By: Jill Wunrow
GreenBayPhoenix.com
MADISON, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - The No.
18/14 Green Bay (10-0) women's basketball team overcame a slow start to win its
seventh consecutive game against a Big Ten opponent with a 65-49 win over Wisconsin (4-8) Friday at the Kohl Center in
Madison. The win gave the Phoenix its second undefeated nonconference season in
three years.
"We were a little
tight in that first half and I'm just so proud of our players for coming out as
the most aggressive team in the second half," said head coach Matt Bollant who
improves to 7-2 against Big Ten opponents. "What a great win for our program to
come down and beat a Big Ten team on their court when they have everything
going for them."
Senior Julie
Wojta (Francis Creek, Wis.) poured in a career-high 29 points to lead all
scorers, going 12-of-19 from the field while grabbing eight rebounds.
"Julie was
huge for us in the second half, just making it look easy the way she was taking
the ball to the rim," Bollant said of Wojta's performance.
Green Bay
struggled to get its offense going in the first half as Wisconsin's Taylor Wurtz
sank back-to-back buckets from the right corner to give the Badgers the 12-8
lead at the 12:09 mark. Green Bay later went on 5-0 run but was stopped with a
three pointer from Morgan Paige to make it 17-13 in favor of Wisconsin before
Wojta tied it 17-17 with a bucket down low with 8:22 to play in the first half.
Green Bay
took its first lead of the game with 6:20 to play in the first half when Lydia
Bauer (Lake Zurich, Ill.) stole the ball and took it the distance for the bucket and the 19-18 edge
over the Badgers.
With 2:21 to
play in the opening half, Wurtz scored her 12th point of the contest
to give Wisconsin the 25-24 lead. With just over one minute remaining, Wurtz drained
a deep three, part of an 11-2 run by the Badgers, forcing Green Bay to call
timeout with 37.7 seconds to play. Eichler sank a layup for the Phoenix to
quiet the crowd but Wisconsin scored once more to make it 34-28 at the break.
It was the third
time this season Green Bay trailed at the half. Wojta paced the Phoenix with 14
points and five rebounds while Wurtz led all players with 15 points and eight
boards for the Badgers.
Green Bay
opened the second half with 5-0 run thanks to a three from Sarah Eichler
(Grafton, Wis.) followed by a layup from Bauer to cut the Badgers lead to one
(34-33).
"I thought
Sarah's three to start the second half was huge for us," Bollant said. "Give
Wisconsin credit, they played a great first half but they way our players
stepped up and made things happen in the second half was just great."
At the 15:32
mark in the second half, Wojta added a three from the right wing to give the
Phoenix the 38-36 lead, part of a 12-4 run by Green Bay.
With the Phoenix
leading 44-43 with 9:06 to play, Ritchie drained her first three of the contest
from the right wing to give Green Bay its largest lead up to that point. Wojta
tied her career-high 25 points with 7:44 to play on a bucket down low to boost
the Phoenix lead to eight (53-45) and kept rolling, setting a new career-high
scoring her 27th point with 4:36 remaining.
As Green Bay's
offense clicked in the second half, pouring in 37 points, its defense allowed
the Badgers just 15 points with Wurtz scoring only five, finishing with 20 in
the game to lead Wisconsin.
"Our defense
was huge for us in the second half, we made the proper adjustments as needed
and it was key in our win tonight," Bollant said of his team's defensive
performance.
In addition to
Wojta's career-high 29 points, Megan Lukan (Barrie, Ontario) and Eichler both
chipped in 10 while Adrian Ritchie (De Pere, Wis.) sank two three pointers in
the second half before finishing with eight points.
As a team, the Phoenix scored 31 points off Wisconsin's 25 turnovers in the win.
"This
program is way bigger than the head coach and it has been since I got here, this
is a community program and I'm just proud to be a part of it," Bollant said. "Our
staff is amazing and the fans that made the trip down to support us are
amazing. It takes a village to make our success happen and everybody does their
part."
UP NEXT: Green Bay will have two days off for
the holiday break before hosting UIC (7-4) in its Horizon League opener Dec. 29
at 7 p.m. at the Kress Events Center. Loyola (5-6) will close out 2011 with a
trip to Green Bay Dec. 31 at 2 p.m.
###
Season
tickets, Pick 5 packages and single-game tickets for both men's and women's
basketball programs are currently on sale with the Green Bay ticket office. For
more information, please visit GreenBayPhoenix.com/tickets.
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Green Bay Athletics, please visit GreenBayPhoenix.com.
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