By: Jill Wunrow
GreenBayPhoenix.com
CHICAGO, Ill. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - The No.
11/11 Green Bay (26-1, 16-1 HL) women's
basketball team closes regular season play as it battles UIC (17-11, 10-7 HL) Saturday,
Mar. 3 at 3 p.m. at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Ill. Green Bay is 24-1 in
regular season finales, since moving to Division I, with its lone loss coming
Mar. 4, 1990 against Northern Illinois.
Green Bay enters
Saturday's contest having won its 14th consecutive regular season conference title.
With a win over the Flames, Green Bay would record at least 27 wins in a single
season for the eighth time in program history. The Phoenix is on a six-game
winning streak while UIC is coming off a 59-52 win over Milwaukee Mar. 1. The
Flames have clinched the No. 4 seed in next week's Horizon League Championship
while the Phoenix is the No. 1 seed.
The Flames are
being led in scoring and rebounding by senior Jasmine Bailey with 17.4 points
and 9.8 rebounds per contest while Green Bay continues to be paced by senior Julie Wojta (Francis Creek, Wis.) who is
pouring in 19.6 points and grabbing 10.3 boards per game. Wojta leads the
league in scoring and rebounding while Bailey is fourth and fifth in the
respective categories.
ABOUT THE SERIES: Saturday will be the 62nd meeting
between these two teams. Green Bay owns an overall record of 55-6 and is 22-5
on UIC's home court. Fifth year head coach Matt Bollant is 8-1 when battling
the Flames as the Phoenix has won the past four meetings. Green Bay is 3-1 at
the UIC Pavilion under Bollant with its lone loss (81-72) coming on Jan. 23,
2010.
Green Bay will
look to have a stronger performance in its second meeting this season against
UIC compared to the first on Dec. 29. After the 80-63 win at the Kress Events
Center, Bollant said the following of his team's performance, "we won the game
because we scored more points, we were not the tougher team tonight and that's
something we pride ourselves on, being the toughest team."
RECORD WATCH: With her nine field goals and 24 points
in Green Bay's win over Loyola Mar. 1, Wojta moved into eight on Green Bay's
individual season record list with 206 field goals made and sixth with 528
points on the season. With 97 steals this season, Wojta is seven away from holding
the individual season record with 104. Rhonda Rice grabbed 103 steals during
the 1995-96 season.
Wojta has recorded
five double doubles in the past six games and is the reigning Co-Horizon League
Player of the Week. With 31 career double double performances, the senior
forward is one double double shy of tying the single season record of 32 (set
by Kim Wood) since moving to Division I in 1987.
UNSELFISH PHOENIX: Green Bay currently has three players who rank in the top 10 in the
Horizon League (against all opponents) in assists per game. Wojta is eighth
with 3.6 per game, Hannah Quilling (Eau Claire, Wis.) ninth with 3.4, and Adrian Ritchie (De Pere, Wis.) 10th with
3.0. As a team the Phoenix ranks first overall dishing out 17.8 assists per
contest. Through games played Mar. 1, Green Bay ranks seventh in the nation
among 336 teams in assits per game.
FOLLOW IT LIVE: Fans can watch a live stream of
Saturday's regular season finale, live here. To track
live stats of the event, click here.
UP NEXT: Green Bay tips off Horizon League
Championship competition Wednesday, Mar. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Kress Events Center
with a quarterfinal game.
###
Ticket
packages for the women's basketball Horizon League championship are currently
on sale with the Green Bay ticket office. For more information or to order
tickets, please click here. Green
Bay will host its opponent in the quarterfinal round Wednesday, Mar. 7 at 7
p.m. at the Kress Events Center.
For the latest and most up-to-date information on
Green Bay Athletics, please visit GreenBayPhoenix.com.
Follow us on Twitter: @GBPhoenix and @gbphoenixwbb.
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