Green Bay Overcomes a Tough Defense to Get the Win

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

February 13, 2009
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This is always a good game. However I don't know of any fans who thought the Lady Raiders would put up this tough of a battle. Green Bay, undefeated in HL play and who just received 2 votes for the top 25 AP Coaches Poll, probably didn't expect this much of a battle either.

Wright State defended its home court with a strong all around defense, the best I have seen all season. On top of that, it was done without Erica Richardson who was sidelined with a back injury from the last game.

Green Bay got off to a 5-0 start, the biggest lead for either team in the half, before Sophomore Shey Peddy put in a layup. UWGB however answered and so this half went. In the first half, the score would be tied four times and the lead would change six times. At the buzzer however, Green Bay held the lead 28-24.

With Senior Rachel Porath of UWGB and Shey Peddy on the floor, steals would be expected. Wright State was able to grab 8 steals and the Phoenix has 5. There would 19 steals in this game before it was over. The Lady Raiders controlled the boards, 13-10 had one less turnover than Green Bay, 14-13 and got more points from its bench than UWGB, 10-7 points.

In the first half the Lady Raiders shot 45.5% (10-22) from the floor while the Phoenix shot 55.6% (10-18). Wright State's Sophomore LaShawna Thomas led all scoring in the half with 10 points. Seven Raiders had rebounds, led by Sophomore Tatianna Hall with three.

The second half saw WSU come out ready to play, particularly Freshman Molly Fox who opened the half with a layup and the point after to pull WSU within one. The battle between these two teams would continue as it did in the first half. The difference in the second half however may have been impacted by a small vocal student section. They never stopped cheering for the Raiders and haranguing the bench and UWGB players. Did it work?

In the first half Green Bay sank 80% (4-5) from the line. However in the second half, with the "Fearsome Foursome" student section doing all they could to distract the shooter, the Phoenix could only manage 46.7% (7-15). Maybe UWGB isn't used to facing an opponent's student section, even a small one. The "sixth man" helped tonight I think.

However it wasn't the free throws tonight that beat the Raiders. After Peddy hit a three pointer with 8:34 left to bring the Raiders within 2 again, the Phoenix retaliated with three treys of their own, two by their star player Porath. That gave them a nine point lead with 5:04 left in the game. Wright State could not come back. A few more baskets and the game ended with Green Bay winning, 62-51.

The Lady Raiders shot 44.4% (20-25) to 50% (21-42) for Green Bay. However tonight, the Phoenix would hit 9-19 from beyond the arc (47.4%) while WSU would only manage Peddy's shot and sank just 1-13 (7.7%) from three-land.

Wright State finished with three players in double digits, Peddy lead the scoring with 17, Sophomore Ta-myra Davis sank 14 and Thomas finished with the 10 she had in the first half. Davis led the battle for the rebounds with five of WSU's 29. That was three better than the Phoenix 26 boards. The Raiders also finished with 11 steals to the Phoenix 8.

This was a good demonstration of Wright State's defense. They will need to show it again Saturday when they host UW-Milwaukee at 4:30 before the men's game starts at 7pm in the Nutter Center. Milwaukee is now 10-13/5-7 HL after losing to Detroit Thursday night but is always a tough team.

Hopefully we will see a good turnout for the game. It will be another game that will take everything WSU has to get the win. Saturday at 4:30 in the Nutter Center.