UW-Green Bay captures Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship with 91-64 victory over Butler

Box Score | Championship Gallery 

March 11, 2007

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - Nicole Soulis scored 21 points and Amanda Popp added 18 to help No. 22 UW-Green Bay cruise by Butler, 91-64, on Sunday in the Horizon League championship game.

The Phoenix (28-3) has won 25-straight games and has made the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in 10 seasons.

UW-Green Bay took an early 13-0 lead en route to its season-high point total and never looked back. The Bulldogs (16-15), who played in the League championship game for the first time since 1997-98, have lost 22-straight games to the Phoenix since 1999.

The Phoenix shot 67 percent (16-for-24) from the field in the first half, including 9-of-15 (60 percent) from behind the arc, to take a 49-36 lead. UW-Green Bay finished the game by making 15-of-29 3-pointers (51.7 percent), one shy of the tournament record that it set in a 2005 quarterfinal game against Cleveland State, and shot 57.4 percent from the field.

Soulis scored 16 of her points in the decisive first half and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Kayla Groh added 11 points and Erin Templin 10 for the Phoenix.

Jackie Closser led Butler with 23 points, including seven three-pointers, tying a tournament record set by UW-Milwaukee's Jessica Wilhite in 2001. Candace Jones added 13 points.

Popp had two of UW-Green Bay's three three-pointers in the first 3:22 of the game. Rachel Porath's three-point play with 12:57 left in the first half stretched the Phoenix lead to 23-5.

Closser scored nine of her 14 first-half points on three-pointers in the final 5:19 in that half, and the Bulldogs cut the deficit to 49-36. Butler never got closer than 13 points in the second half.

All-Tournament Team

Nicole Soulis, UW-Green Bay (MVP)


Natalie Berglin, UW-Green Bay


Amanda Popp, UW-Green Bay


Jackie Closser, Butler


Traci Edwards, UW-Milwaukee