By Justin Grones (@JustinGrones)
GreenBayPhoenix.com
GREEN BAY, Wis.
(GreenBayPhoenix.com) - The Green Bay
women's basketball team (10-2) continued its streak of defensive dominance in a
61-42 victory over St. Bonaventure (7-8) to close non-conference play on
Saturday afternoon at the Kress Center. The win marks the fourth time this
season the Phoenix has held an opponent to 30 percent shooting or less, and the
eighth time Green Bay's tenth-best defense in Division I has not allowed an
opponent to reach 50 points.
"St. Bonaventure was a hard team to guard, they were
very patient and did a pretty good job of taking care of the ball," head coach Kevin Borseth said. "I never really
felt comfortable and felt like we had a lot of gaps, but when you look at the
score sheet and see the amount of points we held them to, it wasn't too bad."
Redshirt senior Stephanie
Sension (Hopkins, Minn.) and senior Lydia
Bauer (Lake Zurich, Ill.) broke an early back-and-forth game by each
hitting a triple, sparking a 16-5 run over the final 12:42 of the first
half. Bauer finished with 13 points and
a game-high eight rebounds on 5-8 shooting and 3-for-5 from long range while
Sension added 12 points shooting 50 percent from the floor.
Leading 18-12 with 7:56 remaining in the first half, senior
Adrian Ritchie (De Pere, Wis.) drilled
a three to spark a 12-0 run over the next five and a half minutes that saw
Ritchie and Bauer add five points each.
With 2.6 seconds remaining in the first half Bauer
launched a shot from half court that nearly went in, but freshman Kaili Lukan (Barrie, Ontario, Canada)
grabbed the rebound and was fouled. With a tenth of a second on the clock the
younger of Green Bay's two Lukan's hit one of two free throw attempts to give
the Phoenix a 32-15 halftime lead.
After shooting 0-for-6 from behind the arc in the first
half, St. Bonaventure connected on six of 10 attempts from long range in the
second half, coming as close as 15 points with 11:47 remaining. After St.
Bonaventure's Ashley Zahn hit a three, Green Bay responded with a 12-2 run over
the next five minutes. Redshirt junior Breannah
Ranger (Skokie, Ill.) dominated the post in the second half, working
towards a career-high 14 points on 70 percent shooting.
With 4:28 remaining, redshirt junior Sam Zastrow (Algoma, Wis.) drove to the
basket through the entire St. Bonaventure defense and laid it in to record her
first points of the season and extend the lead to 57-31. The 26-point advantage
was the largest the Phoenix held in the game.
St. Bonaventure scored late points from Katie Healy
and Nyla Rueter, but Green Bay's reserve players, which all saw time on the
court, were able to hold the double-digit advantage. Healy finished with a
game-high 16 points, while Rueter added 11.
The Phoenix continued its streak of dominance in the
paint, outscoring the Bonnies 36-10 for the game with a 20-0 advantage in the
second half. During the five-game winning streak, Green Bay has outscored
opponents 172-50 in the paint and has held opponents to an average of just 41
points per contest.
With the non-conference slate in the books, Green Bay
will open Horizon League play on Tuesday, Jan. 8 in a highly anticipated matchup
against Detroit. Green Bay defeated the Titans in the 2012 Horizon League
Championship game, and Detroit was picked to finish second behind the Phoenix
in the 2012-13 Preseason Horizon League poll. Following the matchup with
Detroit, Green Bay will stay at home to host Wright State on Saturday, Jan. 12.
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