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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on Dec 15, 2017 9:24:13 GMT -6
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Post by skrapheap on Dec 15, 2017 19:08:32 GMT -6
Big win. This was a much better Badger team than the one the Panthers beat last year. The Badgers won nine games all last season. They had a 7-5 record going into the game.
The Panthers found a way to win it late. Four Panthers reached double figures in scoring: Bailey Farley had 16, Steph Kostowicz 15, Jamie Reit 14 and Jenny Lindner 11.
The next test will be another tough one Sunday afternoon against a Marquette team that was nationally ranked until they played Green Bay (#1 in the Mid Major Top 25 and now nationally ranked 21st) on the road.
As a result of their recent play, the Panthers have made the Mid-Major Top 25 again, coming in at #25.
There are four Horizon League teams in the Mid Major Top 25 this week: Wright State at #15 and IUPUI at #23 join Green Bay and Milwaukee. WIU, who the Panthers beat, are at #19 this week.
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Post by skrapheap on Dec 17, 2017 18:24:56 GMT -6
The Panthers were no match for Marquette this afternoon. After a close first quarter, the Golden Eagles used a stifling defense to pull out to a comfortable double-digit lead. The Panthers were able to reduce the lead to single digits on a couple of occasions, but never got closer than eight points down. The final deficit was 15 points, 83-68.
Marquette forced 30+ turnovers, more than 20 more than the Panthers caused. The last Panther loss this season was eight games ago, against a Houston team that forced 39 Panthers turnovers. Aggressive defense remains a real challenge for the Panthers, whose defense was unable to keep Marquette from scoring 80 points for the eighth time this season. Four of the starters for Marquette scored in double figures. The Panthers had four players in double figures as well, but the Panthers' leading scorer, Jenny Lindner, had 13 points, one less than the lowest total for those Golden Eagles who got to double-figures in scoring.
The Panthers have one more non-conference game, traveling to Chicago to play a winless Chicago State team on Thursday. They should end up with a 9-3 record heading into league play.
Their first three league games are on the road, ending with a trip to Green Bay to play the Phoenix, who are currently 9-1, heading into a game with Northwestern, whom the Panthers already beat, on Tuesday. The Panthers open the league season at Northern Kentucky, who is currently 1-7 with three non-league games remaining before hosting Milwaukee on December 28th.; the Panthers will have a week to prepare for the Norse after the Chicago State game. Following that, the Panthers play at Wright State (currently 8-2 with non-league games with Belmont and Georgia, and their league opener at home against Green Bay). So the Panthers will open league play against two (GB and WSU) of the three teams predicted to finish ahead of them in the preseason poll, and those two teams have given the Panthers trouble with pressure defense in recent years. The schedule-maker has once again done the Panthers no favors.
9-3 is a respectable non-league record. And the Panthers have beaten some decent teams to get to 8-3 heading into the Chicago State game. They will have to find ways to overcome their weaknesses to do as well in league play.
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Post by skrapheap on Dec 23, 2017 11:41:56 GMT -6
Heading into league play starting next week, the Panthers are tied with Wright State for the second best non-league record at 9-3, behind Green Bay (10-1, to no one’s surprise.) Cleveland State and IUPUI are at 8-3, and Oakland and UIC are at 7-4. This gives the Horizon League seven (of ten) teams with winning records.
Milwaukee begins league play with three road games, starting with a trip to Kentucky to play NKU (2-9). Last season the Panthers lost to the Norse on the road by double digits after beating NKU handily at home. The Panthers follow with games at Wright State and Green Bay. The Phoenix open league play at the Raiders.
In other news, the Horizon League loves compliments made to its member schools:
I wonder what the League’s RPI is for women’s hoops...
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Post by skrapheap on Dec 28, 2017 19:32:21 GMT -6
The Panthers went into the game with Northern Kentucky without two starters: Jenny Lindner and Kelsey Cunningham. McKayla Schmelzer and Brandi Bisping, two freshman, started in their place. The game started earlier than i thought, so i had to watch the replay on ESPN3. The NKU broadcast team didn't provide any information on why Lindner and Cunningham were not available.
The Panthers felt the loss of two very experienced starters. They got out to leads of 3-0, 5-3 (halfway through the quarter, and 7-5, but the Norse scored nine points (to the Panthers's three) in the remaining time and led at the end of the first quarter 14-10.
The Norse expanded their lead in the second quarter, leading by as many 15 points on three occasions. The Panthers simply could not score. Milwaukee didn't score their first points in the second quarter for the first six minutes plus. Fouls and turnovers were a constant problem. Steph Kostowicz was whistled for her second foul just three minutes into the quarter and had to sit (to her credit, she avoided being called for another foul for the rest of the game). The Panthers called a timeout trailing about midway through the quarter, trailing 23-10, but still struggled offensively. At half-time the deficit was 10, at 32-22. Jamie Reit led the way for the Panthers with 11 first half points.
Milwaukee managed to improve their play some in the third quarter. They outscored NKU 13-12, to narrow the lead to 44-35. The Panthers managed to cut the lead to three at 32-35 with less than four minutes, but Norse scored the last six points of the quarter. The Panthers used tougher defense to get back into the game, using a couple of blocks to cool off the Norse offense.
The Panthers built on their offensive momentum in the fourth quarter, scoring the first nine points of the quarter to tie the score at 44 all. The Norse then took their last lead of the game at 46-44, and tied tied score at 47-all with just less than two minutes left. The Panthers gutted it out from there, scoring five of the last seven points to pull out the win, 52-49.
NKU used pressure defense (no surprise) to make life as difficult as possible, and generally hustled, out-rebounding the Panthers for the game 35-27. NKU won the offensive rebound battle 17-4. NKU is very young squad, and committed 30 turnovers to 22 for the Panthers.
Kostowicz finished with 17 points and five rebounds. Reit did not score in the second half and finished with those 11 points. Schmelzer also scored in double figures with 10 points, eight of which came in the final quarter.
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Post by skrapheap on Dec 29, 2017 8:59:49 GMT -6
According to mkepanthers.com, Lindner and Cunningham missed yesterday’s game with unspecified injuries.
I hope both players are quick healers. The Panthers barely pulled off a road win against a very young NKU team with those two out of the game. In her post-game comments, Coach Rechliz mentioned players not shooting well. I wonder how much of the performance was attributable to having an off-game and how much to defensive pressure. In any event, the players who had to play in place of Lindner and Cunningham did step up and made key contributions.
The going will be much tougher on the road against Wright State (this Saturday) and Green Bay (January 6th). Both teams will quickly take control of the game if the Panthers play as poorly as they did in the first half against NKU. Milwaukee will need four quarters of effort like their fourth quarter performance against NKU.
Winning either game would represent a real achievement. Winning short-handed would be huge.
Green Bay opened their league season with a 58-51 win at Wright State, and plays Northern Kentucky next.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 3, 2018 18:26:38 GMT -6
For the Panthers's trip to Wright State last Saturday, they got Jenny Lindner back, and they needed her. Nonetheless, they could not score points with the game on the line, and the Raiders turned a 51-50 Panther lead into a 56-51 Panther defeat in the last two minutes. Steph Kostowicz and Lindner both turned in double-doubles (points and rebounds) and Alyssa Fischer had nine points off the bench, but no one else scored more than seven points.
The Panther defense was solid, and drew praise from Coach Rechliz in her post-game comments. If the Panthers can manage to play their best on both ends of the floor in the same game, they can be dangerous, as demonstrated in their lop-sided wins against North Dakota State and Loyola. They need to put together a series of league games where they do so.
At the same time as Milwaukee and Wright State were playing, Green Bay played at Northern Kentucky. Milwaukee managed to beat NKU down two starters, so i figured a Phoenix win was a forgone conclusion, the only question being how badly would they beat the Norse. Imagine my surprise when i looked at the HL standings and saw Green Bay's league record at 1-1. NKU pulled off the upset at home, winning 62-54. The Norse shot pretty well for the game, especially from distance. They made about 42% of their three-point shots, to just 15% for the Phoenix (4 of 26). How much of that difference is attributable to NKU's defense and how much is attributable to an off-day shooting for Green Bay, i can't say. i'm planning on watching at least part of the replay of the game on ESPN. The Norse also benefitted from the officiating. They shot 26 free throws to just 12 for the Phoenix; the Norse made 22 free throws to just eight for the Phoenix. i image Coach Borseth had a great deal to say to the officials during the game.
This loss could easily make Milwaukee's next game, at Green Bay on Saturday, more difficult than it would be otherwise (which is pretty tough to begin with). The Phoenix are not accustomed to losing, and their fans will probably be looking for Green Bay to take it to Milwaukee as a sort of atonement. it will always take the best effort to beat Green Bay anywhere, but especially so at home, and especially so after a loss to a team everyone expected them to beat. (i am inclined to believe that a very young NKU team is better than most people think, and certainly better than their record indicates.) A Panther victory would be a huge step forward.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 11, 2018 14:07:46 GMT -6
The least said about the debacle in Green Bay last Saturday, the better. Suffice it to say that none of the things that needed to happen for the Panthers to win happened. The game would have been closer if the Panthers had been able to defend Alli Leclaire better, but she scored just less than the entire Panther team did.
This morning the Panthers played their annual School Day game, hosting Cleveland State before about 2000 MPS students. The way the game started, i feared a repeat of the Green Bay game. The Panthers committed turnovers in bunches and the Vikings raced to a 17-2 lead in the first quarter, aided by hot shooting from distance. The quarter ended with the Vikings up 20-9.
The Panthers began to recover in the second quarter, but not immediately. The Vikings pushed the lead back to 15 at 31-16 in the first three-plus minutes of the quarter before the Panthers got on track. In the remainder of the quarter, Milwaukee outscored Cleveland State 17-3 to narrow the lead to one at 34-33 in the final minute. Tge Vikings were able to score at the buzzer to take a 36-33 lead at the half. Jamie Reit had eight points during the run.
The momentum continued for the Panthers coming out of the halftime break. They outscored the Vikings 22-13 in the quarter, taking the lead for the first time about four minutes in, and maintaining it to the end of the quarter. The score after three was 55-49 Panthers, with a late three-pointer from Cleveland State cutting the lead from its high point of nine to six points.
The Vikings scored eleven points to four for the Panthers to begin the final quarter and retake a 60-59 lead a little more than three minutes into the quarter. The teams traded the lead for some time, and the Vikings pushed the lead to 64-61 with five minutes plus remaining. The Panthers kept their composure, and consecutive three-pointers from Bailey Farley vaulted the Panthers back into the lead at 73-69 with a minute and a half remaining. The Panthers held on from there,making free throws to seal the victory at 79-72.
This marks the fourth time the Panthers have overcome a double-digit early lead and won the game. i’d prefer to see them start quicker, but they have the offensive firepower, and enough defensive prowess, to dig themselves out of big holes (with the notable exception of the GB game).
Jenny Lindner had a 19 point, 11 rebound, double-double to lead the Panthers. Jamie Reit had a career high 16 points. Farley’s late heroics gave her 13 points for the game. McKaela Schmelzer also gad a career high with 12 points, the last four coming from the free throw line to help seal the win. Steph Kostowicz had an off gane scoring, but contributed eight assists with her eight points and nine rebounds—not terribly far off from a triple-double.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 12, 2018 20:14:27 GMT -6
A few thoughts from watching yesterday's game:
Cleveland State ran out to a big lead...literally. They scored most of their early points on fast breaks off Panther turnovers. They were less successful run-in their half-court offense, though they were hot from distance, which is how the lead got to 15 points in the first quarter. 16 of the 20 points the Vikings scored in the first quarter came off turnovers.
Once the Panthers started taking better care of the ball, they reeled the Vikings back in. It took a long time, because Cleveland State was still shooting pretty well.
Jamie Reit scored 11 points in the last few minutes of the second quarter as the Panthers cut the lead to three with a minute left before halftime.
The Panthers had multiple contributors in the push in the third quarter which put them in the lead. The lead got as big as 55-46 with a minute left in the quarter.
After the Vikings retook the lead in the fourth quarter, Bailey Farley scored eight consecutive points to turn a 67-65 deficit into a 73-69 lead which the Panthers would not relinquish. The last six points cam from outside the arc. Farley had 10 of her 13 points in the quarter.
In addition to her other contributions to the victory, Steph Kostowicz took three charges.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 13, 2018 16:53:57 GMT -6
The Panthers faced Youngstown State on Saturday. The Penguins shot very well from distance on Thursday, and managed to play Green Bay much closer than the Panthers did, losing by a 65-56 score. The Penguins entered the game with a 6-10 record, but three of those wins are in league play.
YSU started quickly in the first quarter, scoring the first three points of the game, and hanging on to that lead for most the quarter. The Panthers tied the score at 13-all with about three and one-half minutes, on a three pointer by McKaela Schmetzer. It was the Panthers' first made three-point shot in five tries. An off-day shooting from distance made the entire game more of a challenge than it might otherwise had been. As it was, the game was close throughout.
The Panthers took their first lead with 8:39 left in the second quarter. The teams traded the lead back and forth for a while, but the Panthers managed to build a six-point lead at 30-24 with 2:49 left. Neither team scored for the remainder to the quarter: YSU was 0-5 over that stretch, and the Panthers 0-3. Steph Kostowicz and Jenny Lindner had eight points apiece to lead the Panthers.
Back and forth play continued in the third quarter, as the Panthers tried but could not extend their lead. The Penguins scored seven of the first nine points of the quarter, cutting the Panther lead to one at 30-29 and 32-31. Following a Panther time-out, YSU re-took the lead at 33-32. The Panthers went on a four-point run to retake the lead, but the Penguins promptly hit another three-pointer to tie the score. A five-point Panther run came next, followed by a four-point run from the Penguins. The Panthers managed to push their league to 46-42 on a last-second layup from Kostowicz.
Alyssa Fischer opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer to open a seven point lead 30 seconds in, a game high for Milwaukee. Over the next few minutes, YSU rallied to retake the lead at 53-51l, outscoring the Panthers 11-2. The Panthers re-tied the score at 53-all and 55-all, only to see the Penguins open a six-point lead at 61-55 with 1:48 remaining;. The Panthers managed to hold the Penguins scoreless for the rest of the game, scoring the last seven points to pull out a victory on a buzzer-beater from Jamie Reit, 62-61.
Kostowicz and Lindner were the only Panthers scoring in double digits, Kostowicz with 17 (and 10 rebounds for another double-double) and Lindner with 15. Reit and Alyssa Fischer were next with eight points each. Bailey Farley had seven. Kostowicz played just 29 minutes; Coach Rechliz mentioned after the game that Kostowicz has been dealing with leg soreness.
The Panthers next travel to Chicago on Monday to play UIC.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 15, 2018 13:04:28 GMT -6
League Standings as of 1/15/18: Rank | Team | Record | 1 | GB | 5-1 | 2 | IUPUI | 5-1 | 3 | WSU | 5-1 | 4 | MKE | 4-2 | 5 | CSU | 4-3 | 6 | OU | 3-3 | 7 | NKU | 2-4 | 8 | YSU | 2-5 | 9 | UDM | 1-5 | 10 | UIC | 0-6 |
Some thoughts: - Milwaukee is where they were predicted to be, in 4th place. The teams ahead of them are a bit different than predicted: CSU and IUPUI were predicted to finish below the Panthers, and Oakland was predicted to finish just above.
- Green Bay WSU, and IUPUI are tied for first. GB has now beaten WSU and IUPUI.
- Milwaukee's losses are to teams ahead of them in the standings. Their wins so far are all against teams below them.
- The Panthers finished a stretch of three games in five days, and began a three game road trip, with a win today over UIC. The other games on the road are at Oakland and Detroit.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 15, 2018 14:58:00 GMT -6
The Panthers, after a series of slow starts to games, finally jumped on front early in the first quarter against UIC. After both teams started slowly, the Flames had a 2-0. The Panthers then reeled off an 11 point run, and got the lead to 10 at 16-6 with just under four minutes left. The Panthers also started shooting well from distance, hitting three of their first five three-point shots. The Flames got back into the game, narrowing the lead to 21-14 at quarter's end.
The Flames continued to narrow the lead in the second quarter, cutting the lead to 25-22 two and one half minutes in. The Panthers responded with seven consecutive points and forced a UIC time-out. To that point, the Panthers were shooting 45% overall, buoyed by 4-6 makes from distance. Out of the time-out, the Flames cut the lead in half, aided by a short flurry of Panther turnovers. The Flames outscored the Panthers 11-6 for the rest of the quarter, trailing 40-36 to the Panthers at half-time. Steph Kostowicz played 10 of the 20 first-half minutes, and scored only two points, evidence that leg soreness was still hampering her, although she did contribute two blocked shots. Jenny Lindner (Player of the Week in Horizon League Women's Basketball) with 13 points and Bailey Farley with 12 points (2-3 on three-point shots) led the way for Milwaukee.
The Panthers started hot in the third quarter, scoring the first ten points of the quarter in the first four minutes, pushing their lead to 14 at 50-36, forcing a UIC time-out. Kostowicz had three more blocks in the run. In the two minutes between that time-out and the under-four media time-out, the Panthers pushed the lead 54-38. Jamie Reit and Farley had five points and Lindner had four in the quarter to that point. The Panthers increased their shooting percentage to 52%, and UIC's percentage dropped to 38%. After the time-out, the Panthers went three-plus minutes without scoring, before Kostowicz closed out the quarter with a lay-up to close the quarter and give her five points for the game. The score at that point was 57-43, Panthera.
The Panthers outscored the Flames to begin the fourth quarter 8-4 to push the lead to 65-47. The Panthers were generally out-hustling the Flames, leading 12-6 in steals and 8-4 in blocks, and 19-12 in assists. The lead reached 20 when Alyssa Fischer hit two three throws on a technical on the UIC coach, then 21 on a Farley three-pointer just before the midpoint of the quarter. Fischer was the 11th Panther to score (of 13 who played) in the game thus far. The lead reached 25 points at 74-49 with 2:14 remaining and then 76-51 with a minute remaining. The final was 76-53.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 18, 2018 20:55:36 GMT -6
Milwaukee continued its three-game road swing at Oakland tonight. The Golden Grizzlies entered the night one game back of the Panthers in the league standings.
The Panthers controlled the game for most of it, winning 74-62, for their fourth consecutive win, and their 14th of the season.
The Panthers had another fast start to the game. They scored the first four points of the game. After Oakland narrowed the lead to 4-3, Milwaukee scored five more points to take a six point lead at 9-3, and again at 11-5 and 13-7. OU narrowed the lead to one two more times in the quarter. The Panthers took a 20-16 lead on a Jenny Lindner three-pointer, but the Grizzlies got the lead back to two in the closing seconds. Lindner, Steph Kostowicz, and Bailey Farley had 15 of the Panthers' 20 points in the quarter.
Oakland took their only lead of the game a three-pointer to open the scoring in the second quarter, but the Panthers promptly took the lead back on a Jamie Reit three-pointer, and gradually built the lead from there, topping out at 11 points (36-25) with just under four minutes left in the half. The quarter finished with the Panthers ahead 40-30.
Coming out of the break, Oakland put together its bset sustained run, closing the lead to four at 42-38 in the first four minutes, and to two at 47-45 with three and a half minutes remaining in the quarter, outscoring the Panthers 15-8 in the quarter to that point. The Panthers played better the rest of the quarter, reopening a 10 point lead, which the Grizzlies cut to eight at quarter's end. They outscored the Panthers 20-18 in the quarter.
The Panthers took control of the game in the fourth quarter, opening their lead to 13 and then to 16 on a Lizzie Odegard layup midway through the quarter. The only downside to the quarter was Kostowicz exiting the game with a leg injury. In post-game commments, both Coach Rechliz and Kostowicz herself downplayed the significance of the injury. Kostowicz left the game with 16 points and 12 rebounds. She was joined in double digit scoring by Farley with 16 points, Jamie Reit with 11 and Lindner with 10.
The Panthers play next at Detroit, who was crushed by Green Bay tonight, on Saturday afternoon.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 26, 2018 23:04:05 GMT -6
The Panthers finished the first pass through the league with a 70-68 loss to IUPUI, snapping a five game winning streak.. The Panthers twice fought back from being 10 points down, the second time with just seconds left only to lose the game on a lay-up at the buzzer.
Four Panthers scored in double figures: Bailey Farley (18), Jamie Reit (11), jenny Lindner (10), and Lizzie Odegard (10). Steph Kostowicz had eight points in just 23 minutes of play.
The Panthers are, midway through the league season, pretty much where the preseason poll picked them to be. They were picked for fourth place; they are tied for third with a Wright State team who holds the tiebreaker.
The Panthers at this point will rise no higher, and will find it hard to stay where they are, unless Kostowicz gets healthy again. Kostowicz sat out the previous game, at Detroit, and her teammates had the wherewithal to win that game. Tonight, against a far tougher opponent, Kostowicz was limited, and was not in the game at the end, and IUPUI won the game. The Panthers, without Kostowicz’s defensive presence, especially her shot-blocking, gave up easy basket after easy basket, including the game-winner. Without Kostowicz, the Panthers couldn’t play defense for four seconds to get to overtime.
Green Bay will win yet another regular season league title, barring some highly-unlikely catastrophe. Earlier this season, Panthers Coach Rechlicz was predicting the regular season champ would have three or four league losses. The Phoenix are 8-1, having played five of their first nine league games on the road. I don’t see them losing two or three games over the next nine, especially since three of the road games in the second half are against teams in the bottom half of the standings; the Panthers are the lone team in the top half of the four opponents. No one else in the league has demonstrated the ability to play as well as the Phoenix. The Phoenix will face IUPUI, Wright State, Oakland, Northern Kentucky, and Detroit at home. NKU is the only league team to have beaten the Phoenix this season, and the Phoenix haven’t lost a league game since. IUPUI is also 8-1 heading into the second half of the league season, so one might expect their game at Green Bay on Sunday would be a good one, except that the Jaguars one league loss was to Green Bay in Indianapolis, and it wasn’t a close game at all.
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Post by skrapheap on Jan 28, 2018 17:55:10 GMT -6
Coming off a close loss to IUPUI to end a five-game winning streak was not an auspicious start to Milwaukee's longest home stand of the season. Fortunately for the Panthers, the schedule-makers gave them a break for their next outing, pitting the Panthers against the last place UIC Flames.
It took awhile for the Panthers to take control of the game, but they won going away, 59-44. Bailey Farley, Jenny Lindner and Steph Kostowicz led the way with 16, 13. and 10 points, respectively. The remaining 20 points was spite equally between five players. I was half-expecting Coach Rechliz to rest Kostowicz against the Flames, but Kostowicz played. The Panthers won the game at the free-throw lint, hitting 21 of 27 shots, shooting 11-12 in the fourth quarter. The Flames shot eight free throws for the game, hitting only three. UIC was called for more than twice as many fouls as was Milwaukee, 24-11.
Milwaukee was almost 10 percentage points better from the field, 45% to 35.2% The Panthers hit only two of eight three-point shots. The Flames hit three of fifteen three-point shots. Milwaukee out rebounded UIC by just 27-24.
In case anyone wonders why i predict that Green Bay will win yet another regular season tile, there is this: up in Green Bay, the Phoenix overcame a six-point deficit in the last quarter of the game to beat IUPUI 52-45. The Jaguars were held to 25 fewer points than they scored against the Panthers on Friday; Green Bay held IUPUi to just six points in the quarter. When it counted, the Jaguars could not maintain their momentum from the first three quarters. At the close of play today, Green Bay is all alone in first place, and has swept the season series with second place IUPUI, and will face the teams tied for third place in the next two weekends. The Phoenix will host Northern Kentucky and Wright State next weekend before heading to Milwaukee to play the Panthers on the following Saturday. By the end of next weekend, the Phoenix could have completed season sweeps of two of the top four teams and will have a week to prepare to play the Panthers in the hopes of sweeping the other top-four team.
Milwaukee continues its home stand by facing Wright State next Thursday in hopes of splitting the season series with the Raiders, and hopes for a sweep of NKU. Wright State lost back-to-back road games in Indianapolis and Cleveland before winning yesterday at Youngstown State. The Panthers are now 16-6 on the season overall, and I expect the Panthers will reach at least twenty wins again this season. I think they can win at least four of their remaining eight league games, and quite possibly more than that.
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