Women's Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 29)
UIC 84, Milwaukee 70
Youngstown State 80, Detroit 71
UIC 84, Milwaukee 70
The UIC women's basketball team (16-4, 5-2 HL) won its fifth straight game Wednesday (Jan. 29) with an 84-70 road victory over Milwaukee (6-13, 2-4 HL) at the Klotsche Center. Rachel Story (22), Terri Bender (22) and Ruvanna Campbell (21) all scored over 20 points for the Flames. Campbell also picked up her 12th double-double of the season with 12 rebounds.
UIC’s 16-4 overall record is the program’s best mark through 20 games in the Division I era (1980-present). The Flames’ 5-2 Horizon League record through the first seven conference contests is the second best mark in program history. The 1995-96 squad started 6-1 in Mid-Continent Conference (MCC) play.
UIC collected 12 steals, forced 16 Milwaukee turnovers and turned those miscues into 20 points. The Flames also took care of the ball with a season-low seven turnovers.
The Flames are now 16-1 this season when out-rebounding their opponent (42-33) and 13-1 when attempting more free throws (22-10). UIC grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and scored 17 second-chance points.
With 13:16 left in the first half, UIC broke a 13-13 tie with a 12-0 run that included triples from Bender and Story. The Flames limited the Panthers to 37.5 percent shooting (12-of-32) in the first half and held a 42-29 lead entering the locker room at halftime.
Milwaukee started the second half on an 8-0 run before Regina Miller called a timeout with 17:04 remaining. The Flames responded with a 13-4 run to take a commanding 55-41 lead with 13:52 left on the clock. UIC’s largest lead of the contest came at 77-61 following Bender’s layup with 4:46 remaining in the game.
Campbell tied career highs with three blocks and four steals. She had 15 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals in the first half. Campbell owns six 20-point efforts and 13 double-digit rebound performances this season.
Bender tied her career high in points set against Valparaiso last season (1/19/13). She scored 13 points in the second half, including 11 with under eight minutes to play. Bender also collected three steals and owns 32 steals over the last ten games (3.2 spg). It was her second 20-point performance of the season and fourth career 20-point effort.
Story, coming off a career-high 34 points against Cleveland State, played all 40 minutes for the sixth time this season and picked up her team-high ninth 20-point performance. She hit 3-of-5 three-pointers and 5-of-6 attempts from the charity stripe.
Redshirt senior Katie Hannemann was 5-of-7 from the floor and scored 13 points in 25 minutes of action. Hannemann (844 career points) needs three more points to enter the program's Top 20 scorers.
Youngstown State 80, Detroit 71
The Youngstown State women's basketball team battled back from its largest Horizon League deficit of the season to defeat Detroit 80-71 on Wednesday night at the Beeghly Center. Karen Flagg had a career-high 26 points to lead the comeback.
The Penguins trailed 36-22 in the first half and for the first 14 minutes of the second half before going on top for good with 5:43 left in the game at 65-64 on a layup by Heidi Schlegel.
With the win, YSU improves to 6-0 in Horizon League play for the first time in school history. The Penguins are now over .500 on the campaign at 10-9. Detroit falls to 3-17 overall and 0-7 in the conference.
Flagg's previous high was 17 points and she nearly had that in the first half scoring 16 points. She finished the contest making 8-of-14 shots from the field, including 5-of-6 from behind the 3-point line. She was also 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.
The Guins fought an up-hill battle for most of the contest. Detroit led for or had part of the lead for all but 27 seconds of the first half. In the second half, the Titans held on 14:17 before the Penguins eventually caught them and never trailed again.
Following Schlegel's layup at 5:43, Jenna Hirsch had a steal and layup to forge ahead 67-64 and on the next possession, Flaag's spin-o-rama layup pushed the advantage up to 69-64.
In the final 2:59, the Guins outscored the Titans 8-2 after a bank-shot by Senee Shearer cut the deficit to 72-69. Hirsch made 3-of-4 free throws in the final stretch while Flagg and had a 3-pointer and Schlegel converted a layup.
Schlegel came on strong in the second half to score 14 of her 16 points. She also grabbed 14 rebounds. Hirsch had 16 points with six assists and six rebounds while Kelsea Newman came off the bench to finish with 11. Shearer had 17 points for the Titans.
For the game, YSU shot 33.8 percent making 26-of-77 attempts. The Penguins were 12-of-29 from behind the 3-point arc. The Guins also went 16-of-19 from the free-throw line.
YSU tied the game on just three occasions in the first half - 3-3, 6-6 and eventually 36-all.
After the contest was tied at six, the Titans scored the next 12 points to go in front 18-6 by the 13:34 mark. The Guins finally ended a scoring drought when Flagg made her third straight 3-pointer en route to scoring YSU's first nine points.
Newman came in to provide a spark by making three consecutive 3-pointers as the Penguins were able to close within 28-22 with 8:05 left.
The Titans pushed their lead back to 14 at 36-22 on the heels of an 8-0.
But YSU found its way scoring the next 14 points over a span of 4:42 and eventually caught Detroit at 36. Flagg had seven points, Hirsch had five and Schlegel's free throws tied the contest at 36 with 1:30 remaining in the opening half.
However, Detroit scored the final four points of half to grab a 40-36 advantage at the break.
YSU attempted 42 shots in the first half, making 12 (28.6 percent). Detroit shot 48.4 percent in the first half and 38.9 percent for the game (28-of-72).
