Women's Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 25)
Green Bay 69, Wright State 67
Milwaukee 81, Detroit 69
UIC 83, Cleveland State 78
Youngstown State 79, Oakland 64
Green Bay 69, Wright State 67
In a second half that saw the lead exchange hands six times with one tie, the Green Bay women’s basketball defense stepped up big in the final seconds as the Phoenix squeaked by Wright State with a 69-67 triumph on Saturday afternoon at the Kress Center.
The win improved Green Bay to 10-7 overall and 3-2 in the Horizon League, while Wright State dropped to 15-6 overall and 4-2 in the conference. It also kept the Phoenix slate clean in home games against the Raiders, improving to 27-0. Green Bay sophomore Kaili Lukan (Barrie, Ontario) posted her fourth 20+ point performances in five Horizon League games finishing with 23 points, while senior Breannah Ranger (Skokie, Ill.) continued her strong play against the Raiders with a career-high 18 points. Ranger now has 10 or more points in each of the last three games against Wright State.
Green Bay started the second half with a three point lead (33-30) before Wright State’s Ivory James tied the game as she collected an offensive rebound and put up a three point shot 30 seconds into the second stanza. A Ranger layup put the Phoenix back in the lead on the next possession, and Green Bay held on to at least a two point advantage all the way to the 12:35 mark (45-43).
Turnovers on the next two Phoenix possessions gave Wright State an opportunity to take the lead, as second half star Kim Demmings connected on a three to give the visitors their first lead of the contest, 46-45, with 11:21 on the clock. The lead exchanged hands five more times over the next 2:33 before a layup by junior Megan Lukan (Barrie, Ontario) put the Phoenix ahead for good, 51-50, with 8:48 remaining.
The Phoenix then proceeded to go on a 10-2 run over the next 3:36 to tie its largest lead of the contest at nine points (61-52). Kaili Lukan put up back-to-back layups and sophomore Taylor Thomas (Wausau, Wis.) stepped up with a big layup and-1 under the basket to swing momentum in favor of the Phoenix before sophomore Ellen Edison (Maple Grove, Minn.) closed the run with a three.
Green Bay maintained that lead all the way to the 4:02 mark when it owned a 65-56 advantage on the scoreboard. However, Wright State charged back into the game with a 10-3 run to get to within a point, 68-67, with 53 seconds remaining to set up the late game dramatics.
On the next possession, Kaili Lukan missed the second of a pair of free throws, and the Raiders Tayler Stanton came up with the defensive rebound. Traveling to the other end of the court, James’ three went off target for Wright State, and freshman Tesha Buck (Red Wing, Minn.) grabbed the big rebound under the basket for the Phoenix, and she then found Megan Lukan at midcourt on the break, where she was fouled with 14 seconds remaining. Lukan missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Demmings came up with the rebound for Wright State giving them an opportunity for a last-minute shot.
The Phoenix defense stood strong, as a Kaili Lukan steal helped second tick off the clock, but she quickly turned it over again to put the ball in the hands of the hot-shooting Demmings, who’s last-minute shot attempt fell short of the win, preserving the two-point victory for the Phoenix.
It was a streaky first half for the Phoenix who scored the first points of the game and maintained that lead throughout despite several challenges from Wright State. Kaili Lukan netted the first two field goals of the contest for the Phoenix, and Green Bay held on to the advantage going up by one (7-6) with 17:46 on the clock.
Green Bay then went on an 8-0 run over the next 2:39 to assume its largest lead of the half, 15-6, receiving a layup from Kaili Lukan and back-to-back three pointers by Buck. The Raiders pulled back to within three (19-16) with 6:05 remaining but another run by the Phoenix, this time 6-0, put the lead back at nine points (25-16) with 4:22 showing.
Hot shooting from deep drew the Raiders back to within two points with just over two minutes left (27-25) as the visitors were able to put up threes on three consecutive possessions. However, another 6-0 Green Bay run gave the home team an eight point lead, 33-25, at 1:01. But the Raiders registered the final five points of the half, all from Ivory James, as the Phoenix lead was cut to three, 33-30, at the break.
Green Bay recorded its second-consecutive game of shooting 50 percent or better from the field and having 20 or more assists, finishing the game at 50.9 percent (27-53) from the field with 20 assists on 27 baksets. The Phoenix outscored the Raiders 44-18 in the paint and was able to overcome 13 Wright State steals and 19 forced turnovers. Rebounds finished even at 40 apiece.
Buck had a great all-around performance for the Phoenix, finishing with a career-high eight rebounds in addition to nine points and five assists. Megan Lukan added seven points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Demmings led the Raiders with a game-high 24 points, with 21 of those coming in the second half. James added 22 points, and Tayler Stanton had a game-best 16 rebounds.
Milwaukee 81, Detroit 69
Leading by as many as nine points in the first half before falling behind in the second, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team responded with an impressive 20-2 scoring run to help secure an 81-69 victory over Detroit Saturday afternoon at the Klotsche Center.
"I just kept challenging them at timeouts," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "They just needed that spark and that energy. I thought there were some people that really stepped up for us in the second half. Bre'Zall Warren and Kimee Chandler hit some huge baskets for us to get us going and then you have Ashley Green all over the boards again having another double-double."
Up seven at intermission, the Panthers (6-12, 2-3 Horizon League) allowed the Titans (3-16, 0-6 Horizon League) to use a 16-6 scoring run of their own to forge ahead by a basket, 48-46, with 13:28 to play.
From there, it was all Milwaukee. The Panthers turned the tide and scored 20 of the next 22 points of the game, holding Detroit without a field goal on 10 attempts for a stretch that lasted over six minutes.
"They went on that run and we bounced back with our own run," Rechlicz said. "Detroit is a team of runs and you have to handle it. We knew that going in and that we had to weather the storm."
Milwaukee turned that 48-46 deficit into a 66-50 advantage at the 7:37 mark, sending the Titans to their ninth loss in a row. Detroit got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Senior Angela Rodriguez led an extremely balanced scoring attack with 16 points. Junior Ashley Green posted her second-straight double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
A pair of players tied career-highs in points. Senior Kimee Chandler had 10 and was 4-of-5 from the floor. Freshman Bre'Zall Warren netted 13 points. Ten of the 11 UWM players found the scoring column and seven had at least seven points.
Senee Shearer led the Titans with 21 in the loss. Tayelor McCalister had 17 points and eight rebounds.
That 16-6 run gave Detroit the brief lead. A three by Warren stemmed the tide and three by Green made it 54-50 at the 12:17 mark. Freshman Sydney Snower extended the advantage to nine on a three at the 10:44 mark and from there the Panthers took care of business to get the victory.
Milwaukee ended up holding a seven-point lead at intermission, but the first half had numerous whistles - 25 total fouls - and was disjointed enough to not allow either team to get into any flow.
UWM started well and kept going from there, but could never truly pull away. It scored the first five points on the day and built leads by counts of 12-5 and 18-10.
A three from senior Emily Decorah at the 4:26 mark gave the Panthers a nine-point advantage for the first time in the game at 30-21, but Detroit got enough stops to trim the deficit to seven at halftime despite being held to 30.8 percent (8-for-26) field goal shooting in the period. The Titans, one of the better three-point shooting teams in the league, went 0-for-6.
Milwaukee shot 39.3 percent (24-of-61) on the day, making 10 more three-pointers. It also won the rebounding battle, 44-42, and held a 14-6 advantage in points of turnovers.
UIC 83, Cleveland State 78
The UIC women's basketball team (15-4, 4-2 HL) won its fourth straight game Saturday (Jan. 25) with an 83-78 home victory over Cleveland State (8-11, 3-3 HL) at the UIC Pavilion. Rachel Story scored a career-high 34 points and hit 4-of-6 shots from beyond the arc.
UIC’s 15-4 overall record is the program’s best mark through 19 games in the Division I era (1980-present). The Flames are 4-2 through the first six Horizon League contests for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign.
The last UIC player to score over 30 points was Katie Hannemann (35) on Feb. 21, 2013 against Wright State. Ruvanna Campbell scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed 18 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the season.
Kiersten Green led Cleveland State with 19 points, while Imani Gordon added 17, Cori Coleman notched 13, and Olivia Voskuhl added 11. Gordon also tallied a team-high seven rebounds, while Green and Voskuhl each added five.
Youngstown State 79, Oakland 64
The Youngstown State women's basketball team used key runs at the start of the contest and at the finish to outlast Oakland 79-64 on Saturday night at the Beeghly Center. YSU remains unbeaten in Horizon League play at 5-0 following the win.
The Penguins (9-9 overall and 5-0 in the Horizon League) scored 18 of the first 20 points and had a 9-2 run to finish out the game after Oakland (8-11 and 3-3) had pulled to within eight points with 2:18 remaining.
YSU played just seven players and all had at least four points. The starters combined for 70 of the 79 on the contest with Heidi Schlegel scoring 25 points to lead the Guins. Liz Hornberger finished with 18, Karen Flagg had 11 and Latisha Walker poured in 10. Monica Touvelle had five points while Melissa Thompson scored four coming off the bench.
The Penguins led 43-21 at halftime, but a scoreless span of six minutes in the second half allowed the Golden Grizzlies to make things interesting.
YSU led 50-26 at the 17:58 mark but Oakland kept chipping away and was able to get the deficit back to 50-35 with 13:46 remaining. The lead eventually shunk to six on two occasions, the last of which was 57-51 with 7:56 left. YSU scored the next seven points to push its lead back up to 64-51 at 6:06.
After the margin grew to 68-52, the Golden Grizzlies closed within 70-62 with 2:18 left. From that point YSU withered the storm again closing out the game on a 9-2 run.
For the contest, the Guins shot 41.3 percent (26-of-63) while Oakland shot 37.1 percent (23-of-63). Bethany Watterworth had a high of 21 points for the Golden Grizzlies.
Oakland started 1-for-21 from the field and missed 18 straight shots at one point that allowed YSU to build a 23-5 lead through the first 13-plus minutes of play.
The Penguins scored 21 of the contests first 24 points bolting out to a 21-3 lead. The Golden Grizzles went from the 18:08 mark of the half until 6:40 remained in the half without a field goal.
YSU scored the game's first four points, and Oakland briefly pulled within 4-2. However, the Penguins secored the next 16 points and never looked back. OU was able to close within 15 points on two occasions, but the lead ballooned to as high as 24 in the first half at 41-17 and 43-19.
The Guins shot 42.9 percent (15-of-35) from the field and drained 8-of-14 3-point attempts. Converserly, Oakland shot 20 percent making just six of 30 attempts. YSU had a 27-18 advantage on the boards and had 10 assists.
Tags: Green Bay - Women's Basketball · Milwaukee - Women's Basketball · UIC - Women's Basketball · Youngstown State - Women's Basketball
