Feb. 9, 2008
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - A strong second half effort was not enough as Cleveland State could not overcome a slow first half in a 69-61 loss to Green Bay in Horizon League women's basketball action Saturday afternoon in the Wolstein Center.
The loss snapped a six-game overall win streak for the Vikings, as well as a seven-game home win streak.
CSU, which lost for the first time since Jan. 12 at Milwaukee, fell to 14-8 overall, but does remain in second place in the Horizon League at 8-3. Green Bay, which has won five straight, is 18-4 overall and maintained its hold on first place in the conference (10-1), two games ahead of the Vikings.
Milwaukee is in third place with a 6-3 record and plays at Youngstown State later this afternoon.
"I think there were two stories to this game," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "One, we could have taken better care of the basketball and two, we could have made our layups. But we will grow and learn some things from this game. I think we clearly see that when we take care of the basketball, we can win.
"Green Bay is a fine team," Peterson Abiad continued. "We had a lot of strategies on how we were going to play, but had a very difficult time scoring in the first half. We made some adjustments in the second half and scored 45 points. We had several chances to get the lead under 10 points, but never could."
Kailey Klein led the Vikings with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Dominique Butler added 10 points, five rebounds and three steals. Jessica Roque chipped in nine points off the bench.
Kati Harty tied Klein for game-high honors as she was one of four Phoenix players in double-digits with 18 points. Kayla Groh scored 15, while Lavisa Glover and Rachel Porath finished with 10 points each.
Green Bay raced out to a 15 point halftime lead, 31-16, as the Phoenix shot .500 (10-20) from the floor and hit 9-of-10 free throws. In contrast, CSU was just 7-of-25 (.280) from the floor and missed its only free throw attempt.
It was a far cry from the first 10 league games of the season which saw the Vikings made more free throws (148) than their opponents attempted (146). CSU, which had averaged just 12.3 turnovers per game over the last four contests, also turned the ball over 13 times in the first 20 minutes on Saturday.
The Vikings were forced to play half of the first stanza without reigning two-time Horizon League Player of the Week Kailey Klein who picked up two fouls in the first 11 minutes.
CSU didn't seem to have an answer for Glover, Green Bay's 6-foot-3 center, in the first half, as she totaled 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go along with four rebounds.
Green Bay extended its lead to as many as 19 points (51-32) with 10:32 to play, but the Vikings made several runs to slice the lead to 11 on seven occasions. However, the Phoenix had an answer each time and never let the Vikings get any closer until Roque hit a three-pointer at the buzzer for the final margin.
The Vikings outscored Green Bay in the second half, 45-38, as CSU shot .630 (17-27) from the floor, including 5-of-6 (.833) from three-point. CSU also outrebounded the Phoenix, 33-27, but committed 25 turnovers which Green Bay turned into 26 points.
The Phoenix finished with 17 turnovers, which CSU converted into just eight points.
Green Bay also hit 19-of-24 (.792) at the free throw line, while CSU went to the line just seven times, hitting six (.857).
The Vikings will return to action on Thursday, Feb. 14, when they begin a three game roadtrip at Wright State beginning at 5:30 p.m.
