Top Teams in WBB Gain Separation

Horizon League Women’s Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 31)
Detroit 96, Cleveland State 77
Loyola 84, Milwaukee 74
Wright State 67, Valparaiso 66
Youngstown State 67, UIC 54

Detroit 96, Cleveland State 77
Behind a season-high 22 points from senior Yar Shayok, the Detroit women's basketball team ran its home winning streak to 13-straight with a 96-77  victory over Cleveland State on Thursday night at Dick Vitale Court in Calihan Hall. The 13-straight wins at home are the most since Detroit set a school record with 17 during the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons.

The win was also the fourth in a row for the Titans, who improved to 11-7, 4-2 in the Horizon League, while CSU dropped its fourth straight to move to 10-9, 2-4 in league play.

Shayok also had nine rebounds and a season-high four steals, while shooting 10-of-14 from the field in recording her second career 20-point game. Sophomore Shareta Brown posted 20 points and eight rebounds, while senior Demeisha Fambro chipped in 13 and junior Megan Hatter netted a season-high 11.

Detroit started the game slow as Cleveland State build a 14-8 lead nearly seven minutes into the game which is when the Titans took the lead for good on the strength of a 14-2 run. Shayok had six during that charge and a layup by freshman Rosanna Reynolds gave UDM a 22-16 lead at the 8:43 mark

The visiting Vikings cut that to three twice, the latest at 24-21, but the red, white and blue pushed it to four, 30-26 with 4:28 remaining. That is when the Titans ended the half on a 15-4 spurt as Shayok had seven down the stretch and UDM went into the locker room up, 45-30.

The Titans shot 45% in the first half hitting 18-of-40, while forcing eight CSU turnovers.

The Titans held the lead for the rest of the game, but the Vikings cut that to nine, 45-36, with six-straight points to start the second half, but a trey from Fambro and a drive to the rim by freshman Destiny Lavita-Stephens pushed it back to double digits, 50-36.

CSU then got within nine with five-straight points, but a 11-0 run by the Titans saw Detroit open its largest lead of the game, 61-41, with 12:31 left. Lavita-Stephens had five in that offensive series, while Brown added four and Shayok recorded another basket.

From there, Cleveland State tried to get back in it reducing the Titan lead to 10, 64-54, but with the home crowd cheering them on, the Titans would turn away their foe from Ohio as junior Senee Shearer drilled a 3-pointer and UDM slowly began to build its lead back into the high teens and as many as 21 late in the game.

Reynolds ended the game with a season-high nine assists, while Shearer had nine points. Sophomore Audrey Matteson came off the bench for eight points and four boards and Lavita-Stephens finished with seven.

Detroit ended the game shooting 53.8%, including 68.0% in the second half hitting 17 of its 25 shots. UDM was also 22-of-28 from the charity stripe, the most free throws the Titans have had in a game this season.

Kiersten Green led the Vikings with a career-high 25 points, while Shalonda Winton added 24. Cori Coleman was the final CSU player in double figures with 19 points. The rest of the Vikings combined to score nine points on 3-of-18 shooting from the field.

Loyola 84, Milwaukee 74
Taylor Johnson finished with 33 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, Monica Albano added 31 and Loyola scored the final 15 points of the game to snatch an 84-74 win over Milwaukee tonight at the Klotsche Center. Loyola improves to 7-12 (2-4 HL) and has won the last four meetings against Milwaukee (5-12, 1-4).

Loyola got off to a strong start, scoring on its first three possessions to take a 6-0 lead. Albano's first three-pointer made it a double-digit lead (13-3) less than six minutes into the game and the lead fluctuated between five and 10 points for the next four minutes. Albano had 15 of Loyola's first 24 points before Johnson scored all 10 points in a 10-2 LU spurt that gave the visitors its largest lead (34-19) with 6:42 left in the half. The lead was still 13 (44-31) with two minutes left before UWM scored the final five points of the period to make it a 44-36 game at halftime. Albano finished the half with 18 points (6-11 FGs) with Johnson adding 17 points and five assists in the opening 20 minutes.

After UWM scored the first three points of the second half to get within five, Albano buried another three and Johnson converted another traditional three-point play to bump the lead back to double figures. However, Loyola went cold and the Panthers took advantage, burying three treys to kickstart a 13-0 run that gave the home team their first lead of the night, 52-50, at the 12:32 mark. A 7-0 Milwaukee run later put Loyola in a 70-62 hole with 4:36 to go but the Ramblers were able to finish strong. Johnson knocked down a three from the left wing to make it a five-point game and scored again off an offensive rebound to get LU within one possession. The teams traded points to 74-69 before the Ramblers' game-ending charge.

Albano started the run with her seventh trey and added a pair from the free throw line to tie the game at 74. A Johnson steal led to an Albano lay-up that gave LU the lead and a turnover in the backcourt turned into a Johnson lay-up to give LU a 78-74 lead with 1:09 left. After Milwaukee missed the front-end at the line, Ayrealle Beavers fed Johnson for another basket to make it a six-point game and the Ramblers closed it out for the win.

Johnson's 33 points are career high and her 11 boards equal her career best. For Albano, it was the third 30-point game of her career, as she finished 10-of-20 from the floor, including 7-of-13 from downtown. Troy Hambric also reached double figures, finishing with 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks.

Emily Decorah (17 points) and Janna Swopshire (13 points) both had career-highs for the Panthers. Sami Tucker added 16 points and a game-high 13 rebounds for her second double-double of the season.

Wright State 67, Valparaiso 66
Kim Demmings became the 19th Raider to reach 1000 points and hit the game-winning layup with 6.3 seconds left to give the Wright State women's basketball team a dramatic 67-66 Horizon League win over Valparaiso Thursday night at WSU's Nutter Center.

WSU led the entire first half, going up as much as 26-13 on an Ivory James jumper with 5:53 remaining before taking a 31-23 halftime advantage on a Demmings three in the final seconds.

The margin was 50-39 on two KC Elkins free throws with 9:57 left, but the Crusaders stormed back with 11 unanswered points, six of those coming from Charae Richardson, to tie it at the 7:45 mark.  The Raiders later went back up five at 62-57 on an Elkins three, only to see Valparaiso again tie it at 62 at the 1:57 mark on a Jessi Wiedemann three.

Valpo tallied four straight points, the final two being a Shaquira Scott jumper with 21.2 seconds remaining, to go up 66-65, but that set the stage for Demmings, who spun away from her defender and converted a layup from the left side of the basket at the 6.3-second mark.

The Crusaders had one final chance, but Scott's could not connected on a jumper as time expired.

Wright State shot just 31 percent for the game, including 10 of 37 from three-point range, while Valparaiso shot 54 percent in the second half to end up at 44 percent.  The Crusaders hit 13 of 17 foul shots compared to seven of 10 for the Raiders, but WSU forced Valpo into 16 turnovers while committing only seven, resulting in a 15-5 differential in points off of turnovers.

Demmings hit a jumper at the 5:55 mark to reach the 1000-point plateau, becoming the 19th Raider to do so, and now has 1006 points in 54 career games.  She joins Tiffany Webb as the only two WSU players to reach the milestone as sophomores, Webb needing 52 games to accomplish the feat.

Demmings finished with 23 points to lead all scorers while Elkins had 17, James 13 off the bench and Breanna Stucke 11 for Wright State.  Stucke and Tayler Stanton each had nine rebounds.

Tabitha Gerardot paced Valparaiso (7-12, 2-4) with a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds whie Richardson had 17.  Gina Lange chipped in 11 boards.

Youngstown State 67, UIC 54
The Youngstown State women's basketball team had five players score at least seven points and hit 11 3-pointers in a 67-54 win at UIC on Thursday evening at the UIC Pavilion.

The win improves YSU to 14-5 overall and 4-2 in Horizon League play while UIC drops to 6-13 and 2-4. The Penguins have matched their conference win total from last year and have tied for their most overall wins since 1999-2000. YSU also earned its seventh road win tonight, its most since 1999-2000.

Senior Brandi Brown was her normal self with 20 points and 10 rebounds, but she got plenty of help in this win. Liz Hornberger scored nine of her 12 points in the second half, and Monica Touvelle scored nine of her 11 in the first half. Heidi Schlegel added nine points, and Karen Flagg posted seven. Shar'Rae Davis led all players with seven assists.

UIC's Rachel Story finished with 19 points, and Katie Hannemann and Taylor Foulkes had 12 apiece. The other six Flames who played combined for 11 points.

Both teams started fast as UIC made its first five attempts, and Brown did everything she could to keep pace. She scored all nine of her first-half points in the first four-and-a-half minutes, and her three-point play gave YSU a 12-11 lead with 15:35 to go. There were nine lead changes and four ties in the first 10:25, but a Touvelle trey sparked an 8-0 run that put the Penguins up for good. After UIC led 18-16 with 11:30 left, the Flames scored just six points the rest of the half as YSU went on a 19-6 burst.

UIC did not back down and cut a 12-point deficit in the second half to five with 8:26 left. Hornberger hit her first of three second-half triples on YSU's next possession, and she hit another just over a minute later to put the Penguins up 56-47.

Hannemann hit a bucket for the Flames to get the margin back down to seven, but the Penguins scored the next eight points and went ahead 64-49 with 3:33 left. Hornberger's third trey of the period gave YSU its largest lead at 67-51 with 2:22 to play.

While UIC was 2-3 in league play coming into the contest, it had been ahead or tied with five minutes left in all five games.

YSU outscored UIC 18-4 off turnovers and 15-0 in second-chance points. Touvelle and Schlegel combined for 20 points off the bench while UIC had five bench points as a team.