Wright State, Green Bay Advance to #HLWBB Championship Game at #MotorCityMadness
Joey Yashinsky
Stars of the Day | Bracket
No. 1 Wright State 60, No. 4 IUPUI 51
In the opening semifinal of the Little Caesars Horizon League Women’s Basketball Championship, it was the No. 1 seed Wright State Raiders advancing to the tournament finals with a 60-51 victory over the No. 4 seed IUPUI Jaguars.
The first quarter was defined by Wright State’s stifling team defense. The conference champion Raiders kept IUPUI without a basket for almost seven minutes to open the game.
The Jaguars were rescued by a pair of 3-pointers from super-sub Sydney Roule. The issue for Austin Parkinson’s team -- Roule was the only player to make a shot in the opening period. The sophomore guard was 2-of-2 while the rest of the Jaguars missed all 13 of their attempts.
After one quarter of play, the Raiders led 12-7, helped by a buzzer-beating runner off the glass from Horizon League All-Freshman guard Angel Baker.
League Player of the Year Macee Williams struggled out of the gate, missing on her first seven shots. She recovered to sink three in a row during the second quarter, keeping the Jaguars within striking distance.
Baker led all scorers with 10 first-half points. Symone Simmons and Tyler Frierson snapped up 11 combined rebounds. Horizon League All-Defensive selection Emily Vogelpohl provided a highlight with a leaping steal and save, leading to a Baker jumper on the other end.
The teams headed for the halftime break with the Raiders ahead 28-16.
Holly Hoopingarner scored five straight for IUPUI in the third to slice the deficit to 32-26, but again it was freshman sensation Baker shifting the momentum back to the Raiders.
She calmly dropped in a short jumper and followed the next time down with a gorgeous no-look feed to Simmons, pushing the advantage back to double-digits.
Then Katrina Merriweather’s team went ice cold from the field. A scoring drought of over four minutes allowed the pesky Jaguars to run off 11 straight points. Sydney Hall buried a pair of triples during the surge and redshirt sophomore Katelyn O’Reilly wowed the Little Caesars Arena crowd with a coast-to-coast drive and finish to cut Wright State’s advantage down to a single point, 38-37.
“It says a lot about our team and the fight that we have,” said Hall, IUPUI’s senior guard. “I’m proud of that. I knew we would come back and rally together, so I’m proud of my girls for that.”
The regular-season champion Raiders needed a spark in the fourth quarter and it came in the form of Vogelpohl. The senior hit a jumper from the right wing and drilled a triple the next trip down to bump Wright State’s once tenuous advantage back to a more comfortable 45-39 lead.
“She’s kind of turned into a pass-first guard, but I think sometimes she needs to be reminded of how good a scorer she is,” Merriweather said.
The Jags refused to go away, using 3-pointers from Hoopingarner and Hall to draw to within 55-51. But in the key play of the game, Partlow hauled in a miss from Baker and put it back in, giving Wright State a six-point cushion and closing the door on IUPUI’s valiant comeback effort.
“They threw everything they had at us, but we knew if we could just withstand that run, bounce back, and go on a run ourselves, we’d be fine,” said Raiders’ senior and First-Team All-Horizon player Mackenzie Taylor.
The defensive presence of Frierson and Imani Partlow made things difficult for Williams all afternoon. The sensational sophomore post player converted a trio of buckets in the second quarter, but was blanked from the field in the other three. Williams finished with eight points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
Wright State was paced by Taylor’s 15 points. Baker added 14 and Vogelpohl chipped in 10.
The Jaguars were led by Hall’s 12 points. Hoopingarner finished with 10.
But the shooting woes for IUPUI (29%) were too much to overcome.
“Our Achilles heel all year long has been our offense,” Parkinson said. “You look at our shooting percentage today. It’s happened three or four times this year where we just do not make shots and it puts a lot of heat on your defense.”
With the defeat, IUPUI’s record drops to 20-11.
With the victory, Wright State (26-6) advances to the Motor City Madness championship game Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. on ESPNU. They will meet the winner of Green Bay and Youngstown State.
No. 2 Green Bay 55, No. 3 Youngstown State 53
In the second semifinal of the Little Caesars Horizon League Women’s Basketball Championship, it was the No. 2 seed Green Bay Phoenix advancing to the title game with a 55-53 victory over the No. 3 seed Youngstown State Penguins.
Kevin Borseth’s four-time defending champion Phoenix got off to a strong start. Junior guard Frankie Wurtz dropped in six points and the stingy Green Bay defense forced the Penguins into 3-of-15 shooting in the opening quarter.
Youngstown State got a pair of triples from sophomore McKenah Peters after being blanked for nearly four minutes.
The Phoenix led 14-9 heading to the second.
The Penguins continued to launch from the perimeter while the Phoenix banged away inside. John Barnes’ club finished the first half with seven made baskets, six of which were from long distance. For the game, the Penguins dropped in just four 2-point baskets, while sinking 13 from downtown.
At intermission, Green Bay led 27-21. The Phoenix got six apiece from Wurtz and sophomore Meghan Pingel. Green Bay dominated points in the paint for the half, 20-2. Overall, the Phoenix posted 32 paint points to the Penguins’ six.
After a quiet first half, Penguins’ senior sharpshooter Alison Smolinski went bananas in the third quarter. She knocked home a whopping five 3s to slice the deficit to a single point, 34-33.
“My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball,” said Smolinski, the Horizon League’s all-time leader in 3-pointers. “I just had a rush of confidence and they had confidence in me. It’s just unfortunate it didn’t fall our way today.”
Green Bay struggled offensively to close the third, going scoreless over the final 2:55 and coming up empty on four straight from the charity stripe.
It would come down to the final 10 minutes with the score knotted at 38.
All-Horizon League Second Team selection Laken James buried a triple to put Green Bay up 41-38. Youngstown State’s fellow All-League guard Chelsea Olson answered right back with a 3 of her own.
Back and forth it went.
Inside baskets from Mackenzie Wolf and Wurtz put Green Bay ahead 45-41, but Olson drilled yet another 3, Youngstown State’s 13th of the game, to cut the lead to one.
Senior floor leader Melinda Trimmer knocked home a pair of key jumpers, putting the Penguins in front for the first time since the 4:53 mark of the opening quarter.
With Youngstown State ahead 50-47, Green Bay’s All-Conference senior Jen Wellnitz made perhaps the biggest shot of the game, a cold-blooded triple from the deep corner to even the score once again.
“That was a very big 3,” Borseth said.
With the shot clock winding down, Wellnitz sank another jumper to put Green Bay back on top, 52-50. After a Peters free throw, the Penguins had possession down just a point with under 30 seconds to play.
Barnes called timeout, set up his offense, and the Penguins went to work. Peters drove the lane and attracted multiple defenders, dropping it down to star senior Sarah Cash. But the layup attempt rolled off the rim and Madison Wolf collected the clutch rebound.
“I thought McKenah made a great play,” Barnes said. “She was getting overplayed a little bit, took the ball to the basket, dropped it off, and you can’t ask for a better play than that. Sarah makes that 99 out of 100 times, and this time it just rolled off.”
Pingel dropped in a pair of free throws on the other end to make the score 54-51 with 11.3 to play.
Cash was fouled on the inbound and converted both free throws, cutting the deficit back to one.
Wurtz was sent to the line for Green Bay and missed both.
Barnes used his final timeout and the Penguins got the ball to Trimmer, who’d already canned two critical shots in the fourth quarter. But this time she hit the back iron and the ball came off to Wurtz.
The Phoenix, winners of four consecutive Horizon League Tournament titles, had escaped a Motor City Madness instant classic by the slimmest of margins.
“Defense is our staple,” Wurtz said. “In the huddle, we were like, “Three stops!” which is one of the drills we always do in practice. To come up with that was really big.”
Wurtz’s 13 points paced the Phoenix, with Pingel contributing a key 11 off the bench.
“Meghan (Pingel) kept Trimmer in front of her all game,” Borseth said. “That was really a key. She also hit two big free throws, hit a 3 out of the corner. She’s really our point guard of the future.”
Youngstown State’s All-League First Team center Mary Dunn was held scoreless on just three shot attempts in 21 minutes. The Penguins were led by Smolinski’s 18 points. Peters added 12 and Trimmer chipped in 10.
“It was a super hard-fought game,” Barnes said. “I thought our kids did a great job, fought to the very end, and had a couple chances that just didn’t happen to go in. But it was still a great game. I’m sorry it’s over for our seniors, but hoping we have more basketball to play.”
With the defeat, Youngstown State’s record drops to 22-9.
With the victory, Green Bay (22-8) advances to the Motor City Madness championship game Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. on ESPNU. They will meet Horizon League regular season champion Wright State.