Feb. 9, 2013

Box Score

GREEN BAY, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay pulled away after a tightly-contested first half in handing the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team a 64-49 loss Saturday night at the Kress Events Center.

The Panthers (5-15, 1-7 Horizon League) gave the Phoenix (19-2, 9-0 Horizon League) all they could handle well into the second half, but Green Bay slowly pulled away, using a 14-2 run late in the contest to decide it and remain undefeated in league play, claiming its 14th-consecutive victory on the season in the process.

"We did everything that we could to hold them, but they are an amazing team," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "They have really great players on all fronts - you take away one thing and they get something else. The biggest problem was we had a scoring drought in the second half. Our defense really locked in for the whole game but we struggled to score in the second half."

Junior Emily Decorah and sophomore Ashley Green each led Milwaukee with 15 points. Senior Sami Tucker ended the night with seven points and seven rebounds. Green paced the squad with eight boards.

Freshman Jessica Prince set career-highs with six points and six rebounds.

Lydia Bauer and Stephanie Sension each led Green Bay, which is just a spot out of the top 25 in both national polls, with 14 points apiece.

After Milwaukee had tied the game at 30-all, Green Bay used a 17-5 run to open the game up. UWM scored back-to-back baskets to make it 47-39, but the next Phoenix run decided it. They scored nine consecutive points as part of that 14-2 run and that was the ballgame.

"I knew that they were going to make a run and I told them we had to withstand the first five minutes of the second half," Rechlicz said. "At that point, they did a great job of denying Emily the basketball and we really struggled to get her shots in the second. It put a lot of pressure on our other players to get shots up. And we were off-balance, then we were tired from playing tough defense and all of that led into misses in the second half."

With junior Angela Rodriguez in foul trouble - she missed the final 10-plus minutes after picking up an early three - and Green on the bench with an injury, Decorah put the team on her back in the first and kept burying three-pointers. She made 5-of-8 for all 15 points in the first, with the Panthers trailing by just a bucket at 30-28 at halftime. Green's first basket of the second half capped a 12-1 overall run and tied the contest, 30-30.

Green Bay jumped out to a 7-2 lead but UWM hung tough. A zone defense flustered the Phoenix and disrupted their offense. Milwaukee used a 1-2 attack of Green and Decorah, going on a nice little spurt to eventually lead, 17-14, after Decorah banked in an unconventional three from the corner at the 11-11 mark.

A pair of technical fouls then changed the game a bit, as two technicals on back-to-back UWM possessions have Green Bay an opening. And they took advantage of it, going on a 15-1 run to lead, 29-18, on a three with 6:20 to go before half.

But Milwaukee stemmed the tide, scoring seven in a row of its own to close within four at 29-25 and cap a 10-1 run on Decorah's fifth three of the half with just over two minutes before intermission. That defense limited the Phoenix to just 31.3 percent (10-of-31) in the first 20 minutes.

Up next, the Panthers head back to Milwaukee for a pair of home games next week, getting started against Youngstown State at 7 p.m. Thursday.