Horizon League Women’s Basketball Scoreboard (Feb. 23)
#25/rv Green Bay 80, Valparaiso 38
Loyola 67, Youngstown State 59
Milwaukee 74, Wright State 61
UIC 76, Detroit 74
Green Bay clinched at least a share of the regular season championship with their win over Valparaiso in the afternoon, and later clinched the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League Women’s Basketball Tournament when UIC defeated Detroit, 76-74, in the evening.
The Phoenix now stand 12-0 in League play. Youngstown State, at 8-4 in conference action, could still tie the Phoenix for the regular season title if GB lost its remaining four League games and the Penguins won all four of their remaining conference games. If that were to happen Green Bay would win the tiebreaker to be the No. 1 seed as the Phoenix won both games between GB and YSU this season.
Green Bay has now at least shared 15 consecutive regular season Horizon League Women’s Basketball titles.
Green Bay 80, Valparaiso 38
In front of the largest crowd at the Kress Center this season, the No. 25/RV Green Bay women's basketball team clinched at least a share of a 15th consecutive regular season Horizon League title, the longest active streak in Division I women's basketball. The Phoenix defeated Valparaiso 80-38 to improve to 22-2 and 12-0 in conference play. The Crusaders dropped to 9-16 and 4-8 in the Horizon League.
Green Bay opened a dominating first half on an 18-2 run, led by redshirt sophomore Megan Lukan who topped her previous season high of 13 points with 16 first-half points-single-handedly outscoring the Crusaders in the first 20 minutes. Lukan, who entered the game with seven three's on the season, hit her first of four on the afternoon with 10:37 remaining in the first half, pushing the lead to 23-7.
Lukan helped push the lead to 21 points when she found Breannah Ranger in the post for a 30-9 advantage with 6:11 left in the half. Ranger finished the game with 11 points and 10 rebounds, her second double-double of the season and of her career.
Redshirt freshman Taylor Thomas tied her career high with two free throws late in the opening frame, giving Green Bay a 39-13 lead at the break. In addition to Lukan outscoring the Crusaders in the first half, the Phoenix held the visiting team to just 3-29 from the field-good for a 10.3 percent mark.
Valparaiso opened the second half on a 6-2 run with a layup and three from Shaquira Scott and a three from Charae Richardson, cutting Green Bay's lead to 41-21. Senior Lydia Bauer sparked a 7-0 run in response, hitting a jumper off a diving pass from fellow senior Adrian Ritchie.
With exactly nine minutes remaining, Lukan completed a three-point play to give her 22 points on the afternoon, breaking her previous career high of 20 points set in last year's Horizon League Tournament Championship game against Detroit. The play also sparked a 13-0 run over the next five minutes, helping the Phoenix extend the lead to 68-34.
With 1:19 remaining, Ranger grabbed her 10th board of the game to notch her second double-double this season. On the ensuing possession redshirt freshman Ellen Edison found freshman Brionna Barnett for three, putting all Green Bay players in the scoring column on the day.
Redshirt junior Sam Zastrow tied her career high with five points after she hit two free throws late in the game, sealing the 80-38 win.
With the victory, Green Bay has won 17 straight games, good for fifth-all time in program history for consecutive regular-season wins. The win also marks the 16th time this season Green Bay has held an opponent under 50 points, and the fifth time an opponent has failed to reach 40 points. Green Bay held the Crusaders to just 21.2 percent from the field in the contest, setting a season-low for an opponent field goal percentage.
Lukan paved the way to victory with 22 points, while Eichler and Ranger joined her in double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Redshirt senior Stephanie Sension went 4-5 for eight points on her birthday, while Ritchie and Zastrow each had five points.
Valparaiso did not put a player in double figures, but was led by Scott with nine points. The Phoenix held Preseason All-Horizon Leauge Second Team selection Tabitha Gerardot to just two points on 1-6 from the field.
Loyola 67, Youngstown State 59
Simone Law scored a game-high 24 points and Taylor Johnson added 14 points and 10 rebounds as Loyola closed the game on a 10-1 run to earn a 67-59 win over Youngstown State this afternoon at Gentile Arena. Loyola improves to 12-13 (7-5 Horizon) with its first five-game Horizon League winning streak in 11 years while Youngstown State drops to 18-7 (8-4) with the loss.
After Loyola scored five of the first six points of the game before Youngstown State responded, rattling off nine straight points to take a 10-5 lead. The Ramblers pulled even at 15 on a pair of Taylor Johnson free throws but the Penguins pushed back out to a six-point lead (24-18) on a Melissa Thompson three-pointer. Loyola still faced a six-point deficit with 3:53 left before closing the half strong and cutting the deficit to one (33-32) at intermission. Abby Skube gave the Ramblers a huge lift off the bench in the opening half, coming off the bench to score a team-high nine points (4-4 FGs) in eight minutes.
A Troy Hambric hoop to open the second half gave the Ramblers the lead and the teams went back-and-forth over the first seven minutes of the half. Two Law free throws gave LU a 49-45 lead but the Penguins responded with a 9-2 run to grab a 54-51 lead at the 8:03 mark. Loyola kept pounding the ball inside and a three-point play from Law gave LU a 57-56 lead with 3:22 to go. Two Brandi Brown free throws gave YSU the lead back but another three-point play from Law put the Ramblers back in front (61-58) with just under two minutes left. Loyola's defense held strong the rest of the way as the home team was able to see out the victory.
Law finished with a game-high 24 points, including a 12-for-21 performance from the free throw line, to lead the Ramblers. Johnson notched her fifth double-double of the season, racking up 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Hambric (11 points) also reached double figures. Brown led Youngstown State with 16 points and nine rebounds.
Milwaukee 74, Wright State 61
Junior Angela Rodriguez scored 19 points and became the 18th member of the 1,000-point club as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team topped Wright State University, 74-61, Saturday afternoon at the Nutter Center.
The Panthers (8-16, 4-8 Horizon League) snapped a long streak against the Raiders (10-16, 4-9 Horizon League) in the process, putting a halt to an eight-game slide in the series that dated back to 2009.
Senior Sami Tucker posted a double-double of 18 points and 14 boards, tying her career-high with the rebound total. Junior Emily Decorah racked up five more three's on her way to 17 points and sophomore Ashley Green added seven points, six rebounds and five assists.
Kim Demmings had another big game in defeat for WSU, scoring 28 points and adding 10 rebounds.
Tied, 47-47, with just over 11 minutes to go, Milwaukee used a huge 21-8 scoring run to open back up a 10-plus point advantage, leading at 68-55 with 3:52 left on a Tucker layup.
Rodriguez's milestone came in that stretch, as her three-pointer at the 6:53 mark was the first of back-to-back triples for the junior sharpshooter and was part of eight in a row by UWM that pushed the lead back to 12 at 63-51.The victory was also the third in a row for Milwaukee, the first three-game win streak in just short of two calendar years. In addition, the team broke season records for three-pointers made at 216 (record was 212 set in 2010-11) and three's attempted at 605 (record was 586 set in 1996-97).
Green's jumper just into second half gave UWM a 10-point advantage at 35-25. However, the momentum was short-lived as WSU went on a run of 20-9 to eventually take its first lead since early in the contest at 45-44 on a three-pointer with 13:30 to play.
The Panthers put forth a solid first-half effort, but a strong end to the period by the Raiders took a little shine off of it. Milwaukee led by as many as 12 at 30-18 with 2:18 remaining on a pair of Tucker free throws. From there it was all WSU, scoring the final seven points to get within five at 30-25 at intermission.
Down 8-3 to start the contest, a timeout by Rechlicz seemed to light a fire under her team, sending them to seven points in a row as part of a 15-2 run to make it 18-10. The defense was just as good, holding Wright State to just one made field goal in that nine-minute stretch.
The run eventually built to 20-5 overall, giving UWM its first 10-point lead of the period at 23-13 on a Tucker three-pointer with 4:37 remaining.
UIC 76, Detroit 74
The UIC women’s basketball team (9-16, 5-7) picked up its second consecutive Horizon League win on Saturday night with a 76-74 triumph against third-place Detroit. Eight lead changes and four ties in the final 3:44 gave both teams the opportunity for victory, but a wide-open layup by sophomore Gisselle Truiett with 20 seconds left and a Flames’ defensive stop sealed the outcome. Junior Rachel Story posted a game-high 22 points to notch her eighth 20-point outing on the season.
Junior Emily Kobel tied a career-high with 17 points as she sank four three pointers, including three in the second half.
Redshirt junior Katie Hannemann added 16 points to UIC’s total as she is averaging 21.6 points in her last five games. Senior Taylor Foulks recorded her third game of the season with double-digit rebounds, leading all players with 10 boards. Foulks’ seven points leaves her just 12 shy of 1,000 for her career.
Both teams struggled to find the basket in the early goings as they combined for just two buckets in the first five minutes of play. The Flames caught a lucky break at the 14:55 mark with Detroit’s Shareta Brown picking up her second foul, sending her to the bench for the next eight minutes.
Even without Brown, the Titans were able to go on a 10-0 and pull ahead of UIC, 15-4, with 12:22 left in the period.
Later in the half, the Flames went on an 11-2 run, capped off by a Kobel three, which gave UIC its first lead of the game, 30-28, with 2:28 on the ticker. The advantage was short lived as Detroit responded by scoring the final 10 points of the half, including eight from junior Senee Shearer, jumping in front the Flames 38-30 at the break. Shearer led all scorers at the half with 17 points, drilling 5-of-9 from the outside.
Story paced UIC at half with nine points followed by Hannemann with six.
The Flames were able to cut Detroit’s lead down to four points by the 16:33 mark of the second half, but then the Titans’ Demeisha Fambro put up seven straight points to give UDM a 52-41 edge with 13:50 on the clock.
With the Titans ahead by 11, UIC executed a 15-3 run over a four-minute span to grab the 56-55 edge. Detroit retook the lead on the next possession on jumper by Shearer, but then Kobel did what she does best and nailed her third trey of the game to put the Flames in front 59-57 with just over eight minutes left to play.
The Flames held the lead until the 3:44 mark when UDM’s Brown made good on a three-point play to put the Titans up one. That’s when both teams batted the lead back-and-forth until Story found Truiett all alone under the basket for a layup with 20 seconds remaining, giving the Flames a 75-74 lead. UIC held strong the defensive end by forcing Brown into a tough look which clanked off the rim and out-of-bounds. Kobel secured the inbounds pass and was fouled with just 0.2 on the clock, leaving Detroit with three-quarter court heave that fell short.
UIC shot 14-of-28 (50.0%) and held UDM’s Shearer to just four points in the second half. Detroit went 9-of-26 (34.6%) from the field in the final period.
Tags: Green Bay - Women's Basketball · Loyola - Women's Basketball · Milwaukee - Women's Basketball · UIC - Women's Basketball
