of 3-pointers and strong defense throughout in a 69-58 win at UIC on Saturday.
The Penguins made six 3-pointers in the first 8:20 of the game, and their aggressiveness on the offensive end helped out the defense as UIC's top scorers battled foul trouble. Youngstown State, which led from start to finish, is 2-0 in Horizon League play for the first time in six years.
Heidi Schlegel had game highs with 28 points and 11 rebounds, and fellow Penguin forward Latisha Walker used a strong second half to post 10 points and 10 rebounds. Liz Hornberger had three of YSU's early treys and finished with 16 points.
UIC had four players reach double figures, but the Penguins forced the Flames into tough shots all day. Leading scorers Rachel Story (18.9 points per game) and Ruvanna Campbell (15.1 ppg) combined for 22 points on 8-for-29 shooting, and both players finished with four fouls.
Youngstown State improved to 6-9 overall while UIC dropped to 11-4 and 0-2. The Flames entered Horizon League play on an 11-game winning streak.
Hornberger made three 3-pointers in the first four minutes, and Schlegel made YSU's sixth 3-pointer of the game at the 11:42 mark to put the Penguins up 18-9. UIC scored seven of the next nine points to climb within 20-16, and Story's seventh point in four minutes cut YSU's lead to 22-21 with 7:11 left before halftime. Schlegel scored on YSU's next possession to spark a 7-0 run that put the Penguins ahead 29-21, and they led by at least five the rest of the game.
Campbell was whistled for her third foul at the 7:35 mark of the first half and had to head to the bench. That allowed YSU to work inside, and Campbell had to play less aggressively for the duration of the game.
YSU scored the first four points of the second half to take its first double-digit lead at 38-28, and it led by at least 10 for all but three seconds of the final 12:47. The largest margin came when Walker scored six straight points to put the Penguins up 59-43 with 6:46 remaining.
YSU outshot UIC 48.8 percent to 32.4 percent and outrebounded the Flames 47-33. UIC was a Horizon League best plus-7.9 in rebounding margin entering the game.
Tags: Milwaukee - Women's Basketball · Oakland - Women's Basketball · Youngstown State - Women's Basketball
