No. 22 UW-Green Bay Tops Butler For Title

March 11, 2007

Box Score | Championship Gallery 

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - Nicole Soulis scored 21 points and Amanda Popp added 18 to help No. 22 Wisconsin-Green Bay cruise by Butler 91-64 on Sunday in the Horizon League championship game.

The Phoenix (28-3) have won 25 straight games and have made the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in 10 seasons.

Wisconsin-Green Bay took an early 13-0 lead en route to its season-high point total and never looked back. The Bulldogs (16-15), who played in the league championship game for the first time since 1997-98, have lost 22 straight games to the Phoenix since 1999.

The Phoenix shot 67 percent (16-for-24) from the field in the first half, including 9 of 15 (60 percent) from behind the arc, to take a 49-36 lead. Wisconsin-Green Bay finished the game by making 15 of 29 3-pointers (51.7 percent), one shy of the tournament record that it set in a 2005 quarterfinal game against Cleveland State, and shot 57.4 percent from the field.

Soulis scored 16 of her points in the decisive first half and was named the tournament's most valuable player. Kayla Groh added 11 points and Erin Templin 10 for the Phoenix.

Jackie Closser led Butler with 23 points, including seven 3-pointers, tying a tournament record set by Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Jessica Wilhite in 2001. Candace Jones added 13 points.

Popp had two of Wisconsin-Green Bay's three 3-pointers in the first 3:22 of the game. Rachel Porath's three-point play with 12:57 left in the first half stretched the Phoenix lead to 23-5.

Closser scored nine of her 14 first-half points on 3-pointers in the final 5:19 in that half, and the Bulldogs cut the deficit to 49-36. Butler never got closer than 13 points in the second half.