Home was not the place to be on Thursday Night in Horizon League women’s basketball play as road teams won three of the four games played. Green Bay, Milwaukee and Wright State all won on the road. Youngstown State was the only team to win on its home court.
Home has not meant a guaranteed victory in conference play this season as road teams have won 45 percent of league games (18-of-40) halfway through the season.
Green Bay 60, Butler 36
No. 12/9 Green Bay (18-0, 8-0 HL) used its tenacious defense to improve to 18-0 with a 60-36 win over Butler (7-12, 3-5 HL) Thursday at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. The win was Green Bay’s 32nd consecutive over the Bulldogs and 34th consecutive regular season win against a conference opponent.
Julie Wojta cracked Green Bay’s top 10 all-time scoring list with her game-high 15 points.
Green Bay scored a season-low 60 points but its defense won the game, holding the Bulldogs to a season-low three field goals and 18-percent shooting while forcing a season-high 30 turnovers.
After Butler scored the first bucket of the contest, Green Bay went on a 15-3 run which featured six points from Adrian Ritchie, including a three to boost the lead to 10-2 at the 15:43 mark.
With 9:30 to play in the first half, Green Bay applied full court pressure, forced the Bulldogs a turnover and converted the layup to boost its lead to 19-7. The Bulldogs cut Green Bay’s lead to 10 with a jumper from Haley Howard.
Green Bay boosted its lead to 20 (31-11) with a steal and layup from Hannah Quilling with 4:55 remaining in the first half. Quilling scored back-to-back buckets for the Phoenix, part of an 18-4 run to close the first half of play.
The Phoenix defense held the Bulldogs without a field goal in the final 8:40 of the first half with Butler finishing with a season-low 13 points and three field goals. Green Bay forced 19 turnovers and poured in 20 points on the Bulldogs’ miscues.
Green Bay’s 42-13 halftime lead was its largest of the season. Wojta led all players with 13 points, eight rebounds and three steals in the first half while Ritchie chipped in 10 points and four rebounds.
Butler outscored Green Bay 12-6 in the opening eight minutes of the second half. Twelve of the first 18 points in the second half came from the charity stripe. The Phoenix built its lead to 32 (46-14) with a layup from Ritchie at the 18:08 mark.
The Bulldogs came as close as 20 (50-30) when Mandy McDivitt sank a three with 9:49 to play. Green Bay’s defense responded forcing two consecutive turnovers while converting to layups from both Eichler and Wojta to make it a 24-point game. With 7:04 to play, Wojta found Lydia Bauer on a beautiful cut to the basket for the 56-30 advantage.
Butler outscored Green Bay 23-18 in the second half as the Phoenix shot 28 percent, going 7-of-25 from the field.
The Phoenix finished the game scoring 30 points off Butler’s 30 turnovers. Bauer led the Phoenix with a career-high nine rebounds while chipping in eight points. In addition to Wojta’s game-high 15 points, Ritchie added 12 points and seven rebounds.
Green Bay continues its road trip with a visit to Valparaiso on Saturday afternoon, while Butler remains home and hosts Milwaukee on Saturday.
Milwaukee 55, Valparaiso 47
Sophomore Courtney Lindfors led four players in double-figures as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women’s basketball team topped Valparaiso University, 55-47, Thursday at the Athletics-Recreation Center.
Lindfors scored 14 points, sophomore Angela Rodriguez had 12 and freshmen Kiki Wilson and Ashley Green each had 10 points on the night to lead UWM to back-to-back wins. Rodriguez and Wilson hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to put the victory away late.
The Panthers (6-12, 2-6) led comfortably before a late Crusader (5-14, 1-7) rally pulled them within five points with four minutes remaining. Rodriguez buried a long three from the wing to stem the tide and, after a turnover on the inbounds pass, Wilson gave Milwaukee its biggest lead of the game with another long-range basket.
The Panthers led by 10 at 37-27 on a layup by Lindfors with 12:31 to go. Valparaiso responded with six in a row, but four UWM free throws slowed the momentum.
The Crusaders made one final push to get within five before Rodriguez and Wilson would bury the pair of three-pointers to put the game away in a span of 10 seconds. Valpo would get no closer than six the rest of the way.
Back and forth in the opening minutes, the Panthers finally clawed ahead to get the first breathing room at 20-13 on a pair of free throws from Green. Five quick points by the Crusaders closed the gap before UWM would go on a bit of a spurt to end the half.
The Panthers would score nine of the final 13 points of the half, taking their biggest lead on a three-pointer by senior Alex Klawitter with 1:53 remaining to make it 29-20.
Despite being cold from long-range prior to intermission (just 1-for-7), Milwaukee did shoot 46.4 percent (13-for-28) from the field overall and held a slim 16-13 edge on the boards. Nine turnovers, coming mostly in the final 10 minutes, hurt UWM’s opportunity to have a bigger lead at the horn.
Lindfors made all five of her field goal attempts in the first for her 10 points, with Green tallying eight of hers in the first 20 minutes.
Tabitha Gerardot led the Crusaders with 16 points, while Gina Lange chipped in 15.
The Panthers close out January with a trip Saturday to Indianapolis to take on Butler, while Valparaiso is in action Saturday hosting #11/9 Green Bay.
Wright State 64, Cleveland State 54
Down three at the half, the Wright State women's basketball team (13-7, 6-2) scored the first 11 points of the second half and went on to a 64-54 Horizon League win at Cleveland State Thursday night.
Back-to-back threes from Abby Jump gave the Raiders a 16-11 lead with 12:04 remaining in the first half. The Vikings, however, answered with seven straight points to go back in front and were up five before a Kim Demmings jumper made it 26-23 at the break.
Molly Foxkeyed WSU's 11-0 run to start the second half with eight points and the Raiders led 47-37 on a Breanna Stucke three with 10:37 remaining.
CSU closed to within three at 51-48 on a Cori Coleman foul shot at the 3:54 mark, but the Vikings could get no closer as threes by Courtney Boyd and Stucke and two Fox free throws pushed the margin back up to 59-48 with just over a minute to play.
WSU hit 14 of 25 shots over the final 20 minutes to shoot 43 percent overall while holding CSU to 31 percent for the night. The Raiders also held a 45-34 rebounding advantage and led 22-9 in second-chance points.
Fox led all scorers with 24 points for Wright State, 16 coming in the second half, along with nine rebounds while Demmings added 13 points. Jump chipped in nine off the bench and Shaunda Sandifer collected 11 rebounds.
Shalonda Wintonpaced Cleveland State (8-11, 3-5 Horizon) with 15 points while Coleman had 14 and Takima Keane 11.
Wright State wraps up the Northeast Ohio swing on Saturday with a 4:30 contest at Youngstown State.
Youngstown State 80, Detroit 67
Senior Kenya Middlebrooks set a school single-game record with eight 3-pointers and scored a career-high 30 points and led the Youngstown State women's basketball team to a 80-67 win over Detroit on Thursday evening at the Beeghly Center. Middlebrooks is the first player to score 30 points since Brandi Brown posted 35 against UIC on March 3, 2011.
The Guins also tied a school record with 15 3-pointers, which was last set in 2005 against IPFW.
Sophomore Melissa Thompson scored a career high with 14 points and junior Brandi Brown added 16 points.
With the win, the Guins improve to 9-10 overall and 3-5 in the Horizon League while the Titans fall to 9-11 overall and 5-3 in the league.
The Guins, who played most of the second half without Brown due to foul trouble, shot an impressive 62.5 percent after halftime and 57.1 percent overall.
Leading the Titans by just five, 41-36, with 15:18 to go, Middlebrooks, who made 6-of-7 3-pointers in the second half, made three triples in the span of 2:39 to build a 10-point edge for the Guins, 50-40, at the 12:39 mark.
The Titans were able to whittle the Guins lead down to eight points four different times before 3-pointers by Monica Touvelle and Middlebrooks put the Guins back up 14, 63-49, with 8:19 remaining.
Middlebrooks' record-tying 3-pointer put the Guins up by 18, 70-52, with 5:40 to go and her record-breaking eighth triple gave the Guins a 75-56 advantage with 3:57 left.
The Guins took command of the game early on making three of their first four 3-point attempts to build a 9-3 advantage at the 17:33 mark. Brown, Middlebrooks and Thompson each connected from downtown to spur the Guins' quick start.
The Guins, who shot 52 percent in the first half, made five of their first seven 3-pointers and made 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) for the half.
Detroit continued to battle and cut the Guins lead down to two, 9-7, and trailed by four, 17-13, before the Guins scored nine straight points - keyed by 3-pointers by Thompson and Middlebrooks - to take a 26-13 lead with 7:24 left remaining.
Detroit's Senee Shearer made consecutive 3-pointers, Detroit first two of the game, to cut the Guins lead down to seven, 26-19, at the 5:34 mark.
After a basket by Brown, Shearer nailed her third triple in two minutes to bring the Titans within six, 28-22, with 5:03 to go.
A jumper and free throw by Heidi Schlegel, a layup by Macey Nortey and a jumper by Brown extended the Guins lead back to 12, 35-23, with 1:39 left.
UDM's Chanti Putnam hit a 3-pointer at the 1:10 mark to end the first half scoring and cut the lead down to 35-26 at halftime.
Shareta Brownhad 21 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Titans.
Youngstown State hosts Wright State on Saturday, while Detroit continues its tour of Northeast Ohio with a visit to Cleveland State.
