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Post by skrapheap on Feb 24, 2022 20:44:17 GMT -6
The Panthers did not look ready to play tonight against Cleveland State. The Panthers took an early 5-2 lead, but the Vikings outscored the Panthers in the quarter 16-6, and it was all over. The Panthers shot better as the game wore on, but they dug a hole they could not get out of.
The regular season finale is Saturday at Purdue Fort Wayne, and they will host a first round tournament game on Tuesday night.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 24, 2022 21:27:00 GMT -6
IUPUI dismantled Youngstown State at home tonight, to get the series sweep for the season and the tiebreaker if the teams finish with the same record, as i expect. Green Bay has the third seed all but locked up. Cleveland State appears to be the fourth seed.
Northern Kentucky needed a late victory over Oakland to grab a firm hold on fifth place.
Milwaukee should finish in sixth place. I expect them to beat Purdue Fort Wayne on the road on Saturday. The Panthers will host either UIC or Detroit in the first round game on Tuesday night. Barring an upset or two in the opening round to affect the seeding, the Panthers should be traveling to a quarter final game against Green Bay, a team they just upset. I could see the Panthers winning two tournament games because the seedings and reseedings should keep them from playing IUPUI or Youngstown State until the semifinals. But unless they suddenly start playing the best team basketball of the season, the semifinals should be about the best they can do. Last year the Panthers were picked to finish seventh and finished tied for first. This season they were picked to finish second (though none of the voters picked them to finish first) and came in sixth.
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Post by skrapheap on Feb 26, 2022 15:36:31 GMT -6
There were no upsets in the final regular season games in the Horizon League today, but several contests were quite close.
Youngstown State got all they could handle from UIC in Chicago, but held on for a seven point victory, 61-54. The win locks in the second seed for the Penguins.
Green Bay almost ran out of gas against Cleveland State in Cleveland, but held on to win by two points, 66-64. The game decided the three and four seeds for the tournament. The Phoenix repeatedly got out to double-digit leads, but the Vikings kept fighting their way back into the game. The last comeback started with Green Bay up 17 points with about six minutes left in the fourth quarter, 59-42. The Vikings outscored the Phoenix 20-7 the rest of the way, and had a decent chance to tie the score late, but couldn't connect. The Vikings did themselves no favors by shooting less than 50% from the free-throw line, well below their season average. The Phoenix did not shoot free-throws at their accustomed rate, especially late, which kept the score close. The win keeps Green Bay at the third seed for the tournament and Cleveland State at the fourth seed. Seeds one through four have first round byes.
Northern Kentucky played from behind most of the way in their game with Oakland, but put together a fourth quarter rally to win 66-62. The Norse outscored the Grizzlies 26-16 in the final quarter. The win makes the Norse the fifth seed for the tournament, which will bring 12th place Detroit Mercy to Highland Heights, Kentucky for the opening round game Tuesday night. The loss puts Oakland in the seventh seed, which means the Grizzlies will host 10th seeded Wright State on Tuesday.
Milwaukee also struggled late in their game with Purdue Fort Wayne, giving up an eleven point lead in the fourth quarter. The Mastodons could not manage to take the lead, however, and two free-throws from Emma Wittmershaus with 1.9 seconds remaining were the difference in a 53-51 victory. The Panthers will have the sixth seed, and will host UIC on Tuesday night.
Robert Morris traveled to play IUPUI and got smoked. Just into the fourth quarter, when I checked the score, the Jaguars led 61-18. The Colonials managed to outcore IUPUI in the fourth quarter, but only reduced the margin of victory to 33 points at 73-40. The loss puts the Colonials in the eighth seed and will bring Purdue Fort Wayne to RMU on Tuesday for the opening round of the tournament.
The Panthers have to be pleased with the outcome of the Green Bay-Cleveland game. If Milwaukee wins on Tuesday, they will travel to Green Bay, a team they split with, rather than Cleveland State, a team who swept the Panthers, for the quarter finals. Winning on the road against a rested Phoenix team will be a challenge, but the Panthers played the Phoenix pretty well in their loss on the road, although they lost.
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Post by skrapheap on Mar 1, 2022 9:57:12 GMT -6
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Post by skrapheap on Mar 1, 2022 21:14:54 GMT -6
As expected, the Panthers beat the UIC Flames to end their last season in the HL.
Also as expected, the Panthers had a hard time handling the Flames defensive pressure. The first half was terrible. The Panthers caught fire in the third quarter, hitting three three-point shots to take a lead, but the Flames fought hard to the end of the game, and the Panthers were never comfortably in control of the game until the last half-minute. The final score was 55-46. Megan Walstad had 14 points and Sydney Staver had 11. McKaela Schmelzer had nine.
The Flames outrebounded the Panthers 33-32 overall, and 11-8 in offensive rebounds. The Flames aggressive defense made inside scoring a challenge; 28 of the Flames 46 points were scored in the paint, to just 14 of Milwaukee's 55 points. The Panthers won the game with three-point shooting (6-17 vs 2-14 for UIC) and at the free-throw line (15-18 vs 10-15 for UIC).
The top four seeds playing tonight all won their games in the Women's tournament, so it will seeds 1-8 in the quarterfinal round. That means the Panthers (sixth seed) will travel to Green Bay (third seed) on Thursday night to play in the next round. The teams split the regular season series, each winning at home.
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Post by skrapheap on Mar 1, 2022 21:20:04 GMT -6
In the quarterfinal round of the HL Women's Basketball Tournament, here are the matchups for Thursday night. All games will be broadcast on ESPN+. - #4 Cleveland State hosts #5 Northern Kentucky at 4:30 PM CST. CSU swept the season series.
- #1 IUPUI hosts #8 Robert Morris University at 6:00 PM CST. IUPUI swept the season series.
- #2 Youngstown State hosts #7 Oakland at 6:00 PM CST. The teams split the season series.
- #3 Green Bay hosts #6 Milwaukee at 7:00 PM CST. The teams split the season series
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Post by skrapheap on Mar 3, 2022 18:59:13 GMT -6
The first quarterfinal, NKU at Cleveland State played out about how I expected, except that the Norse were not ready to match the Vikings' intensity. CSU came out in a strong zone defense, and NKU took most of the first quarter to figure out how to score inside. In the meantime, CSU came out shooting hot from three-point range, and led after the first quarter by 18-6. The Viking lead was 15 at the half, and NKU could only cut the lead to eight in the end. The Vikings advanced, 59-51.
Credit the Norse with slowing the pace of the game in the second half. After scoring 36 points in the first half, the Vikings scored only 23 in the second half. The Norse did better, but never really mounted a serious challenge to Viking lead. NKU got the lead down to nine a couple of times in the third quarter, but the Penguins built the lead back to 13 or 14 points each time. The Vikings had a 13 point lead with 2:31 left in the fourth quarter.
The second and third quarterfinal games started out interesting, and IUPUI and Youngstown State faced inspired play from their opponents in the first quarter. IUPUI took a first quarter lead over Robert Morris at the buzzer in the first quarter, and then took control of the game in the second quarter, pushing a 15-14 lead to begin the quarter to 31-21 at the half.
Oakland presented more of a challenge for YSU. The Golden Grizzlies took an early lead in the first quarter, which the Penguins overcame with a late run to a 17-13 lead. Oakland then won the second quarter by six, 19-13, to take a 32-30 half-time lead. The Grizzlies did win at Youngstown in the regular season, and pulled off another road win in the tournament, 63-52. Their reward is to play IUPUI, who steamrolled Robert Morris.
The Panthers started slow in both halves of the game with Green Bay. The Phoenix had a 16-9 lead after one quarter and a ten point lead at half. Another slow start in the third quarter put the Panthers down by 15 points quickly. That's a hole too deep for this Panther team.
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Post by nickpanther on Mar 3, 2022 19:57:01 GMT -6
UWM women down 10, 30-20 at half.
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Post by nickpanther on Mar 3, 2022 19:59:17 GMT -6
Oakland, Cleveland State and IUPUI have advanced to the semifinals. Thats the 1 , 4 and 7 seeds.
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Post by reginaldkdwight on Mar 13, 2022 9:29:08 GMT -6
I know it doesnt get any press, but youd imagine the Womens coach needs to start winning right?
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Post by PantherNation on Mar 13, 2022 13:17:28 GMT -6
I know it doesnt get any press, but youd imagine the Womens coach needs to start winning right? Didn’t they win the conference regular season title last year and get to the 2nd round of the WNIT?
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Post by ghostofdylan on Mar 13, 2022 14:27:48 GMT -6
She's 154-154 for her career, so meh. Seems like she's not meeting the standards that have been set for our programs.
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Post by thetruth on Mar 13, 2022 15:09:42 GMT -6
In her defense, she did have to rebuild the program, so her head coaching record is a little skewed in that regard. It's not like she took over a program that made the Sweet 16 the year prior. mkepanthers.com/staff-directory/kyle-rechlicz/35
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Post by ghostofdylan on Mar 13, 2022 15:11:44 GMT -6
In her defense, she did have to rebuild the program, so her head coaching record is a little skewed in that regard. It's not like she took over a program that made the Sweet 16 the year prior. mkepanthers.com/staff-directory/kyle-rechlicz/35Still, she's had PLENTY of time to turn this thing around. TEN YEARS!!! She's been languishing around .500 for the last four.
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Post by thetruth on Mar 13, 2022 15:15:54 GMT -6
In her defense, she did have to rebuild the program, so her head coaching record is a little skewed in that regard. It's not like she took over a program that made the Sweet 16 the year prior. mkepanthers.com/staff-directory/kyle-rechlicz/35Still, she's had PLENTY of time to turn this thing around. TEN YEARS!!! She's been languishing around .500 for the last four. I can't disagree with you on that. Frankly, I am a little disappointed in the team's performance this year. I thought last season would have been a building block and they would have taken another step forward this year, but instead they took a step back. Not sure how many more years I would give her?
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