by GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) –Improving its first-place league record to 3-0 and its perfect home record to 7-0, the Green Bay women’s basketball team routed in-state rival Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon, winning 63-37 at the Kress Center.
With an entire section full of her family and friends in attendance, sophomore sharpshooter Tesha Buck (Mdewakanton Sioux) exploded for a game-high 16 points, 14 of which came in the first half. Buck’s performance led the Phoenix (13-3, 3-0 HL) to its fourth-straight win overall and kept Green Bay atop the Horizon League standings.
“My teammates did a great job getting me the ball in a position to score. It’s a good win and it’s always nice to get them on our home court. We played a great game today and now we have to get ready for life on the road,” Buck said.
Green Bay limited the visiting Panthers (5-11, 1-3 HL) to a miniscule 15.8 percent (3-19) shooting effort from three-point range, while giving up just 37 points to a team that came in averaging 66.5 PPG. The 37 points are the fewest the Phoenix has allowed in a game this season and it marked the fifth time in the last seven games that Green Bay has allowed less than 50 points (all wins).
Kaili Lukan and Sam Terry also finished in double figures for the Phoenix, finishing with 10 and 11 points respectively. Lukan also grabbed eight rebounds, as did her older sisterMegan Lukan who also tallied four assists and four points.
“It was Tesha’s show in the first half. She was our best player on the floor, grabbing rebounds and hitting shots. Overall, we missed a lot of shots around the basket but defensively we did a great job. Milwaukee’s a good team and we were able to keep them rattled,” head coach Kevin Borseth said.
The Phoenix was able to pull away midway through the first half, when it shutdown Milwaukee for almost seven minutes. The Panthers made a jumper at 12:14 and didn’t score again until there was 5:25 left in the first half. During that run, the Phoenix went from trailing by two to leading by 13 points.
It was another below average shooting performance for Green Bay, as the team finished with a field goal percentage under 40 percent for the fifth time in the last six games. The Green Bay defense was able to bail out the offense once again though, forcing Milwaukee into 16 turnovers and a 25.5 percent (13-51) field goal percentage.
Alle LeClaire added nine points off the bench and the team’s leading scorer Mehryn Kraker finished with seven.
Milwaukee did not have a player finish in double figures, but was led by Jaleesa Armstrong with nine points.
Green Bay will now hit the road for four straight games, starting on Thursday (Jan. 22) with a trip to Cleveland State. Game time is set for 6 p.m. central time.
