GREEN BAY, Wis. - Records
were meant to be broken and the Green Bay women's basketball team is a true
testament to that fact. Green Bay (6-0) upset No. 21 DePaul (5-2) 79-68 to
capture their record-breaking 24th consecutive regular season
victory. The streak began last season after DePaul beat Green Bay 76-68 in
Chicago.
"To continue the streak and beat a ranked team like DePaul
is great for our program and these kids who I thought showed a lot of toughness
tonight," said head coach Matt Bollant.
Sophomore Julie Wojta (Mishicot, Wis.) led all scorers with
a career-high 25 points and was 8-10 from the free throw line, "it's been very
successful for us moving her to the five position; she's just such an amazing
athlete," said Bollant.
Kayla Tetschlag (Sheboygan, Wis.) was a perfect 6-6 from the
charity stripe to finish with 16 points while Celeste Hoewisch (Hortonville,
Wis.) was also perfect from the line (5-5) finishing with 11 points and tying a
career-high eight rebounds.
DePaul's only lead of the game came off their first basket
(2-0). Both teams battled back and forth throughout the first half before Green
Bay went on a 8-0 run to lead by as many as 13. The Phoenix had a comfortable
43-30 lead at the half outrebounding and outshooting the Blue Demons.
In the second half Green Bay led by as many as 18 before DePaul
cut that lead in half after a 10-minute fire alarm delayed the game, "we always
tell our players to adjust to the environment they're in, and once again they
did that," said Bollant (laughing.)
With students directing "over-rated" chants to DePaul as
time was winding down, Green Bay wrote their name in the record books as they
became the youngest team in school history to beat a ranked opponent, "I feel
our players deserve consideration (to be ranked) but that's not up for us to
decide; we just work on getting better," said Bollant.
Prior to the win over DePaul it had been 216 games since the
Phoenix has beaten a ranked opponent (Dec. 3, 2002). If tonight's performance
is any indication of things to come for Green Bay, it may not take another 216
games.
"We tell our younger players this is just a taste of what we
can accomplish and it's only non-conference right now," said Tetschlag.
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