Horizon League Women’s Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 19)
Green Bay 59, Youngstown State 41
Milwaukee 63, Cleveland State 60
UIC 82, Valparaiso 75
Wright State 67, Loyola 56
Green Bay 59, Youngstown State 41
After trailing for nearly eight minutes in the middle of the first half, the Green Bay women's basketball team bounced back to defeat Youngstown State 59-41 in the final game of a weekend road trip to Ohio. The win marks the 12th time in 16 games this season Green Bay's nationally second-best scoring defense has held an opponent under 50 points.
Senior Stephanie Sension scored Green Bay's first six points of the game, helping the Phoenix take an early 6-3 lead. However, Youngstown State used three straight three's to build a 12-8 lead. The Penguins would lead for the next eight minutes before redshirt junior Sam Zastrow found a cutting senior Sarah Eichler for the basket and an 18-17 lead with 6:17 remaining in the half.
With redshirt sophomore Megan Lukan in foul trouble Zastrow played a season-high 18 minutes, finishing with three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
The Phoenix held Youngstown State scoreless for the final 4:53 of the first half, and held possession of the ball in the final seconds with a 21-19 lead. As the buzzer sounded, senior Lydia Bauer drilled a three from 26 feet out, putting Green Bay up 24-19 at the break. Bauer finished with a game-high 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including a perfect 2-for-2 from behind the arc while tying a career-high with two blocks.
Green Bay extended the lead to seven points at 28-21 off an Eichler floater with 17:06 remaining, but two straight triples from the Penguins cut the lead to 28-27. The one-point deficit was as close as Youngstown State would get for the remainder of the game, as it was all Green Bay from there.
Redshirt senior Jenny Gilbertson came off the bench and hit three of four attempts from behind the arc in the half, putting the Phoenix up 44-33 with 11:12 remaining. Her last triple sparked a 13-4 Green Bay run over the next nine and a half minutes, putting the Phoenix up by as many as 20 points.
The win was the ninth straight for Green Bay, and the 12th time in 16 games this season an opponent has failed to reach 50 points. Green Bay contained a Horizon League Preseason First-Team selection well below their average for the fourth straight game, holding Youngstown State's Brandi Brown, who entered the game averaging nearly 21 points per game, to just 10 points on 4-12 shooting and 0-5 from downtown.
Sension finished behind Bauer with 12 points on 6-9 shooting, while senior Adrian Ritchie and Gilbertson added nine points. Eichler and redshirt junior Breannah Ranger both added six points.
Milwaukee 63, Cleveland State 60
Late-game heroics provided the difference as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team earned a hard-fought 63-60 victory over Cleveland State University Saturday afternoon at the Wolstein Center.
Senior Sammy Theut put the Panthers (5-10, 1-2 Horizon League) back on top with 20 seconds left in the contest and then freshman Jordyn Swan came off the bench to make a pair of free throws with just 7.2 seconds remaining to provide the final difference in the game.
The Vikings (10-7, 2-2 Horizon League) had one last opportunity to tie at the buzzer, but the Milwaukee defense withstood and helped the team earn its first Horizon League win of the season and also it first victory in Cleveland since January of 2006.
Junior Angela Rodriguez led three players in double-figures with 19 points, including a 5-of-7 performance from three-point range and six assists. Junior Emily Decorah went 5-for-9 from distance to account for all 15 of her points and senior Sami Tucker added 10. Sophomore Ashley Green grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds and added six points despite being limited to just 23 minutes because of foul trouble.
Shalonda Winton led CSU with a game-high 22 points, recording eight boards, four assists, three blocks and a pair of steals. Nafeshia Holifield added career-best totals of 11 points and eight rebounds.
The Panthers led for most of the game and fought back after the Vikings took a late lead. Theut actually gave Milwaukee its final lead, picking up a loose ball in the lane and finishing the layup on the left side to make it 61-60 with just 20 seconds remaining.
Decorah came up big after the team took that lead, tying up a loose ball while the Vikings were trying to run a final play. She jumped into the mix and earned the alternate possession with 16.4 seconds left and the Panthers holding the possession arrow.
Swan, who had not played in the game until seconds before being fouled with her team up one, calmly made both free throws and then the defense held off a final three-point try.
Things looked good after halftime, with the Panthers quickly building a 10-point cushion at 37-27 early in the second half. But, the Vikings would never go away, using a 22-9 run to retake the lead for the first time since the middle of the first half and pushed the advantage to 49-46.
With 4:33 to play, a pair of Tucker free throws gave UWM a 50-49 lead, which it would eventually build to 55-51 on a high-arcing three from the corner by Rodriguez minutes later. But, Winton, who scored 14 points in the second half alone, kept at it and her free throws with 2:04 left tied the game again at 55-55.
An entertaining game from the tip, the first half featured four ties and four lead changes and plenty of makes from long-distance for the Panthers. In fact, 75 percent of UWM's points before halftime came from beyond the arc, sinking 8-of-10 attempts.
The Panthers led by as many as four points early on before the back-and-forth started. A three-pointer by Kiersten Green pushed CSU back ahead, 21-20, at the 5:04 mark.
Then, the three-point barrage really started. Decorah helped the Panthers retake the lead and then built it to five at 26-21 with just over three minutes to play on back-to-back three's. The Vikings clawed back a bit, but then it was Rodriguez's turn, burying consecutive threes of her own to push the advantage back to five at halftime at 32-27.
Decorah (12) and Rodriguez (11) were both in double-figures already after the first 20 minutes.
Overall, Milwaukee shot 37.7 percent (23-of-61) from the floor, but hit 47.8 percent of its three's (11-of-23) to finish with at least 10 made 3's for the fifth time this season. The defense held CSU to 34.6 percent (18-of-52) shooting in the game - 22.2 percent from long-distance - and also won the rebounding battle, 38-37.
UIC 82, Valparaiso 75
The UIC women’s basketball team (6-10, 2-1) picked up its second straight Horizon League win with a 82-75 home triumph against Valparaiso (6-10, 1-2) on Saturday afternoon at the UIC Pavilion. Freshman Terri Bender notched a career-high with 22 points as redshirt junior Katie Hannemann tied her all-time high of 20. Bender scored 19 of her 22 points in the second half, totaling 39 second-half points in the past two games. Senior Taylor Foulks recorded her first career double-double with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Thirteen seconds into the contest, Foulks drilled a three pointer that ignited a 7-0 Flames run. Valpo fought their way back with accurate outside shooting as they finished the first half with six treys. UIC found early success in the paint with Hannemann and junior Megan Wallace, combining for 20 first half points and 9-of-12 from the field.
With 15 seconds left to play in the first stanza, Wallace sank 15-foot jumper from the free throw line to put UIC in front 38-37 going into the locker room. Hannemann led all scorers at the break with 12 points as Valpo was piloted by junior Charae Richardson with seven. Richardson finished the game with a team-high 18 points.
The second half witnessed four lead changes in the first five minutes as both squads traded buckets. At the 6:01 mark, UIC took control of the game with a 10-0 run and held a 69-58 lead with 3:19 left to play.
The Crusaders cut that lead to five points with 16 seconds on the clock, but Bender sealed the win with four made free throws in the final seconds. Bender went 9-of-14 from the free throw line in the second half and 10-of-16 for the game.
Junior Emily Kobel provided UIC with a spark off the bench, going 3-of-6 from behind the arc in just 10 minutes of action. Kobel is now 30-of-88 (34.1%) from the outside on the season.
The Flames forced Valparaiso to commit 20 turnovers as UIC totaled a season-high 15 steals with nine in the second period. Bender led the way with a career-high five steals and Foulks chipped in with four as she moves into eighth on UIC’s career steals list with 192.
Eighty two points is the second-highest output for the Flames this season and today’s game is the first win for UIC when allowing more than 70 points under the direction of Regina Miller.
Wright State 67, Loyola 56
A 14-0 run late in the first half proved to be the difference as the Wright State women's basketball team picked up a 67-56 win at Loyola Saturday afternoon.
The two teams were tied at 13 until Breanna Stucke started the decisive run with a layup at the 9:19 mark and Ivory James followed with 12 consective points, including three three-pointers, to make it 27-13 with 4:37 to play.
Loyola closed to within nine before the Raiders closed the half with seven straight points, highlighted by Kim Demmings connecting on a three just ahead of the horn, to go up 34-18 at the half.
Wright State shot 48 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, including seven of 16 from three, while holding the Ramblers to just 19 percent.
WSU took its biggest lead of the day as Demmings hit a jumper to start the second half, but Loyola rallid to within seven at 44-37 on a Troy Hambric basket with 12:19 to play.
Stucke, however, hit a three to push the margin back up to 10 and the Raiders enjoyed a double-digit advantage the rest of the way.
The Raiders shot 42 percent for the contest overall, were 12 of 30 from behind the arc and hit 11 of 14 free throws while the Ramblers shot 32 percent, were five of 21 from three and seven of 11 at the line.
Demmings led all scorers with 24 points, 16 coming in the second half, while James added 22 points on eight of 11 shooting, five of eight from three. Stucke had eight points and nine rebounds.
Taylor Johnson paced Loyola (6-10, 1-2 Horizon) with a double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds while Hambric chipped in 12.
Tags: Green Bay - Women's Basketball · Milwaukee - Women's Basketball · UIC - Women's Basketball · Wright State - Women's Basketball
