A 21-2 run midway through the
first half opened up the game on Thursday evening as Green Bay went on to
defeat Valparaiso 69-44 at the Athletics-Recreation Center.
The Crusaders committed 26
turnovers and shot just 34.9% against the Phoenix,
which moved into a share of the Horizon League lead with Butler.
“Their pressure is going to
make you cut and you’re going to have to execute at a high level,” head coach Keith Freeman said. “We were slow and didn’t do that.”
After Green
Bay opened the game scoring the first five points, Valpo battled
back, taking a 6-5 lead on an Ashley
Varner (South Bend, Ind./Washington H.S.) lay-in at the 16:06
mark. The game would then be tied at
nine before Green Bay scored 21 of the next 23 points to take a 30-11 lead with
six minutes to play in the first half.
Valpo committed 16 first half
turnovers leading to 19 Green Bay
points, and went into the locker room trailing 38-21.
Six straight turnovers out of
intermission allowed the Phoenix
to score the first nine points of the half, and the Crusaders were not able to
cut the deficit under 20 the rest of the way.
Whitney Farris
(Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo
H.S.) led the Crusaders with 10 points while Lauren Kenney (Mooresville, Ind./Mooresville H.S.) and Raegan Moore (Girard,
Pa./Girard H.S.) each added eight
for the Brown and Gold.
Celeste Hoewisch led Green Bay (23-3), 12-3 Horizon) with 21 points while Julie
Wojta had 14 for the Phoenix,
which shot 49.2% from the floor. Green Bay also
outrebounded Valpo 34-26.
“Green Bay is a very talented team,” Freeman
concluded. “They have three core players
to lead them.”
Valparaiso (7-19, 4-11) will close out the home portion of the
regular season on Saturday afternoon hosting Milwaukee at the ARC for Senior Day. Tip-off is set for 1:35 p.m.