By Justin Grones (@JustinGrones)
GreenBayPhoenix.com
GREEN BAY, Wis.
(GreenBayPhoenix.com) - The
top-seeded #20/20 Green Bay women's basketball team worked its way into the
semifinal round of the 2013 Horizon League Championship with an 80-59 win over
eighth-seeded Valparaiso, setting up a battle with No. 4 seed Detroit on Friday
at 7:30 p.m. The Phoenix enters the contest as winners of 22 straight games,
holding a 27-2 overall record while Detroit holds a 17-12 overall mark.
In Wednesday's win over Valparaiso, senior Adrian Ritchie (De Pere, Wis.) put on a
3-point shooting clinic as she tied the Horizon League Championship single-game
record for triples made with a career-high seven. Her seven shots from behind
the arc came on 14 attempts, the most ever attempted in a single game in
program history. With her effort, she has 521 attempts from downtown in her
career, more than any other player in program history.
Detroit overcame a second-half scare from Wright State
on Wednesday, pulling away for a 72-56 win over the fifth-seeded Raiders. The
Titans were led by Shareeta Brown and Demeisha Fambro, who scored 25 and 23
points, respectively. Fambro also hit seven triples, tying the same mark
Ritchie achieved.
FIRST UP: Before Green Bay can battle Detroit, No. 2 seed
Youngstown State will host No. 3 seed Loyola at the Kress Center at 5 p.m. The
winner of that game will advance to Sunday's championship game and play either
Green Bay or Detroit.
REMEMBER THE
TITANS: The Phoenix saw two sides of
Detroit in two regular-season meetings. In the first, a 62-31 home victory on
Jan. 8 to open league play, Green Bay doubled-up the Motor City team while
holding Brown to just eight points on 2-4 shooting. The physical post player
entered that game as the nation's second-leading scorer at 26.0 points per
game.
ROUND TWO
AGAINST THE RED AND BLUE: In the
second go-round with Detroit, the Phoenix escaped Motown with a 71-63 victory
after Detroit held a two-point advantage midway through the second half. In the
effort, redshirt freshman Megan Lukan (Barrie,
Ontario) recovered from an 0-5 effort from long range to shoot an incredible
6-8 from downtown in the final 20 minutes. Lukan finished 6-13 from behind the
arc, setting the mark for most triples attempted in a single game in program
history-the same mark Ritchie surpassed on Wednesday.
SHARING IS
CARING: Senior Sarah Eichler (Grafton, Wis.) has been playing more like a point
guard than a power forward as of late after tying her career high with eight
assists in the first half alone against the Crusaders on Wednesday. She went on
to set a new career high with 11 shares, and has averaged 6.0 assists per
contests during the last nine games.
LUKAN GOOD
AGAINST DETROIT: In five matchups
since the beginning of last season, Megan Lukan has had some of her best games
of her young career against the Titans. While held scoreless in her first
career game against Detroit, she's scored in double figures in the last four.
Lukan averages 15.5 points per game during that stretch and scored 20 points in
two of the four meetings.
LONG-RANGE
BAUER POWER: Senior Lydia Bauer went
3-6 from downtown against Valparaiso to finish with 17 points and now needs
just 42 points to become the 32nd member of the Green Bay women's basketball
1,000-point club. Should Bauer accomplish this feat, it would be the first time
in program history three players joined the club in one season. Bauer averages
10.1 points per game while shooting 37.2 percent from behind the arc.
FOLLOW IT LIVE: Fans can listen live on Friday as Bruce VandenPlas will have the call on The
Fan 1400 AM and TheFan1075.com. Live stats and live video on the Horizon League
Network will also be available with Brian Nicol handling the
play-by-play and Andrew Gavin proving color analysis. Be sure to follow @GBPhoenixWBB and @JustinGrones on Twitter for updates throughout the game.
Also, be sure to check out Championship Central on
GreenBayPhoenix.com for information regarding tickets, brackets, highlights and
more.
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