Horizon League Women's Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 29)
Valparaiso 58, Ball State 53
Youngstown State 69, Bucknell 51
Drake 80, Milwaukee 70
Marquette 77, Loyola 61
Valparaiso 58, Ball State 53
Led by a career-high 28 points and a career-best 17 rebounds from Tabitha Gerardot, the Valparaiso women’s basketball team rallied from a 19-point deficit in the first half to beat Ball State 58-53 on Saturday.
The double-double was the second of the season for Gerardot and the 15th of her career. She finished 8-of-18 from the field and 10-of-11 at the free throw line. She grabbed nine offensive rebounds and eight on the defensive glass.
Valparaiso, which trailed by as many as 19 in the first half, took the lead for good on a 3-pointer from Gerardot with 6:19 to play to go ahead 47-44. The shot came from the top of the key as the shot clock was expiring.
The basket was the last one the Crusaders made from the field. Valparaiso’s final 11 points came via free throws.
Gerardot and Shaquira Scott each made a pair of free throws on back-to-back possession to give Valparaiso a 51-44 lead with 4:55 left.
After Ball State trimmed the margin to two, Scott nailed another pair of free throws to make it 54-50 at the 3:11 mark.
Neither team scored over the next two-and-a-half minutes, and Gerardot made four free throws in the final 33 seconds to close out the win.
Jessi Wiedemann finished with nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc. All three of her treys came in the second half, with the last tying the game at 42-all with 8:19 to go.
The Crusaders posted their second-biggest rebounding margin of the season with a 47-27 edge on the glass. Valparaiso finished with an 18-11 edge in offensive rebounds, which accounted for a 20-3 advantage in second-chance points.
Scott finished with nine points, and Charae Richardson added six points and eight rebounds.
Down 29-11 with 4:33 to go in the first half, the Crusaders finished the half on an 11-1 run to trail 30-22 at the break. Scott and Gerardot each had a pair of baskets during the run, and Ieva Jansone had a jumper.
Youngstown State 69, Bucknell 51
The Youngstown State women's basketball continued its run of strong performances at home this year with a solid 69-51 win over Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at the Beeghly Center.
Brandi Brown led the Penguins with 20 points while Shar'Rae Davis had 15 and Karen Flagg had a career-best 12. The win improves YSU to 9-3 on the season while Bucknell drops to 7-5. The Guins improve to a perfect 5-0 at home this season.
In the second half, YSU shot 51.9 percent making 14-of-27 shots and connecting on 12-of-18 from inside the 3-point arc. YSU scored 38 points in the paint in the contest, including 24 in the second half. The Guins also scored 20 points off 19 Bison turnovers in the contest.
After scoring the first five points of the second half to build on an eight-point lead, YSU only allowed the Bison to cut the deficit under double digits once - 39-30 at the 14:41 mark. However, Monica Touvelle's 100th 3-pointer of her career gave Guins a 42-30 lead and YSU never looked back.
The lead reached 16 points, 52-36, for the first time at the 9:23 mark. Bucknell tried to make things interesting creeping within 58-47, but a nifty feed from Flagg found Davis under the hoop for the layup and a foul to push the lead back up to 14 at the 6:01 mark.
For the game, YSU shot 47.3 percent making 26-of-55 shots while the Bison finished at 38.6 percent (17-of-44).
Youngstown State bolted out of the gate by connecting on its first four field-goal attempts as Brown, Davis and Flagg hit consecutive 3-pointers to open the contest. Just 3:03 into the game, Flagg's second 3-pointer of the afternoon gave the Guins a 14-3 advantage.
Bucknell recovered and battled back to go ahead 20-19 at the 7:22 mark on a Audrey Dotson layup. On the ensuing possession, YSU hit the offensive glass hard and on its third attempt Schlegel converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to go in front 22-20.
Following Schlegel's basket, the Penguins scored seven of the next nine points to push their advantage to 29-22 when Davis canned another three with 3:25 left.
Bucknell cut the deficit to 29-24 just 24 seconds later, but it did not score the remainder of the half coming up empty on five possessions. Davis added another bucket and a Touvelle free throw with 30 seconds left gae the Penguins a 32-24 advantage at halftime.
In the opening half, YSU shot 42.9 percent making 12-of-28 shots from the field, five of which were 3-pointers. The Bison made 10-of-25 attempts (40 percent), but outrebounded YSU 22-13. YSU had only two turnovers while Bucknell had eight giveaways.
Drake 80, Milwaukee 70
Four of five starters scored in double-figures and Drake University used a key late scoring run to post an 80-70 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team Saturday afternoon at the Klotsche Center.
Sophomore Ashley Green led the way with 23 points and junior Angela Rodriguez had 22 to lead the Panthers (4-8), but it was not enough to overcome 51.6 percent field goal shooting by the Bulldogs (5-6) in the final game before conference action begins for each team.
Drake built a second-half lead to as many as 14 with about 10 minutes left in the game before the Panthers gave it one last run. A three by Green and two layups by freshman Avyanna Young made it a game and had Milwaukee back within seven at 65-58 with 8:06 to play.
But, the Bulldogs responded, using seven points in a row of their own to build back that 14 point advantage and held UWM off from there.
Green added seven rebounds, three blocks and a pair of steals, while Rodriguez grabbed five boards and handed out five assists. Young finished with seven points and tied for the team lead with seven rebounds.
Kyndal Clark led DU with 19 points and also had six assist and four steals. The visitors shot well all day, finishing with 33 makes on 64 attempts from the field.
The Panthers came out on fire, scoring 16 points before the first media timeout to lead, 16-10, at the 15:18 mark. But, the team could manage just 13 more points before intermission and trailed, 37-19, at halftime.
Milwaukee shot 50 percent (19-for-38) in the second half to finish at 44.9 percent on the day.
Marquette 77, Loyola 61
Marquette outrebounded Loyola by 32 as the Golden Eagles turned back the Ramblers 77-61 on Saturday night in Milwaukee.
MU finished the game with 27 offensive rebounds matching the total number of rebounds by Loyola. The numerous offensive rebounds push the Golden Eagles to a 31-5 advantage over Loyola in second chance points.
The Ramblers were down 19-4 in the opening minutes of the game, but responded with a 12-0 run to cut into the Marquette lead. Loyola trailed by eight points, 39-31, at the break, staying in the game by turning the ball over just four times in the first 20 minutes.
Marquette opened the scoring in the second half by making a three-pointer and Loyola would never get within single digits again in the game.
Monica Albano led the Ramblers with 19 points, shooting 7-of-16 from the field. Sophomore forward Simone Law finished with 11 points, the only other Rambler to reach double figures.
Tags: Loyola - Women's Basketball · Milwaukee - Women's Basketball · Valparaiso - Women's Basketball · Youngstown State - Women's Basketball
