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Post by skrapheap on Jan 6, 2020 18:41:03 GMT -6
The Panthers lost to Green Bay on Saturday in Green Bay. In other news, water is wet and a cloudless sky is blue.
The Panthers led only briefly in the first quarter. They trailed by varying amounts the rest of the way, getting the lead down to four points in the fourth quarter before fading. The final score was 61-48. The Phoenix largely won the game in the paint, as they outscored the Panthers 22-2, although the Panthers out-rebounded the Phoenix by nine. The loss puts the Panthers's record at 1-2, in league play.
Next up is a weekend trip to Michigan, to play Oakland and Detroit. Oakland has been up and down this season, and Detroit is currently alone in last place in the standings. The chance is there to win both games and get back above .500. But both teams have played Milwaukee tough at home.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Jan 6, 2020 22:29:00 GMT -6
I believe that we're now 2-17 against Green Bay under the current regime. Where's Chuck Barris when you need him?
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 6, 2020 23:14:01 GMT -6
Aside from 2005-06, I don't think Sandy Botham's teams had much better luck against Green Bay.
That is, if memory serves me, the only time the Panthers swept the Phoenix. The teams finished with identical records, but the Panthers took the top seed in the tournament because of the sweep.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 9, 2020 20:17:29 GMT -6
Among the newsworthy events in HL Women's Volleyball tonight: - Jame Reit hit a three-quarter court shot at the end of the half. If it makes it onto SportsCenter, I will try to post it.
- Oakland overcame a hot start by Green Bay, took a one point lead at half, and weathered a late run by the Phoenix to win at home.
- Green Bay played the last half-minute of the game with four players on the court, as a player who fouled out had no one to replace her from the Phoenix bench, owing to injuries.
Milwaukee beat Detroit by double digits. Elsewhere, IUPUI beat NKU at home by20 points or so. And Wright State was up double digits on UIC in Chicago in the second quarter.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 10, 2020 0:37:54 GMT -6
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Post by ghostofdylan on Jan 31, 2020 13:06:06 GMT -6
Whatever happened to women's basketball?!?! They're not even coming close to the standards set for our programs!!!
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 31, 2020 21:37:18 GMT -6
Whatever happened to women's basketball?!?! They're not even coming close to the standards set for our programs!!! This is a team without its best player. The rest of the roster is prone to scoring droughts, which is not conducive to success. Their recent pattern has been to alternate good games with bad ones. After last night's loss to NKU, one hopes they're due for a good game. They'll need it. They are playing Wright State in Dayton. And they managed to pull off a win against the Raiders at home.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 1, 2020 15:09:22 GMT -6
Whatever happened to women's basketball?!?! They're not even coming close to the standards set for our programs!!! This is a team without its best player. The rest of the roster is prone to scoring droughts, which is not conducive to success. Their recent pattern has been to alternate good games with bad ones. After last night's loss to NKU, one hopes they're due for a good game. They'll need it. They are playing Wright State in Dayton. And they managed to pull off a win against the Raiders at home. The Panthers played a good first half against Wright State this afternoon. The Raiders came out hot, hitting their first five shots, and getting to leads as high as nine points. The Panthers settled in, helped by a 5-8 start from beyond the three-point line, and cut into the lead to one point at 24-23. The Panthers continued playing well to start the second quarter, taking an early lead, getting the lead back on a weird sequence, and then building up their own lead to as many as nine points. The weird sequence played out like this: Jamie Reit fouled a Raider player taking a three-point shot. As the resulting free throws were being taken, Wright State committed a technical foul on a fouled-up substitution which had six Raiders on the court. The Raider shooting the free throws missing one her three free throws, and Reit was chosen to shoot the technical free throws for the Panthers, and hit both. Wright State tightened up the defense as the second quarter wore on, and the Panthers did not have as many open shots to take. The Panthers did hit four more three-pointers, and finished the quarter up six, 45-39. The Panthers scored only 37 points in their last game altogether. The Panthers continued to play well to start the third quarter. They got some layups on back-door cuts, assists from Lizzie Odegard from the top of the key. They continued to play solid defense, and had extended their lead to 12 points midway through the quarter. In the remaining time, Wright State tightened up their play, cutting into the lead with a 10-2 run late, but the Panthers recoved to push the lead back to nine points, 65-56 after three quarters. The Panthers continued to play well, pushing the lead back to 13 points, when Wright State turned up the defensive pressure and started forcing turnovers. Fortunately for Milwaukee, Wright State was not hitting their shots, and could only cut the lead to eight points. The final score was 77-67 Milwaukee (40 points more than they scored against NKU). The Panthers out-rebounded the Raiders, who have more height. They outshot the Raiders as well. This was a really well played game. It's frustrating, just as it is for the men's team, that this team has not been able to play at this level consistently. Elsewhere in the league, Green Bay played Northern Kentucky, having beaten Wright State Thursday night. NKU followed up on their victory over the Panthers by dominating the game and winning by 20 points The Norse outscored the Phoenix in three of four quarters, and doubled up the Phoenix in two of those quarters. IUPUI beat over Youngstown State at home by eight; the Penguins were down by double-digits for most of the game, but managed to challenge the Jaguars before losing. Cleveland State was up big over UIC early in the third quarter (51-19), and Detroit was up seven over Oakland on the road early in the third quarter. Later: Milwaukee has seven games remaining in league play, five of them at home, which is good news. The bad news is their only game this coming week is against Green Bay, who can be expected to bounce back from a truly awful shooting perfomance against NKU. The Panthers could really make a game of it if they can string together back-to-back performances like today's effort against Wright State, but the Panthers have not managed to do that yet this year. After the Phoenix, the Panthers have winnable games at home against Detroit and Oakland, but the Panthers played one of their bad games in Oakland and lost by double digits. Milwaukee's last road trip is the following week, traveling to play IUPUI and UIC. The Panthers wrap up the regular season with home games against Cleveland State and Youngstown State, teams they split against on the road.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 2, 2020 4:15:05 GMT -6
I had forgotten this happened. Brandi Bisping played one heck of a game against Wright State, including this shot:
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on Feb 8, 2020 15:49:18 GMT -6
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 8, 2020 16:42:33 GMT -6
I would have been happy with anything short of a blowout loss to Green Bay. The Phoenix were coming off an awful shooting performance against NKU, and had a week to get ready for the Panthers, against whom they had won the last six matchups. The Panthers had yet to win consecutive games this season.
The Panthers won, 65-60. It was a back and forth game pretty much the whole way, with the score tied four times and 12 lead changes.
When the Phoenix put together a 9-0 run early in the first quarter, it looked like things were back to usual. The Panthers put together a big run of their own, scoring 11 points on two three pointers from Lizzie Odegard, a three point shot from Mckaela Schmelzer, and a layup fron Sydney Staver, to take a 13-9 lead, and it was plain that the Panthers were not going to be intimidated. The quarter ended with the Panthers up 19-13.
The second quarter was dominated by Green Bay, 20-9 which gave them a five point lead at half. But even so, the Panthers were sticking close and playing tough.
The Panthers got four quick points out of the break, followed by a run of eight of the next ten points from Green Bay to reach a seven point lead for the second time in the game. Milwaukee outscored Green Bay 10-2 to the end of the quarter to take a one point lead to the final quarter at 46-45.
The Panthers won the fourth quarter 19-15, weathering an early Phoenix run to retake the lead for the final time with just under five minutes left. They pushed the lead to six on a Jamie Reit three-ball, and closed out the win at the free throw line, pushing the lead to 65-55 thanks to Schmelzer, Brandi Bisping and Bre Cera. Green Bay's last push only cut that lead in half.
Milwaukee had five score in double figures. Reit led the way with a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds, followed by Cera with 12, Staver and Schmelzer with 11 (nine of Schmelzer's points came from distance) and Odegard with 10 (and nine rebounds).
Green Bay fans are probably heading home grousing about the officiating, as the Phoenix shot three free throws in the game, none after halftime. The Panthers shot ten, six of them in the last minute of the game. In that last minute, Green Bay went from two fouls for the quarter to five in about six seconds of game time, putting the Panthers in the bonus and setting up the last expansion of the Panther lead that left too little time for a GB comeback to steal the game.
I said Milwaukee would need to play as well as they did in their previous win over Wright State, and they did, pretty much. They outshot Green Bay 43% to 41% overall, and they won the game with long range shooting, hitting 11-26 (46%) of their three point shots compared to Green Bay's 7-19 (36%). A lot of the missed shots by the Phoenix were in the lane, especially in crunch time. Although the Panthers did have seven more turnovers than the Phoenix did (Green Bay had 17 points off turnovers to five for Milwaukee), they were the more efficient team. At the half, the Panthers had assists on eight if nine made baskets; in her post-game comments Coach Rechlicz pointed to that and their total for the game of 18 assists on 22 made baskets and the team's 35-27 edge in rebounding over a taller Phoenix squad as keys to the win.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 8, 2020 17:29:40 GMT -6
With most teams having played 13 league games, the log jam in the standings appears to be getting tighter rather than looser.
IUPUI remains on top in standings comfortably. They have won their last 12 games, having lost in league play only in their league opener. The Jaguars have a three game lead over second place Wright State, 9-4. NKU is a game back in third place at 8-5, one half game ahead of Green Bay (7-5) and one game ahead of Cleveland State 7-6. The Panthers are next at 6-6, one game ahead of Oakland who is 5-7. Youngstown State (4-9), Detroit (3-9) and UIC (2-11) round out the standings.
Oakland is Milwaukee's next matchup, at home on Friday. Oakland won the first matchup at home, pulling away in the second half.
Green Bay has had an uncharacteristic season. They lost of a lot of players to injury early in the season, and lost a lot more games than they usually do. It is quite unusual for them to lose five of their first 12 league games. They have been much more susceptible to scoring droughts than previous Phoenix teams have been. They have individual players capable of carrying the team, but they haven't been getting the kind of consistent performances that their fans and the coaching staff has been accustomed to. The Phoenix are, no doubt, capable of making a run in the remaining six games, especially since four of them are at home. One of their remaining road games is against standings-leader IUPUI.
The Jaguars could cool off in their last five games, but I can't see them giving up a three game lead over Wright State, unless they lose a couple of key players to injury. IUPUI finishes their last road trip next weekend with trips to Dayton to play Wright State and to Kentucky to play NKU, then finishes the season at home against Milwaukee, Green Bay, and UIC. That is a challenging stretch, but the Jaguars have been up to every challenge in league play to date. Their only loss was by two point at the last second to Youngstown State.
The Panthers play four of their last six league games at home: hosting Oakland and Detroit next weekend, traveling to IUPUI and UIC, then finishing at home against Youngstown State and Cleveland State at the end of the month. Four of those games are against teams behind Milwaukee in the standings. IUPUI handled the Panthers fairly easily in Milwaukee. The Panthers played Cleveland State fairly evenly in the first half, and then faded in the second half, in Cleveland. Having now won three of their last four games, the Panthers appear to be rounding into form. The remainder of the season should be entertaining.
Update: i looked at rankings at NCAA.com. IUPUI is the only league team in the top 100 in RPI. Green Bay and IUPUI are the only teams in the top 150. So all this back and forth is about one NCAA tournament bid, in all likelihood. Not that that would be a change from recent performances. The League has sent multiple teams to the post-season for the past few years at least, but the vast majority of those have gone to the WNIT or the CBI (for which I could not find a website for the women--is it out of business?). Last year three teams went to to the WNIT.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Feb 9, 2020 12:19:20 GMT -6
'Heap, you really deserve some praise here. Your passion for this program is unparalleled. Through some challenging circumstances, you've remained steadfast in your loyalty.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 14, 2020 21:50:24 GMT -6
Milwaukee hosted Oakland tonight and withstood a serious charge by the Golden Grizzlies late and salted the game away at the free throw line, 74-67.
The Panthers had a 16 point lead with 3:47 left in the third quarter. The Grizzlies turned up the defensive pressure, and scored 12 consecutive points over the next three minutes to cut the lead to four. Over the remaining 0:48 of the quarter and the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, the Panthers recovered and got the lead back to seven points. About five minutes into the final quarter, Oakland made a final push to cut the lead to 63-62. Again the Panthers rose to the occasion, scoring a layup and another off a steal to put the lead at five with just over two minutes left, and finished the game by going 7-8 at the line.
Brandi Bisping led all scorers with 28 points and added 10 rebounds for a double-double. Jamie Reit just missed another double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds. Liz Odegard added 16 points.
The Panthers host Detroit Mercy on Sunday, hoping to take the win streak to four games.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 16, 2020 17:20:55 GMT -6
The win streak reached four this afternoon, with a 76-51 win over Detroit Mercy. The Panthers led throughout, by sizeable amounts for most of the game. The Titans did put together one run, in which they cut the lead to six points, but the Panthers responded to rebuild the lead to double digits.
Jamie Reit continued to play well, leading the team with 17 points on 7-11 shooting. It was her fifth consecutive game scoring in double figures.
Three other Panthers scored in double figures: Sydney Levy had 16 points on the strength of four three-point shots; Brandi Bisping finished with 13 points, and Sydney Staver had 12.
The Panthers had another very efficient offensive performance, with 20 assists on 26 made baskets. Alyssa Moore has become a fixture in the Panther rotation, spelling Mckaela Schmelzer at point guard. Moore had six of the team's 20 assists in only 15 minutes on the court.
The Panthers face a challenge in their next game. They travel to Indianapolis next Friday to begin their final league road trip, to play an IUPUI team that had their 12 game winning streak snapped yesterday at NKU. Sunday Milwaukee plays at UIC.
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