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Post by skrapheap on Feb 1, 2016 23:07:26 GMT -6
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 11, 2016 13:58:40 GMT -6
The Panthers have clearly made good progress this season, and are much more competitive in the Horizon League. They are clearly not yet competitive with Green Bay, given last Saturday's result, but the Panthers are making more noise in the league than they have in recent years.
The Panthers hosted Cleveland State today, as part of the league's "School Day" game initiative. 2000 or more MPS students were in attendance, and they got an exciting finish to the game, with the Panthers edging the Vikings in overtime, 59-58.
Cleveland State started the season playing very poorly, and went 1-8 on their first pass through league play. They have been improving, though, and many of their recent losses have been closer games than was the case earlier in the season. The Panthers won by 16 in Cleveland, and controlled the game throughout. The Vikings played much better in this game, although the Panthers held a double digit lead through the first half and into the third quarter. The Vikings are second in the league in steals, and their relentlessness really helped them in the second half. The Panthers had major trouble scoring against the Vikings defense, and the Vikings seemed to be out-hustling the Panthers particularly in rebounding. A surge of Panther rebounds late in the fourth quarter and overtime gave the Panthers an overall 50-48 advantage; Cleveland State had out-rebounded the Panthers for most of the game up to that point.
After scoring 17 points in the first and seoond quarters, the Panthers managed 17 points in the entire second half. They went more than nine minutes without a basket from about four minutes left in the third quarter to about half way into the fourth quarter, as the Vikings, who shot 33% from the floor for the game, reduced a 16 point Panther lead to a 43-all tie with 5:36 left in the fourth quarter. The Panthers put together a bit of a rally and retook a six point lead, only to see the Vikings score the next seven points to take a lead for the first time since the first quarter, with 1:27 left. The Vikings took a two point lead at 51-49 on a free-throw, and the Panthers tied the score on two Emma Roenneberg free-throws with 4.6 seconds remaining. A shot at the buzzer missed for the Vikings, and the game went to overtime.
In their previous game, at Oakland, the Vikings forced overtime and then completely dominated, winning by 13 points. At the beginning of the overtime period today, it looked at first like this game would go the same way. The Panthers fought hard, and kept the game close, reducing the lead to 56-54 with about a minute left in OT. After Cleveland State missed two free-throws, Syd Howard was whistled for a foul (her fifth) to give the Vikings another chance to extend the lead. This time, Cleveland's Ashanti Abshaw, the reigning HL Freshman of the Week, hit both free throws (finishing with a game-high 20 points) to make the score 58-54 with 53 second remaining, setting up the Panthers last-second heroics. Jenny Lindner (who lead the Panthers with 17 points and 14 rebounds) hit a three-point shot with 42 seconds remaining to cut the lead to one, and Sierra Ford-Washington hit the game-winner with seven seconds left, her only made shot of the game, after Abshaw missed a layup. Ford-Washington then sealed the victory with a steal at the buzzer.
If they need to pick one thing that kept them from winning, the Vikings will have to look at free-throw shooting. They shot 12-23, and missed almost as many free-throws as the Panthers (7-11) attempted. They could shoot better from close up, but their defense almost overcame that lack.
Lindner was joined in double digits by Steph Kostowicz, who scored 11 before fouling out in the later stages of the fourth quarter. Howard and Alexis Lindstrom had nine points each.
The Panthers host Youngstown State on Saturday. The Penguins beat the Panthers by two points in Youngstown on a last second shot. The Panthers will need a much better performance to beat YSU.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 20, 2016 20:37:01 GMT -6
Last Saturday, the Panthers lost to Youngstown State, in a game rather like their loss to Detroit at home: YSU dominated the second half, and won comfortably. After splitting the previous two games at home, the Panthers faced a road trip to Valparaiso and Chicago.
Thursday night's game was truly a game of runs. The Panthers built an early 12-5 lead in the first quarter, but managed only three points the rest of the quarter. The Crusaders put together a 10 point run bridging the first and second quarters and took a 20-15 lead. The Panthers were scoreless for a little more than six minutes during that run. The Panthers then heated up and put together a run of their own, fueled equally by three-point shots and inside play. The Panthers had missed their first five three-point shots, but they hit four straight during the run: two from Alexis Lindstrom, and one each by Sierra Ford-Washington and Jenny Lindner. Kostowicz and Ford-Washington had layups to provide inside scoring. At half, the Panthers had a 33-26 lead. Kostowicz lead all scorers at half with 11 points.
After Valpo opened the third quarter with a three-point shot, the Panthers scored eight consecutive points to run the lead to 11 points at 40-29. The lead gradually reached 15 at 46-31, when the Crusaders started a run, reducing the lead back to six at the end of the third quarter, 48-42. The Valpo run continued into the fourth quarter, with the Crusaders narrowing the lead to one at 50-49. The Panthers scored the next seven points to reopen an eight point lead, on their way to reopening another 13 point lead. The final score was 70-60, Panthers. Kostowicz lead all scorers with 27 points, a new career high. She was joined in double figures by Lindstrom with 12 (4-4 from three-point range), and Ford-Washington and Lindner with 11 each.
Saturday, the Panthers were in Chicago to take on UIC. The Panthers won, 62-56 overcoming a slow start and being massively outrebounded by the Flames. After the Panthers took a 2-0 lead, the Flames dominated play for the rest of the first quarter and into the second, leading by as much as 11 points. The Panthers narrowed the lead to two at 21-19 and then 23-21, but could not take the lead, finishing the half down by one at 24-23. In the first half, the Flames had more offensive rebounds than Milwaukee had total rebounds. Emma Roenneberg had seven points to lead the Panthers at half.
In the second half, Kostowicz took over the game, as she has so often for the Panthers this season. She had four points in the first half; she had 20 in the second half and finished with a game-high 24 points. Kostowicz had the first seven points of the third quarter for the Panthers, but the Flames played the Panthers even, and briefly held a four point lead at 34-30. A layup by Jenny Lindner and then a three-pointer by Kostowicz then gave the Panthers a 35-34 lead. The teams traded shots and the lead through the end of the quarter, which ended with the Panthers up 41-40 on two free-throws by Kostowicz, her 13th and 14th points in the quarter. The Panthers scored 18 points total in the third quarter.
The Panthers stretched their lead in the fourth quarter, although the Flames did narrow the lead to 52-50, the Panthers scored consecutive baskets to retake a six point lead. The final score was 62-56. The Panthers were paced by six points from Kostowicz and seven from Alexis Lindstrom, who hit five of six free-throws late to clinch the game. Lindstrom finished with nine points, and Sierra Ford-Washington and Roenneberg had eight each. The Panthers won for only the second time this season when trailing at half, and despite begin outrebounded by 19, 50-31. Both teams hit 20 field goals, but the Flames attempted 20 more shots than the Panthers did, so the Panthers won the shooting percentage battle 41 to 29 percent, and hit 80 percent (20-25) of their free throws, making more free throws than the Flames attempted.
The victory raised the Panthers record to 9-5 in league play, insuring that they can finish no worse than .500 in league play. They remain in third place in the league, behind Green Bay who ran Valpo out of their own gym tonight, and Wright State, who lost in overtime to Detroit. The Titans are in fourth place, half a game behind the Panthers, and the two teams will meet in Detroit in the final weekend of regular season play.
Next up for the Panthers are their last two home league games, against Northern Kentucky and Wright State, followed by road games with Oakland and Detroit to finish the league season.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 22, 2016 15:47:56 GMT -6
Steph Kostowicz's performance last week got her her second Player of the Week award award this season. She averaged 25.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, two assists and one steal per game in the victories over Valparaiso and UIC. She also had one blocked shot. She was very efficient in doing so, shooting .703 from the floor and .688 from the free-throw line over the two games.
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Post by BBFran on Feb 22, 2016 16:12:20 GMT -6
skrap, life is a little too busy for me and I haven't been able to attend any of the Panther women's games. I'm happy to see we are back in the upper echelon of conference play, even though GB still seems to have a stranglehold on the top. Have we turned the corner under Kyle? Where do you see us going from here?
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 22, 2016 21:51:36 GMT -6
I'd have to say, in my inexpert opinion, that the Panthers have turned a corner. This team, which Coach Rechliz says has really bought in to her philosophy, is playing much better basketball than teams for the last several years. When was the last time a Panther team finished in the top half of the league? This team has a strong chance of doing that, and they were picked to finish above only Valparaiso.
Couple that with the fact that this is still a young team, with plenty of room to get better. Three of the top five scorers are underclassmen; the other two are juniors. The team had a five game winning streak during which they played excellent basketball, so it's a question of consistency, which will, i hope, come with time and experience.
The Panthers have a ways to go before they can challenge Green Bay, but so does the rest of the league.
I hope Amanda Braun has noticed, and will do her best to keep Kyle Rechliz and staff around. I fear that at some point Madison will come calling, though, and i couldn't blame her if she took the job at her alma mater.
But i have been enjoying the ride.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 23, 2016 15:35:25 GMT -6
The Panthers last two home games of the league regular season, Thursday hosting Northern Kentucky and Saturday hosting Wright State, should be challenging.
The Panthers beat both teams handily on the road in the midst of their five game winning streak earlier this season, but both teams have been playing better since those losses. Wright State is one game ahead of the Panthers in the league standings, alone in second place at 10-4. The first of those losses was to Milwaukee. The Raiders are five and three since that game. Northern Kentucky has won six of their last seven games, and are now one game behind the Panthers, in fifth place in the league at 8-6.
The Panthers have not put together a full game where they have been clicking on offense and defense since the last win in that five game streak, which was against Northern Kentucky, but their defense has kept them in games, and they have found different ways to get the job done offensively. A slow start offensively against Northern Kentucky and Wright State will create bigger challenges for the Panthers to overcome than slow starts against Valparaiso or UIC did, but if the Panthers can continue to play good defense, they should be able to keep the games close. If the Panthers come out like they did during the winning streak, with balanced and efficient scoring along with playing good defense, they will be hard to beat. If the Raiders or Norse get the upper hand as did both Detroit and Youngstown State in the second half of earlier home losses, the Panthers will need to demonstrate that they can dig in and overcome those disadvantages.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 25, 2016 21:22:06 GMT -6
The game with Northern Kentucky on Thursday night started as though it would be a track meet, but settled into a slower pace. The score at the end of the first quarter was 22-16 Panthers, with the Panthers pulling away slowly in the last four minutes. Syd Howard led the way with eight points in the quarter.
The Panthers expanded the lead to eight early in the second quarter, but the Norse put together a run of their own and reduced the lead to one at 28-27 with 3:22 left. The Panthers countered with six points of their own. The halftime score was 36-31 Panthers. The Panthers got a scare when Steph Kostowicz got hit in the face defending against a layup. She was apparently tested to see if she had a concussion. There seemed to be a lot of hard fouls in the first half, and the refs were letting a lot of physical play go early, though plenty of fouls were called as the game wore on. Sierra Ford-Washington led the Panthers with 11 points; Howard has eight points.
The Panthers maintained a five point lead through most of the third quarter, then put together a surge in the last three minutes of the third quarter into the beginning of the fourth quarter and pushed the lead to 13 points at 62-49. Coach Rechliz even pulled her starters with a minute and a half left, after a Kostowicz layup made the lead 15 at 72-57. The Norse kept their starters in and made a last run, reducing the lead to seven. The Panther starters came back in and re-established order, and NKU could only get the lead back to seven at the buzzer; the Panthers won 78-71.
Ford-Washington led all scorers with 24 points. Kostowicz finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds, turning up her offense in the second half as she has done so often this season (14 points after halftime), and Howard finished with a season-high 15 points.
After a 38 point total in the first quarter, the second and third quarters slowed down. The fourth quarter featured 55 total points, with the Panthers edging the Norse 28-27 to finish the victory. It would have been nice to see the Panthers win another game by double digits, but it is encouraging to see them figuring out how to win close games. The Panther defense held a team that had won six of their last seven games by double digits, one of the top scoring teams in the league, to less than 33 percent shooting for the game. The Panthers outrebounded the Norse, and outshot them at the free-throw line.
Green Bay pulled away to beat Wright State, to clinch the league title for the 18th consecutive year. The loss dropped the Raiders into a tie with the Panthers in second place at 10-5, setting up a showdown on Saturday, which will be Senior Day. Sydney Howard, the team's lone active senior player, will be honored before the game.
A second-place finish in the league would be a real accomplishment, and not merely because they were picked to finish ninth. The HL women's tournament has adopted a similar format to the men. All games will be played at one site, but for the women it will be in Green Bay. More importantly, the top two seeds have byes into the semifinals.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 26, 2016 17:22:46 GMT -6
Here's a look at the League, comparing current standings to preseason rankings: School | Cur Rank | PS Rank | Green Bay | 1 | 1 | Wright State | T2 | 2 | Milwaukee | T2 | 9 | Detroit | 4 | 7 | Northern Kenucky | 5 | 8 | Youngstown State | 6 | 4 | Oakland | 7 | 5 | Valparaiso | 8 | 10 | Cleveland State | 9 | 6 | UIC | 10 | 3 |
Aside from the top spot, these standings could change by the end of the regular season next weekend. Green Bay has clinched the outright title with three games left to play. Second through sixth place are separated by two games in the loss column, with three games to play for everyone except Youngstown State, who has four games left. The Penguins can't affect the Panthers finish unless they tie the Panthers with seven losses, because they swept the season series with the Panthers. The Panthers face Detroit next weekend, hoping to split the season series with the Titans. If the Panthers beat Wright State on Saturday, they will have swept the Raiders, which is the first tie-breaker, with two games left to play. Finishing second now gets you a bye to the semi-finals.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 27, 2016 16:28:33 GMT -6
The first quarter of Saturday's game with Wright State started slowly for the Panthers, but they heated up quickly, scoring eight points in just under a minute to go from trailing 7-5 to leading 13-7. Three-pointers by Sierra Ford-Washington and Jenny Lindner led the way. The Panthers finished the quarter up 17-13.
Milwaukee opened the second quarter by scoring the first fifteen points, on two-point goals by Steph Kostowicz and Ford-Washington and a three point from Alexis Lindstrom, forcing a Raider timeout. Out of the timeout Sydney Howard hit a three pointer, Lindstrom a two-pointer, and Ford-Washington another three-pointer, to make the lead 19 and force yet another Wright State timeout. The lead briefly reached 20 on another Howard three-pointer, the sixth of the half, but the Raiders answered with a three-point shot of their own. The Raiders began to chip away at the lead, getting it down to 12 (52-23) on a Kim Demmings three-point shot, but the Panthers reopened a 15 point lead with less than a minute remaining in the quarter. Another Demmings three-pointer made the score at half-time 41-29, Panthers. Ford-Washington led the Panthers with 12 points.
The Panthers started the third quarter with an 11-6 run to extend the lead to 17 at 52-35. The lead was 19, 60-41 at the end of the quarter, with Ford-Washington up to 24 points to lead all scorers. The lead reached 21 five minutes into the fourth quarter, on a layup by Howard, 64-43. The Raiders would outscore the Panthers 14-4 through the rest of the quarter, to a final score of 68-57. Ford-Washington finished with 26 points, nine rebounds, and five assists (to average 25 points/game for the week), followed by Howard with 15 and Lindner with 12. The Panthers out-rebounded the Raiders, one of the top rebounding teams in Division 1, 49-44, and held the top scoring team in the league twenty-one points under their per-game average. The Panthers completed the season sweep against Wright State, something they had not done in eleven years. It was the first time the Panthers had defeated the Raiders in the state of Wisconsin in eight years.
The Panthers are now 11-5 in the league, alone in second place with two games to play. They have the tiebreaker if they finish in a tie with Wright State. The Raiders and Detroit are tied for third at 10-6. The Panthers finish the regular season on the road in Michigan, hoping to sweep Oakland Thursday night and split with Detroit on Saturday.
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Post by GoPanthers33 on Feb 28, 2016 10:22:00 GMT -6
Impressive turnaround.
It would be cool to see a championship match up with Green Bay.
It's been a decade since they made the tournament. It would be one heck of an accomplishment if they could pull off the huge upset over Green Bay.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 28, 2016 11:13:07 GMT -6
The Panthers lost twice to the Phoenix by 22 and 23 points, so beating them would be a major upset. Beating them on their home court would take a perfect game, but the Panthers have played some really good games this season.
Green Bay wins with defense generally, but this season even more so. The statistical categories they lead the league in are mostly defensive categories: scoring defense (12 points/game better than the second place team) and defensive field goal percentage (almost two percentage points better than the second place team). The Phoenix are third in steals/game.
The Phoenix narrowly lead the league in field goal percentage (0.2% better than the second place team), but are sixth in scoring, third in three-point shooting and tied for last in free-throw shooting.
That adds up to a 15-1 league record. As Milwaukee's travel partner, Green Bay also will close out the regular season on the road in Michigan, at Detroit on Thursday and Oakland on Saturday. Oakland is the only team to have beaten Green Bay, in Green Bay. This is the second straight year Oakland has done that.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 29, 2016 16:00:22 GMT -6
Sierra Ford-Washington averaged the following stats last week: 25 points/game, 7.5 rebounds/game and 3 assists/game. She shot 50 percent from the field (33 percent from three-point range) and 80 percent from the free-throw line.
Was she selected as the Player of the Week? No. She was not even mentioned, even though the last time she had a similar week, she did get some mention.
i'm shaking my head.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 29, 2016 21:42:38 GMT -6
As of tonight, the picture is a little clearer regarding the Horizon League tournament. Green Bay has already locked up the top seed. Valparaiso and UIC will play each other to resolve the ninth and tenth seeds.
Cleveland State is currently in eighth place, riding a three game winning streak. They have something of a challenge ahead of them, though, as they have to travel to play Wright State and Northern Kentucky next weekend. The Vikings could pass Oakland with two wins and two losses by Oakland (who plays Milwaukee and Green Bay in Michigan). A win by Oakland or a Cleveland State loss would lock up seventh place for Oakland.
At best, Oakland could tie Northern Kentucky, with two wins and two losses by the Norse. NKU hosts Cleveland State and Youngstown State. One win by the Norse locks up the sixth seed; two wins could move them up a place or two, but they would need teams ahead of them to lose twice, and even then tie-breakers might keep them where they are.
The Penguins are currently in fifth place, and could finish no worse than 9-9, and as good as 11-7. If they tied Milwaukee at 11-7, they have the first tie-breaker, having swept the Panthers. If Detroit, currently in fourth place, wins out, they would move past the Panthers if tied, because they also would have swept Milwaukee.
The Panthers have won four consecutive games, and are currently one game ahead of Wright State for second place. Two Panther wins would lock up the second seed, no matter what any other team does. One Panther win would assure the Panthers of a higher seed than the Raiders, because the Panthers swept the Raiders. Detroit would have to beat Green Bay and Milwaukee to pass the Panthers. If Green Bay beats Detroit and the Panther beat Oakland on Thursday night, the Panthers are assured of the second seed.
The bottom line is that the Panthers can lock up the second seed by winning out, and could have the seed locked up by the end of Thursday night with help from Green Bay.
A second place tournament finish would still be worth quite a bit, as the WNIT is prepared to offer the tournament runner-up a bid. Winning it all would bring an NCAA bid; securing the second seed and winning one tournament game would lock up a post-season bid, the first in ten years.
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Post by skrapheap on Mar 2, 2016 17:26:23 GMT -6
Sierra Ford-Washington averaged the following stats last week: 25 points/game, 7.5 rebounds/game and 3 assists/game. She shot 50 percent from the field (33 percent from three-point range) and 80 percent from the free-throw line. Was she selected as the Player of the Week? No. She was not even mentioned, even though the last time she had a similar week, she did get some mention. i'm shaking my head. i had initially just added the correction of this error to the original posting, but i decided this should be a separate comment, although quoting the orignal posting. As of today, Sierra Ford-Wshington has been added as co-player of the week for her performance last week: www.horizonleague.org/blog/detroits-reynolds-and-cleveland-states-abshaw-collect-weekly-honorsCongrats to her on an honor that is deserved. i honestly don't know anyone could not have noticed SFW's performance in last weeks games, but they did, at least initially. i don't know how the player of the week is chosen, either, but it doesn't surprise me that it took the League a couple of days to fix the error. i assume they would have to take another look at the top performances during the previous week, and decide whether SFW's performance merited revising the choice of Player of the Week (which they chose to do) or simply just to add a mention of her performances under top performances of the week, which they did the last time she had a similar weekend. i suppose they felt that they couldn't award the honor outright to SFW, having previously announced that Rosanna Reynolds of Detroit had won. i don't know if my tweet at the league had any effect or not; i didn't get an acknowledgement or a response, unless you count the revision of the award. It doesn't matter to me whether they were reacting to me, or to an inquiry from our Athletic Department, or the Women's Basketball coaching staff, etc. etc. i am glad to see her performance recognized for what it was. i think the league awards for Women's basketball, which should be announced next week, after the final league regular season game on Sunday, will be very interesting. Ruvanna Campbell of UIC was the pre-season Player of the Year, and she has certainly performed well. She has double-doubles in more than half of the games she has played in this year, about 10 more than any other player in the league this season, and is currently second in scoring. However, she is up against Wright State's Kim Demmings, who is a special talent, and who came back this year from a knee injury that cost her all of last season, and is leading the league in scoring. Demmings passed Traci Edwards as the all-time career scorer in League history back in January when the Panthers played at Wright State. Add to that, Wright State is currently in third place and UIC is currently in last place in the league standings. No single player has dominated the player of the week awards this season; Demmings has won the honor three times to Campbell's one, but several others players have won it twice, including Milwaukee's Steph Kostowicz. There are several candidates for coach of the year, starting with Milwaukee's Kyle Rechliz. The Panthers were predicted to finish second from the bottom in the league, and they are currently second from the top. If Cleveland State can continue its late season run, Coach Kate Peterson-Abiad would be worthy of consideration. Wright State has continued to be near the top of the league standings, so their coach Mike Bradbury will probably get some votes, and of course Kevin Borseth will get consideration as his Phoenix team continues to win league titles. The newcomer/freshman of the years will also be very interesting. Asanti Abshaw of Cleveland State has won the weekly award six times this sesaon, followed by Taylor Jones of Oakland with five, and Emily Vogelpohl of Wright State with four. Does winning the weekly award carry enough weight to overcome the tendency to give these awards to players from the teams higher in the standings?
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