Home Teams Take Care of Business Thursday Night in Women's Basketball

Horizon League Women’s Basketball Scoreboard (Mar. 7)
#20/20 Green Bay 63, Loyola 37
Detroit 62, Youngstown State 48
Milwaukee 72, UIC 63
Wright State 61, Cleveland State 53

Green Bay 63, Loyola 37
For a second straight game, the No. 20/20 Green Bay women's basketball team did not allow the opposing team to put a player in double-digit scoring as the Phoenix defeated Loyola 63-37 in the regular season home finale. The win improves Green Bay to 25-2 and 15-0 in the Horizon League, while Loyola evens out at 14-14 and 9-6 in conference play. The win also improved the Phoenix's winning streak to 20 games, the fourth-longest in program history, while snapping Loyola's seven-game unbeaten streak.

Redshirt sophomore Megan Lukan continued her dominant play and led the way with 19 points on a 3-6 effort from behind the arc. After going 6-34 from long range in the first 23 games of the season, Lukan boasts an impressive 15-33 mark during the last four games-good for a .455 mark.

Loyola entered the contest as the nation's second-best team in the turnover category at 11.6 per game, but Green Bay forced 21 Ramblers' turnovers-11 in the first half-tying the most the Windy City team has committed this season.

The Ramblers kept the game close to start, holding a 6-5 advantage at the 16:43 mark. It would be the last time Loyola held a lead as senior Adrian Ritchie scored on a layup and the Phoenix never looked back. The layup sparked an 11-0 run over the next five minutes, helping the home team rush out to a 16-6 lead with 10:48 remaining in the half.

Both offenses stalled in the latter part of the first half as the Phoenix outscored the Ramblers 11-8 to take a 27-14 lead into the break.

The Ramblers struck first in the second half on a layup from Taylor Johnson, but a three from Ritchie started a 17-1 run for Green Bay to open the half. Loyola broke the run at the 15:36 mark when Abby Skube made the team's first three after the Ramblers had missed their first nine attempts from long range. Despite the triple, Green Bay still led 44-20.

Lukan hit back-to-back three's to push the lead to 57-30 with 5:11 remaining, the largest lead the Phoenix would hold in the game. Loyola scored seven points in the final three minutes of the game, but triples from Jenny Gilbertson and Ellen Edison sealed the 63-37 victory.

Lukan led the way with 19 points and added four rebounds and four assists, while Ritchie posted 17 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Gilbertson was the next-highest scorer with nine points and seven boards. Despite not scoring, senior Sarah Eichler had a game-high seven assists-pushing her average to 5.0 shares per game during the past six games.

The Phoenix had 21 assists on 22 field goals, marking the first time this season the team had an assist on all but one shot. After shooting just 29.6 percent from the field in the first half, Green Bay made 61.9 percent of its field goal attempts for a 43.8 percent mark overall.

Loyola was led by Simone Law with nine points and as a team shot just 29.7 percent from the field. The Ramblers connected on just 3-18 from behind the arc for a 16.7 percent mark, and tied a season-high with 21 turnovers. With just 37 total points, the win marks the seventh time this season Green Bay has held an opponent under 40 points.

Detroit 62, Youngstown State 48
The Detroit Titans closed out the home regular season with another win as the Titans took advantage of a few Youngstown State injuries to claim a 62-48 victory over the Penguins on Thursday night at Calihan Hall.

The win moved Detroit to 16-11 on the season and 9-6 in the Horizon League, keeping the Titans alive for a No. 3 seed in the upcoming Horizon League Championship. Detroit can get that No. 3 seed with a win on Saturday at Valparaiso. A loss by the Titans and Detroit will have to look for Loyola falling to UIC and the right set of tiebreakers to fall in place at the fifth seed so the red, white, and blue can jump the Ramblers.

The victory was also No. 11 at home for Detroit, the second-straight year the Titans have won 11 home games and tying for the third most home victories in a season.

Sophomore Shareta Brown recorded her 12th double-double of the year and 24th of her career with a game-high 19 points and 13 rebounds, connecting on 8-of-12 from the field. Junior Senee Shearer tallied 17 points and pulled down five rebounds, while sophomore Audrey Matteson pitched in seven points and five boards.

YSU was already playing without starter Karen Flagg and second leading scorer Heidi Schlegel and then lost Horizon League Player of the Year candidate Brandi Brown midway through the first as the four-year starter injured her leg and did not return.  Even with the loss, the Penguins (21-8, 11-5 HL) found out that they would be the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament thanks to Green Bay defeating Loyola.

Detroit and Youngstown State traded the lead early on and the Penguins led 8-6 at the 15:28 mark when the Titans stormed in front with seven-straight points. Brown hit two free throws in that span and Shearer's first trey of the game made it 13-8.

YSU came back to knot it up at 13-all and then 16-16, but Detroit went on a 9-0 run after that. Shearer started that by hitting all three of her free throws after she was fouled and then back-to-back layups from Brown and Shayok gave Detroit a 23-15 advantage. Brown then crashed the glass for a pair of offensive rebounds and her put back pushed the lead to nine, 25-16, with 3:46 remaining.

Detroit eventually extended its lead to as many as 10, 29-19, and went into the break with a 29-21 lead.

UDM shot just under 50% in the first stanza hitting 11-of-23, while outrebounding the Penguins, 17-9.

Detroit went into double digits to start the second half as Shearer drove the lane for a layup, but the pesky Penguins fought back to get within six, 32-26, at the 16:54 mark. UDM then ran off six straight to raise its lead to 12 and eventually pushed it to 13, 44-31, midway through the final period on a layup from senior Demeisha Fambro and two free throws from Matteson.

Youngstown State once again rallied to cut the Titan lead to just six, 47-41, with 7:18 on the clock, but Detroit saw nullified any chance of a comeback, slowly building its lead back up on the strength of a 13-4 spurt. Brown had five in that stretch and the final dagger came from the long ball as Shearer's third triple saw UDM open its biggest lead of the day, 60-45, with just over two minutes left.

YSU had just seven points in the final 7:09 and none in the last 1:50 as Detroit sealed the win.

The Titan defense held the Penguins to 28.3% shooting (15-of-53), while going 52.4% (22-of-42) themselves, including 57/9% in the second half. Detroit completely dominated the boards, 40-22, and also forced 13 turnovers.

Fambro finished with six points, seven rebounds, and four assists while Shayok netted eight points.

Milwaukee 72, UIC 63
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team slowly built its second-half lead to as many as 13 points and then fended off UIC from there, earning a 72-63 victory Thursday night at the Klotsche Center.

The Panthers (9-18, 5-10 Horizon League) won for the fourth time in their past six games, while also snapping a four-game losing streak in the series against the Flames (9-19, 5-10 Horizon League). Up by 13 points with just over five minutes to play, Milwaukee had to turn away a final UIC run, getting within five with 39 seconds remaining before finishing strong.

Sophomore Ashley Green led the way with 18 points and added seven rebounds. Junior Emily Decorah finished with 17 points, including five more three-pointers. Senior Sami Tucker was big as well, grabbing a career-high 16 rebounds to go with eight points and four assists.

Senior Sammy Theut tied her career-high with 12 points. Her layup with 50 seconds left and pair of free throws on the next possession iced the much-needed victory for the Panthers.

Milwaukee led by seven at half and was up nine before a UIC run made it a three-point game at 39-36. Back and forth for a bit, UWM would score 12 of the next 17 to take its first double-digit lead on a layup by Green at the 12:44 mark.

The Flames kept pushing and were back within five, 55-50, with just over eight minutes remaining. The Panthers saved their best run for late, going on a 8-1 spurt that pushed the margin to as high as 13 on a Decorah three with 5:03 to play.

UIC pushed back again, but Theut took it in her own hands in the final minute, scoring on a one-on-one layup before adding that pair of free throws on the next possession to put it away.

Milwaukee shot 44.3 percent (27-for-61) on the night and made eight more three's while also winning the rebounding battle, 39-33. It held the Flames to 35.3 percent shooting in the second half.

With the victory, the Panthers moved to 5-10 in the league standings. Things get interesting from there in the seeds from five through nine in the standings, as UIC fell to 5-10, and with Wright State's win over Cleveland State, the Raiders moved to 6-10 and the Vikings fell to 5-11. Valparaiso was off tonight but is currently 4-11.

Wright State 61, Cleveland State 53
A 22-4 first half run erased an early 12-5 deficit as the women's basketball team went on to a 61-53 win over Cleveland State in the season finale for both teams Thursday night at WSU's Nutter Center.

The Raiders hit just one of their first 13 shots in falling behind 12-5 with 12:32 remaining in the first half.  A desperation banked-in three by Kim Demmings at the 9:28 mark, however, started WSU on its decisive run and after a Kayla Lamotte three, Ivory James tied it at 13 with a jumper in the paint.

The margin was just three at 19-16 before eight straight points, including threes from James and Lamotte extended the lead to 27-16 with 4:32 to play in the period.

Cleveland State cut the deficit to seven twice to close out the first half, making it 29-22 at the break, and Shalonda Winton opened the scoring in the second half to make it a five-point game, only to see Wright State go on an 11-0 run, capped off by a Breanna Stucke triple, to push the lead back into double figures at 40-24.

WSU maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way and was up 61-44 on a James three with 2:22 left before the Vikings scored the final nine points of the game.

The Raiders shot 38 percent for the game, including 11 of 30 from three-point range, while Cleveland State shot 30 percent and was just two of 14 from behind the arc.  CSU, though, was 17 of 22 at the foul line compared to only four of seven for WSU.

Demmings posted a double-double of 20 points and 10 assists for Wright State while James had 12 points off the bench.  Stucke added 11 points and seven rebounds, Lamotte nine points and KC Elkins seven points and eight boards.

Winton paced Cleveland State (13-16, 5-11 Horizon) with a double-double of 15 points and 16 rebounds while Imani Gordon nearly had one as well with 12 points and nine rebounds.  Cori Coleman and Kiersten Green each had 10 points.