GREEN BAY, Wis. - Green Bay has won 11 straight regular-season conference championships and been to the NCAA tournament seven times this decade, but none of those teams has done what this year's has.
Heather Golden hit four 3-pointers and had a career-high20 points to lead the No. 23 Phoenix to a 10-0 start - its best start in program history - with a 65-48 win over Marquette at the Kress Center in Green Bay on Saturday night.
"We've worked hard over the summer and our hard work is finally paying off," said Golden. "To see our work pay off like this, it's amazing."
The Phoenix dominated with defense in the first half, holding the Golden Eagles (7-4) to just two points and no field goals over the final 11:32 of the first half and took a 38-14 lead into the locker room. The 14 points allowed was a season-low in a half for Green Bay.
"I thought it was incredible. It just felt like they just weren't going to get good shots and I thought our players played extremely hard and they communicated well on the screens," said Green Bay coach Matt Bollant. "The big concern coming in was their ability to rebound the basketball and their ability to go get it and I thought we did a great job leaving the zone and just playing with great tenacity and great fire to keep them from getting easy offensive boards and putbacks."
When Golden wasn't hitting outside shots, the Phoenix posts were getting to the basket for easy looks. Kayla Tetschlag scored 16 points for Green Bay while Julie Wojta added
13 points and13 rebounds for her second career and season double-double.
"Julie and Kayla, it's just so exciting to see their athleticism," Bollant said. "Last year we had 25 turnovers against (Marquette) and their size really presented problems.
To look on the floor and see Julie and Kayla making plays - and making it look as easy as they did - really was exciting."
Marquette briefly made it interesting with a 12-0 run in the second half to get within 15 points with over 10 minutes left.
"For some reason, and I don't know why, we weren't defending and therefore we were taking some ill-advised shots and it just multiplied quickly," said Marquette coach Terri Mitchell. "Then you get yourself in a big hole. If I had to do things over I would do exactly what we did in the second half and press the entire game and stay up because that got us into a rhythm."
That run brought Marquette as close as it would get, however, as the Phoenix pushed the lead back to 20 on a Golden 3 with 8:18 left. The Golden Eagles were led by Angel Robinson's 16 points. Jessica Pachko chipped in 11 points and five rebounds.
Green Bay had never started better than 9-0 in its 36 year history. The Phoenix improved to 29-7 all-time against the Golden Eagles and will wrap up their non-conference schedule Mon. Dec. 28 as they host Southern Illinois.
-Associated Press -
