Standings Tighten in Women's Basketball

Horizon League Women’s Basketball Scoreboard (Feb. 21)
Loyola 91, Detroit 81
Milwaukee 75, Valparaiso 71
UIC 81, Wright State 78 (OT)
Youngstown State 73, Cleveland State 69

Loyola 91, Detroit 81
Taylor Johnson and Simone Law each scored 22 points to lead five Loyola players in double figures as the Ramblers knocked off Detroit, 91-81, tonight at Gentile Arena. The win gives Loyola (11-13, 6-5 Horizon) its first four-game Horizon League winning streak in 10 years while the Titans drop to 14-9, 7-4.

The game started fast and the pace never relented. Detroit knocked down its first four shots, two from downtown, to take an early 10-4 lead and they extended the lead to seven (20-13) after a Yar Shayok basket midway through the half. A Lyndsey Booker three-pointer helped Loyola stem the tide and the basket kick started a 10-0 LU run that gave the home team a 23-20 lead with just under eight minutes left. Consecutive three-pointers later from Albano bumped the lead to five and Ayrealle Beavers buried a triple with 90 seconds left to send the Ramblers into the locker room with a 34-26 lead.

After being saddled by first-half foul trouble, Johnson came up with a steal on the opening possession of the second half, which Beavers converted into two points, and scored again on a nice feed from Troy Hambric as Loyola opened up a 39-26 lead. Detroit, after missing its last eight from the arc in the first half, began to warm up from outside to chip away at the lead, cutting the deficit to five (47-42) on a Demeisha Fambro three-pointer just over five minutes into the half. After a Law basket, Johnson scored again and promptly stole the inbounds pass for another basket to restore a double-digit advantage.

Detroit stayed hot from deep and pulled within four (56-52) but Abby Skube answered with a three-ball as the Ramblers were able to keep the visitors at an arm's length and the home team was able to handle UDM's pressure the rest of the way, converting lay-ups and hitting enough free throws to see out the victory.

Loyola knocked down 19-of-29 (66%) field goals in the second half to finish at 53% for the game. The Ramblers' 91 points were its most since scoring 103 against Western New Mexico on Nov. 29, 2008 and its highest total against a Division I squad since pouring in 95 in a win at UIC on Dec. 23, 2004.

Johnson finished with 22 points (10-15 FGs) and four steals in 24 minutes while Law added eight rebounds to her 22 points. They were joined in double figures by Albano (14 points, five steals), Hambric (11 points, eight rebounds) and Beavers (season-high 10 points, seven assists, four steals).

Milwaukee 75, Valparaiso 71
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team used a big first half to build a lead and then held off a late charge to defeat Valparaiso University, 75-72, Thursday night at the Athletics-Recreation Center.

Junior Angela Rodriguez made a pair of free throws with 5.0 seconds remaining to put it away for the Panthers (7-16, 3-8 Horizon League) after the Crusaders (9-15, 4-7 Horizon League) used a late 17-3 run to trim the lead down to just two points in the final minute.

Rodriguez and junior Emily Decorah paced Milwaukee with 15 points each, with Decorah scoring her entire total on five three-pointers. Sophomore Ashley Green had 11 points and senior Sami Tucker scored 10 points and grabbed a team-best eight rebounds to round out the list of players in double-figures.

Nine players finished in the scoring column, including a season-high nine points by freshman Jordyn Swan.

Tabitha Gerardot and Shaquira Scott each finished with 17 to lead Valparaiso.

Comfortably ahead with just 81 seconds left, Milwaukee led, 70-57, before Valpo made one final desperate rally, using that improbable 17-3 run to get within two before Rodriguez iced it with the free throws.

Milwaukee, which came into the game sixth in the NCAA with its 8.7 made three-pointers per game, connected on 12 more tonight, none bigger than back-to-back three's from Decorah that pushed the Panther lead back to 62-47 with 4:34 to play.

UWM held a comfortable lead to start the second half, but a six-minute drought without a field goal finally came to a close on a Rodriguez jumper with 6:36 to play that made it 56-45 and pushed the advantage back over 10.

Milwaukee used a terrific first half to build its initial lead. The Panthers played one of their most complete halves of the season, making an impressive eight three-pointers in the first half alone, sinking 53.3 percent (16-for-30) of their field goal attempts overall. They got great balance, as eight players scored and were led by Green with nine.

In addition, tough defense helped out, forcing the Crusaders into 36.7 percent (11-for-30) field goal shooting before the halftime horn while also forcing nine turnovers.

The teams traded 8-0 runs to start the contest, with UWM using a trio of three's to cap a 9-4 run to build a lead, 17-12, on back-to-back triples by Swan.

It went back and forth from there, with three ties and six lead changes taking place before the game was again back even at 27-27 with 5:47 to play. Milwaukee would use a 13-1 run en route to scoring 17 of the final 20 points of the period and take a 44-30 lead into the locker room. That 14-point advantage marked the largest halftime lead of the season for Milwaukee.

UIC 81, Wright State 78 (OT)
UIC battled back from a 17-point second half deficit to defeat Wright State, 81-78, in overtime on Thursday night in UIC Pavilion.

The Flames trailed 66-49 with 5:29 remaining in regulation, but UIC held Wright State without a field goal the rest of the second half, ending regulation on a 22-5 run to force overtime.

The Raiders looked like they were going to withstand UIC’s rally as WSU led 71-67 with :16 left after a Breanna Stucke free throw, but Emily Kobel was fouled as she made a layup with :07 remaining. Kobel missed her free throw, but Katie Hannemann was there to grab the rebound and lay it in to tie the game at 71 and force overtime.

In overtime, the teams were tied at 76 when Kobel knocked down a three-pointer with 1:08 remaining to give the Flames a lead they would not relinquish.

Hannemann finished with a career-high 35 points to lead the Flames. The junior center was 12-of-25 from the field and 11-of-15 from the free throw line and also pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds.

Kim Demmings recorded a triple-double for Wright State. She finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

Youngstown State 73, Cleveland State 69
Youngstown State senior Brandi Brown scored a season-high 33 points as the Penguins came back to knock off Cleveland State 73-69 in a hard-fought contest on Thursday night at the Beeghly Center.

With the victory the Penguins improve to 18-6 overall and 8-3 in the Horizon League while the Vikings drop to 12-14 and 4-9.

YSU trailed by as many as nine in the first half and faced a six-point deficit just over three minutes into the second half. But it kept chipping away and after three ties in a span of 2:23 finally grabbed the lead for good at the 11:47 mark when Brown broke a 52-all tie on a three-point play (55-52).

For the game, Brown was 13-of-21 from the field, 3-of-7 from behind the 3-point line and 4-of-7 from the free-throw line. She also finished with 11 rebounds for her 18th double-double on the year. Of her 33 points, 21 came in the second half.

Monica Touvelle scored 13 key points, all in the second half, while Shar'Rae Davis had 10.

Even though they never gave up the lead, the Guins couldn't quite shake the Vikings. The largest lead the final 11:47 was six which came with 20.2 seconds left in the contest.

YSU used some staunch defense to maintain its advantage and a lot of toughness to hold on.

Brown had scoring streaks of 10 and eight points in the final 14:22 while at one stretch, she and Touvelle combined to score 28 of 29 points from the 15:14 to the 1:14 mark - exactly 14 minutes.

Brown had a dazzling performance on the day she was named a Capital One Academic All-American. Down the stretch she hit a nifty step-back jumper as the shot clock expired to put the Guins on top 69-65 with 1:52 left. That was her 32nd point of the night, which came after she scored her 30th point on a driving layup with 2:40 left.

The Penguins led by six points with 9.7 left before CSU's Sharlonda Winton made two free throws and intentionally missed two others, in which she grabbed the rebound. The final time however, with 8.3 seconds went for naught as the Guins held on to the four-point win. Winton had 20 points to lead CSU.

For the game, the Guins shot 43.9 percent (25-of-57), including making 15-of-31 in the second half. CSU finished the game at 45.5 percent (25-of-55). Both teams shot below 62 percent from the free-throw line - YSU 61.9 percent (13-of-21) and Cleveland State at 59.3 percent (16-of-27). The Vikings committed 19 turnovers thanks to 11 Penguin steals.

After the opening five minutes the Penguins were forced to play catch up and did for a brief moment when Hornberger connected on a three from the wing at the four-minute mark.

YSU trailed by as many as eight during that 11-minute stretch and eventually tied the game at 22 on a Thompson basket. The Guins went on top for 22 seconds at 25-24 on Hornberger's three before CSU's Cori Coleman answered with a three of her own.

Coleman's triple ignited a 9-0 Vikings run before Brown and Heidi Schlegel scored the final three points of the half to cut the deficit to 33-28 at intermission.

In the first half, YSU shot just 38.5 percent making 10-of-26 attempts while the Vikings were a scorching 56.5 percent knocking down 13-of-23 attempts from the field. The Guins drained five 3-pointers and five from inside the arc during the half.