CLEVELAND, Ohio - The
Green Bay (12-0, 1-0) women's basketball team opened up Horizon League play at
Cleveland State (5-7, 0-1) facing the preseason player of the year Kailey Klein
and first team selection Shawnita Garland.
Green Bay was picked to finish first in the Preseason
Horizon League poll while Cleveland State was picked to finish second,
receiving four first place votes. The result was the same today as Green Bay
took care of the Vikings with a 78-60 win to open conference play 1-0 and
improve to a program best 12-0.
"Every game is a big game but It's great to start off
conference play with a win especially on the road when we're going against the team
picked to finish second," said head coach Matt Bollant.
During the first four minutes of play there were a combined
eight turnovers and six points as both teams struggled to get their offensive
rhythm going. The Vikings turned the ball over 13 times in the half while the
Phoenix took advantage scoring 14 points off the miscues.
Green Bay's largest lead (13) came off a jump shot by Julie Wojta (Mishicot, Wis.) with 6:41 to play. Wojta had an impressive first half
leading all scorers with 13 points, four assists and two steals.
"She's huge for us, she releases really well and goes and
gets the ball and finds a way to finish; she was a big part of our success
tonight," said Bollant.
With five seconds to play in the first half Angel Roque hit
a three-pointer to cut Green Bay's lead to six (37-31) at the break. The
Phoenix shot 53 percent in the first half while holding Klein to just three
points and one rebound.
"Kayla did a really good job on her (Klein). We knew their
offense revolves around her and our goal was to shut her down and we did just
that," said Wojta.
Cleveland State came out fast in the second half cutting
Green Bay's lead to four with just over 13 minutes to play. Green Bay's defense
held tough as Cleveland State shot 8-23 from three-point range turning the ball
over 11 times.
"I was really proud of our toughness with the ball in the second
half," said Bollant, "we played tougher with our guards and got the ball where
we wanted it."
At the end of the game Wojta was one point shy of her career
high (25) in scoring as she led all players with 24 points, seven assists and
four steals. Needless to say Wojta is very comfortable in her new post
position, "I like it a lot better than any other position I've played, I'm
having a lot of fun," said Wojta laughing.
Kayla Tetschlag (Sheboygan, Wis.) chipped in 21 points and grabbed six boards while
Celeste Hoewisch (Hortonville, Wis.) had 12 points and six assists.
The Phoenix will travel to Youngstown to wrap up their road
trip against the Penguins on Monday at 6:05 p.m.
---www.GreenBayPhoenix.com---
