Horizon League Women's Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 5)
Green Bay 61, St. Bonaventure 42
Loyola 64, Eastern Michigan 54
Valparaiso 54, Northern Illinois 49
Butler 84, UIC 61
Memphis 109, Wright State 68
Green Bay 61, St. Bonaventure 42
The Green Bay women's basketball team (10-2) continued its streak of defensive dominance in a 61-42 victory over St. Bonaventure (7-8) to close non-conference play on Saturday afternoon at the Kress Center. The win marks the fourth time this season the Phoenix has held an opponent to 30 percent shooting or less, and the eighth time Green Bay's tenth-best defense in Division I has not allowed an opponent to reach 50 points.
Redshirt senior Stephanie Sension and senior Lydia Bauer broke an early back-and-forth game by each hitting a triple, sparking a 16-5 run over the final 12:42 of the first half. Bauer finished with 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds on 5-8 shooting and 3-for-5 from long range while Sension added 12 points shooting 50 percent from the floor.
Leading 18-12 with 7:56 remaining in the first half, senior Adrian Ritchie drilled a three to spark a 12-0 run over the next five and a half minutes that saw Ritchie and Bauer add five points each.
With 2.6 seconds remaining in the first half Bauer launched a shot from half court that nearly went in, but freshman Kaili Lukan grabbed the rebound and was fouled. With a tenth of a second on the clock the younger of Green Bay's two Lukan's hit one of two free throw attempts to give the Phoenix a 32-15 halftime lead.
After shooting 0-for-6 from behind the arc in the first half, St. Bonaventure connected on six of 10 attempts from long range in the second half, coming as close as 15 points with 11:47 remaining. After St. Bonaventure's Ashley Zahn hit a three, Green Bay responded with a 12-2 run over the next five minutes. Redshirt junior Breannah Ranger dominated the post in the second half, working towards a career-high 14 points on 70 percent shooting.
With 4:28 remaining, redshirt junior Sam Zastrow drove to the basket through the entire St. Bonaventure defense and laid it in to record her first points of the season and extend the lead to 57-31. The 26-point advantage was the largest the Phoenix held in the game.
St. Bonaventure scored late points from Katie Healy and Nyla Rueter, but Green Bay's reserve players, which all saw time on the court, were able to hold the double-digit advantage. Healy finished with a game-high 16 points, while Rueter added 11.
The Phoenix continued its streak of dominance in the paint, outscoring the Bonnies 36-10 for the game with a 20-0 advantage in the second half. During the five-game winning streak, Green Bay has outscored opponents 172-50 in the paint and has held opponents to an average of just 41 points per contest.
Loyola 64, Eastern Michigan 54
Loyola used a 29-6 run that spanned both halves to open up a double-digit lead and cruised to a 64-54 win over Eastern Michigan this afternoon at the Convocation Center in Ypsilanti, Mich. Monica Albano poured in a game-high 23 points and added a career-high nine steals to pace the Ramblers (5-8). Eastern Michigan slips to 2-11 with the loss.
Seven points from EMU's Sara Stone gave the home team an early 11-4 lead and the Ramblers trailed 17-8 before an Albano three-pointer and baskets from Molly Crosby and Taylor Johnson pulled LU within a basket (17-15) midway through the half. The Eagles built their lead back to eight on a Desyree Thomas lay-up before the Ramblers clamped down on the defensive end. Albano answered Thomas' basket with another trey and Loyola held EMU scoreless for the final 4:27 of the period, rattling off the last 11 points of the half to storm to a 30-27 lead at intermission.
Loyola kept the pressure on in the always-important first five minutes of the second half to build a lead. Simone Law opened the second half with a three-point play and Albano buried three more from downtown to cap the Ramblers' game-changing run that gave LU a 48-33 lead with 14:33 left to play.
Eastern Michigan responded by scoring the next eight to cut the deficit to seven but the Ramblers scored nine of the next 11 to grab a 57-43 lead with 8:12 on the clock and the Eagles would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Loyola shot a sizzling 57% in the second half and finished at 46% for the game. Meanwhile, its defense turned in another solid performance, holding Eastern Michigan to 32% shooting and forcing 25 turnovers, 19 as the result of steals.
The trio of Albano, Law and Johnson led the way for LU. Albano knocked down seven three-pointers en route to her 23 points and supplemented that with her nine steals. Law posted her sixth double-double of the season, racking up 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Johnson played a terrific all-around game, finishing with nine points (4-6 FGs), eight rebounds, five assists and six steals. Loyola also got a nice boost off the bench from Crosby, who tied her career high with eight points in 11 minutes.
Valparaiso 54, Northern Illinois 49
Redshirt Junior Charae Richardson scored a career-best 16 points, and the Valparaiso women’s basketball team led from start to finish to win its second-straight game 54-49 over Northern Illinois on Saturday.
The Crusaders are now 2-0 on their current four-game home stand and are 4-1 at the Athletics-Recreation Center this season.
Richardson scored 12 of her points in the second half. She drilled a 3-pointer with 10:19 to play to put Valparaiso up 43-38, and she added another trey at the 8:40 mark to give the Crusaders a 46-40 lead.
Valparaiso, which led by as many as 11 in the first half, saw its lead cut to a single point three different times, including at 50-49 with 1:56 to play. The Crusaders followed with an empty possession. The Huskies missed a shot with 45 seconds left and got an offensive rebound, but sophomore Shaquira Scott came away with a steal and senior Laura Richards was fouled.
Richards made the front end of a one-and-one, and after a Northern Illinois timeout, she made the second one to put the Crusaders up 52-49 with 27 seconds left.
Satvia Taylor missed a tying 3-point attempt for Northern Illinois in the closing seconds, and Richardson grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Her two free throws were the final points of the game.
Richardson shot 5-of-12 from the field for Valparaiso, including 2-of-3 from behind the arc and 4-of-4 at the free throw line.
The Crusaders, who scored on their opening possession and never trailed, built a 23-12 lead at the 8:38 mark of the first half on the strength of a 7-0 run. Richards, Gerardot and junior Liz Horton scored baskets during the spurt.
Northern Illinois cut into the lead over the remainder of the half, and Valparaiso led 31-26 at halftime.
Senior Gina Lange finished with nine points and nine rebounds for the Crusaders. Gerardot totaled nine points and eight rebounds. Freshman Jessi Wiedemann scored six points, hitting a 3-pointer in each half.
Taylor scored 16 points to lead Northern Illinois (5-8).
Nine of the 11 Crusaders who saw action made at least one field goal.
Butler 84, UIC 61
The UIC women’s basketball team (4-9) dropped its final non-conference game of the season at home against Butler (9-6) by a final score of 84-61 on Saturday afternoon at the UIC Pavilion. The Flames were led by junior Rachel Story with 23 points, her fourth 20-point performance of the year. Story shot 8-of-15 from the floor and dished out five assists. The Bulldogs relied heavily on their leading scorer Daress McClung as she tallied 31 points and 12 rebounds, shooting 13-of-17 from the field.
It was all McClung in the first half as she scored the first 12 points for Butler and had Bulldogs in front 18-4 by the 12:56 mark. The transfer from Cincinnati finished the first half with 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting. UIC answered back with a 10-0 run and chopped BU’s lead down to 18-14 with 8:53 remaining in the first period.
Butler kept pushing the pace and executed a 17-2 offensive spurt over the next four minutes to amass its largest lead of the first half, 35-16. The Flames were able to cut the Bulldog advantage down to eight points (40-32) by halftime, which was spurred by a pair of three pointers from freshman Terri Bender and junior Emily Kobel.
Story paced UIC at the break with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting and senior Taylor Foulks led the team in rebounds with five. Thirty of Butler’s 40 first-half points came in the paint as they shot 16-of-32 (50%) from the floor in the first 20 minutes compared to 12-of-31 (38.7%) for UIC.
The Bulldogs came out quick to start the second half and built a 49-34 lead within the first two minutes of the period. UIC regrouped and scored 13 of the next 15 points, including seven from Story, to slice BU’s edge to 51-47 by the 12:54 mark.
The Flames seemed to have run out of gas down the stretch, giving up 33 points in the final 12 minutes and 30 seconds as UIC netted just 14 points in that span. BU sophomore Taylor Schippers was the main facilitator for the Bulldogs in the second half with six assists and 10 total for game.
Memphis 109, Wright State 68
Wright State could not keep pace with Memphis on Saturday afternoon as the Tigers won on their own homecourt, 109-68.
The Raiders trailed by four, 42-38, with five minutes remaining in the first half, but Memphis would outscore WSU 33-10 over the next 12 minutes to put the game out of reach.
Memphis shot 54.9 percent from the field, compared to just 36.9 percent for the Raiders. Wright State also committed 23 turnovers, helping Memphis to a 36-11 advantage in points off turnovers.
Wright State was led in scoring by guards KC Elkins and Ivory James who both had 14 points. Kim Demmings added 13 for the Raiders who were 10-of-24 from three-point range in the game, including 8-of-13 in the first half when the Raiders kept the game close. Demmings and Elkins both had five assists to lead WSU who assisted on 17 of their 24 field goals.
Tags: Green Bay - Women's Basketball · Loyola - Women's Basketball · UIC - Women's Basketball · Valparaiso - Women's Basketball · Wright State - Women's Basketball
