Women's Basketball Standings Tighten Up after Thursday Night

The Detroit women’s basketball team walked into the Kress Events Center in Green Bay on Thursday night and handed the ninth-ranked Phoenix their first loss of the season as the Titans and Wright State, currently tied for second place, both gained a game on first place Green Bay in the conference standings.

In other action Thursday night, UIC won at home over Youngstown State and Cleveland State won at Loyola.

Wright State, who knocked off Milwaukee on Thursday, gets its chance to get even closer to Green Bay on Saturday when the Raiders face the Phoenix.

Cleveland State 67, Loyola 65

Shalonda Winton scored her 1,000 point in a Cleveland State uniform with a 29-point performance, as the Vikings claimed a 67-65 victory at Loyola Thursday evening. With the win, CSU improves to 9-14 on the season and 4-8 in league play, while the Ramblers fall to 10-13 (5-7).

Winton became the 23rd player in program history to score 1,000 points and the seventh under head coach Kate Peterson Abiad. Winton also added a career-high tying 15 rebounds, and is now the 13th player to notch 1,000 points and 600 rebounds on their career, as she now has 690 career rebounds.

Cori Coleman and Honesty King also added to the Viking offense against the Ramblers, Coleman posting 16 points and two assists and King recording 10 points and six rebounds.

The Vikings, who went into halftime with a 37-34 lead, ended the opening stanza on an 11-2 run to gain their seventh lead of the contest. During that span, CSU got six points from Kiersten Green, four from Coleman and one from Janelle Adams.

Cleveland State then opened the second half on a 6-point run, with four points from Winton, as they gained a nine-point lead at 43-34. Over the next four minutes the Vikings were able to extend their lead to double-digits, gaining a 51-41 advantage with 12:49 left to play.

Loyola slowly climbed its way back into the contest, closing the gap to three points (57-54) at the 4:57 mark, before the Vikings were able to go on a 7-2 run over the next 44 seconds gaining an eight point lead (64-56) with 3:53 left to play.

The Ramblers kept it interesting over the final minute of regulation, as they came within one (66-56) with 47 seconds left. Solid Viking defense on the following Loyola possession forced the Ramblers into a turnover with just one second left, and King converted a free-throw after a Loyola foul for the 67-65 CSU victory.

For the sixth game this season the Vikings recorded 40 or more rebounds, ending right on 40, while they shot 42-percent from the floor against the Ramblers (26-61). Loyola was 26-for-67 from the field (.388), as the Ramblers were led by Troy Hambric who posted 21 points and Simone Law who tallied 20.

CSU returns to action on Saturday (Feb. 11) when the Vikings take on the UIC Flames, while Loyola remains at home and hosts Youngstown State.

Detroit 70, Green Bay 58

Freshman Shareta Brown had a game-high 24 points and sophomore Senee Shearer had 23, including 16 in the second half, as the Titans ended #9/9 Green Bay's perfect season with a 70-58 victory at the Kress Events Center on Thursday night.

Detroit (13-11, 9-3 HL) won for just the second time ever in Green Bay (2-18 all-time) and the first time since the MCC Championship game in 1997 when current head coach Autumn Rademacher was a star guard for U-D.

The win ended Green Bay's perfect run as the Phoenix are now 20-1, 10-1 in the HL. The win also ended Green Bay's school record 40-game regular season winning streak as well as the Phoenix' 36-game regular season winning streak over Horizon League teams. The Titans also prevented Green Bay for setting a new home-winning streak as the triumph put a stop to the Phoenix 27-game winning streak at home.

It was the fifth victory in Titan history against a ranked opponent – with the last three coming in the last four years with Rademacher at the helm. It was also the first-ever win on the road against a ranked opponent in Titan history and the first win over a top 10 team since Dec. 5, 1981, when Detroit edged North Carolina State, 60-59.

UDM held Green Bay to a season low 29.9% shooting (20-of-67), while outrebounding the Phoenix, 47-32. The Titans also held a 30-8 advantage in points in the paint.

Detroit led for much of the game until Green Bay took a three-point lead, 50-47, with 8:13 left, but the red, white and blue outscored the Phoenix, 23-8, down the stretch to earn the historic win.

Brown and Sherare then each split a pair of free throws over the next two minutes to get within one before Brown hit two from the charity stripe to put UDM up, 51-50, with 5:46 left. Shearer would then add a layup before a Green Bay basket cut it to one, 53-52, with less than four minutes remaining.

That is when the Titans put the finishing touches on their historic win as Brown scored the next five points. Green Bay would hit a few baskets in the last two minutes, but Detroit hit all 12 of its free throws to seal the triumph.

Brown added seven rebounds and was 6-of-11 from the field and 12-of-15 from the line. Junior Yar Shayok had six points and tied for a game-high with nine rebounds, while senior Lauren Allen tallied five points, four rebounds and a team-best three assists. Sophomore Megan Hatter tied her career high with eight rebounds in the contest.

Green Bay took an early 8-5 lead by hitting three of its first six shots, but the Titans stormed back with 17-straight points to take a 22-8 lead midway through the first. The Detroit led the way by playing tough as Green Bay missed 12-straight shots from the field.

It was a team effort on the offensive front as six players scored during the run with UDM hitting 7-of-its 12 shots. Brown and senior Jalesa Jones  – who ended with seven rebounds and four points – each had four points in the run, while Shearer had a 3-pointer and Allen, junior Demeisha Fambro and Shayok netted two apiece.

The Phoenix responded with six-straight points, but Shearer's old fashioned three-point play ended that and UDM was up by double digits again, 25-14, with 6:24 remaining in the first.

The Titans were standing nose-to-nose with the top-10 team as the Phoenix started to make a charge late in the first, ending the half on a 10-4 run, but the red, white and blue still went into the locker room up, 29-24.

The Titans defense was stellar in the first half as Green Bay was just 7-of-31 from the field for a season low 22.6%. Five of those field goals were from three, which is what kept the Phoenix in the game. UDM also took cashed in on its opportunities at the line hitting and dominating the paint, where it had a 16-0 advantage in points.

Detroit shot 43.2% in the game and 82.9% from the free throw line, connecting on a season-best 29 free throws.

The Titans remain in Wisconsin and face Milwaukee on Saturday, while Green Bay tries to rebound against visitng Wright State.

UIC 70, Youngstown State 62

Senior Kiara Strickland posted a career high 26 points and notched her fourth straight double-double with 10 rebounds as the Flames defeated Youngstown State, 70-62, inside the UIC Pavilion on Thursday night.The Flames improve to 14-9 overall, equaling last year’s win total and move to 7-5 in the conference.

Senior Jasmine Bailey also recorded a double-double, her ninth of the season, with 15 points and 13 boards.  Preseason Horizon League Player of the Year Brandi Brown was limited to just one point and three rebounds as the Flame’s frontcourt displayed superb defense.

UIC outscored the Penguins 39-23 in the first half as YSU was plagued by a 23.7 percent foul shooting clip.  Conversely, the Flames lit up the nets for 62.1 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.The second stanza favored the Penguins as they outshot the Flames 55.6 to 41.7 percent and took the period by a score of 39-31.  Kenya Middlebrooks and Kelsea Fickiesen led the second-half charge with 10 and nine points, respectively.

Youngstown State held tonight’s lead all of 11 seconds as they scored the game’s first basket.   Over the next six minutes, UIC rattled off 13 straight points, including seven from Strickland.  YSU stopped the bleeding on an uncontested layup by Melissa Thompson at the 13:10 mark, which was followed by a three-pointer from teammate Heidi Schlegel.  The Flames held a 15-7 lead with just over 12 minutes left in the first half.

At the 8:09 mark, the Flames manufactured a 9-0 spurt on buckets from four separate players, bringing UIC’s advantage to 29-14.

With 8.3 seconds left in the first stanza and the Flames up 39-20, YSU’s Monica Touvelle drained a trey form the right wing as UIC junior Taylor Foulks was called for an off-the-ball foul, giving Youngstown State another scoring opportunity before the break.  Brown’s attempt at a runner fell short and the Flames entered the locker in front of YSU, 39-23.

Youngstown State opened the second half on a 9-2 run which nearly chopped UIC’s lead in half to 41-32.  Redshirt junior Heidi Dahnke plugged the leak on two made free throws at the 17:13 mark.  Bailey and Strickland followed that up with a 15-foot jumper each, giving the Flames a 47-32 edge.

The Flames broke the 50-point barrier (51-35) with 14:29 on the clock as Bailey sliced her way through the lane and converted a well-contested layup.

From that point, YSU executed a 10-2 offensive spurt that brought the Penguins to within eight points as 10:59 remained in the game.

With the score in UIC’s favor, 63-54, and 6:22 left to play, neither team found the basket for more than three minutes.  Strickland broke the curse on two made free throws with 3:12 on the clock as the Flames clung to an 11-point edge.

The charity stripe proved to be the Flames ally down the stretch as they sank five freebies in the final two minutes and 45 seconds to secure the eight-point triumph.

UIC returns to action on Saturday inside the Flames Athletic Center against Cleveland State. Youngstown State stays in Chicago to face Loyola on Saturday.

Wright State 64, Milwaukee 52

Up just one at the half, the Wright State women's basketball team used a 20-2 run to take control and went on to a 64-52 Horizon League win at Milwaukee Thursday evening.

The Raiders led by four on two occasions in the first half, the second being 17-13 on a Molly Fox jumper with 6:50 remaining.  That would be the largest margin by either team in the opening period, however, as a Sami Tucker layup in the final minute cut the WSU lead to 22-21 at the break.

Both teams struggled offensive in first half as Wright State shot 29 percent compared to 28 percent for the Panthers.

Angela Rodriguez put Milwaukee in front 26-24 on a jumper with 18:29 to play, but that turned out to be the final lead of the night for the Panthers as WSU followed with the decisive 20-2 run over the next nine minutes.  Kim Demmings gave the Raiders a three-point lead with a jumper and three-pointer and scored 12 of the 20 points during the run.

Wright State maintained a double-figure lead the rest of the way and was up 18 before the Panthers scored the final six points of the contest in the closing minute.

The Raider offense came alive in the second half, hitting 17 of 32 shots for 53 percent, including five of eight from behind the arc, while Milwaukee shot 38 percent, but just three of 13 from three-point range.

WSU held a 44-30 rebounding advantage, 13-9 on the offensive end, and led 13-2 in second-chance points.

Fox led the Raiders with a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds, with 13 of those points coming in the first half.  Demmings scored all of her 13 points after halftime and had nine rebounds.  Breanna Stucke had 11 points off the bench and KC Elkins eight as WSU had a 19-4 edge in bench points.

Tucker and Ashley Green paced Milwaukee (6-16, 2-9 Horizon) with 12 points each while Rodriguez had 11 and Kiki Wilson 10.

Wright State (16-8, 9-3 Horizon) faces #9-ranked Green Bay (20-1, 10-1 Horizon) Saturday at 3:00 Eastern at the Kress Events Center.  The Phoenix suffered its first loss of the season Thursday, falling 70-58 at home to Detroit.