Green Bay's Ryan Tillema named Horizon League Men's Basketball Player of the Week
Jan. 26, 2009
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INDIANAPOLIS --- University of Wisconsin-Green Bay senior guard Ryan Tillema has been named Horizon League Men's Basketball Player of the Week for the week ending Jan. 25.
A native of Randolph, Wis., Tillema averaged 20.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in a 2-1 week for Green Bay. It is his second career Horizon League player-of-the-week honor and first since December 2007.
In an 83-76 victory Saturday at Valparaiso University, he poured in a career-high 36 points, the most by an individual in a League game this season. Tillema was 12-of-17 from the field and 9-of-11 from three-point range, including 7-of-8 from beyond the arc in the first half when he had 24 points. His nine three-pointers tied the school record and helped the Phoenix match the team single-game mark of 14.
Tillema also scored 15 points in a 91-53 victory over Houston Baptist University last Monday and had 10 in a 68-59 loss at #16/17 Butler University on Saturday. For the week, he shot 54 percent (21-of-39) from the floor, 50 percent (11-of-22) from three-point range and 73 percent (8-of-11) from the free-throw line.
Tillema is averaging a team-high 17 points per game after returning from an injury that sidelined him for the first seven games. He would rank second in the Horizon League if he qualified with enough games played. In League games only, Tillema ranks second with 17.6 points per game to J'Nathan Bullock of Cleveland State University (18.6 ppg).
The Phoenix (15-6, 7-2 Horizon League) enters the week in second place in the Horizon League standings, two games Butler (18-1, 9-0) and a half-game ahead of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (12-8, 7-3). Green Bay will play host to the University of Illinois at Chicago (10-9, 3-6) this Wednesday and Loyola University Chicago (12-9, 4-5) on Saturday.
Comprised of 10 public and private institutions of higher learning, the Horizon League is an NCAA Division I athletics conference that sponsors 19 intercollegiate championships and is headquartered in Indianapolis. The League and its member institutions aspire to teach young people, through athletic competition, the value of learning, service to others and personal responsibility.
Horizon League teams have enjoyed national success in a variety of sports in recent years, most notably in men's basketball, in which its teams have advanced to the Regional semi-finals of the NCAA Championship three times in the past six seasons.
