#HLWBB Power Rankings — Week 8

Rank	Team	LW	Change
1	Cleveland State	1	–
2	Purdue Fort Wayne	2	–
3	Green Bay	3	–
4	Detroit Mercy	4	–
5	Oakland	6	+1
6	Robert Morris	7	+1
7	Milwaukee	10	+3
8	IU Indianapolis	11	+3
9	Youngstown State	5	-4
10	Northern Kentucky	8	-2
11	Wright State	9	-2

Cleveland State has won 29 consecutive games at the Wolstein Center, and no game in that lengthy streak was more difficult than Sunday’s 83-78 overtime victory against Milwaukee. The Vikings trailed by ten at the end of the third quarter, but limited the Panthers to just nine points over the final 15 minutes of the contest, giving them just enough of an opening to keep their unbeaten Horizon League mark intact. After being held scoreless during the first half, Jordana Reisma ended up with 17 points and ten rebounds, including a decisive three-point play in the last 90 seconds of overtime. Mickayla Perdue shook off a rough shooting day (5-for-23 from the floor, 0-for-9 from three-point range) to score a team-high 21 points, largely by driving through the middle and getting to the free throw line, where she went 11-for-12. With road games against Oakland and Detroit Mercy (both of which are also unbeaten in the HL) this week, CSU will have to smooth out some of its rough edges quickly.

Festivus may have come and gone on December 23rd, but Purdue Fort Wayne continues to demonstrate various feats of strength, including a 76-49 demolition at Wright State on Saturday that probably wasn’t even that close, given that the Mastodons led 50-17 early in the third quarter before things balanced out the rest of the way. Amellia Bromenschenkel’s 16 points led all scorers, though her six rebounds were the more significant number, as it made her the program’s all-time leading rebounder during its time in Division I (which began in 2001). All five starters scored at least nine points, though the Mastodons’ defense might have been even better, as it forced 20 Raiders turnovers. PFW has three more games between now and a January 12th trip to Cleveland, but it’s hard not to have at least one eye on that potential game-of-the-year type showdown.

As the only Horizon League team with the full week off, Green Bay had the opportunity to get out on the road and do some recruiting before returning to action against Northern Kentucky on January 2nd (a less arduous task than it is at most schools, given the number of local players always present on the Phoenix roster). Though they have a tough closing schedule this year (road games against Detroit Mercy and Cleveland State, followed by home contests with rival Milwaukee and Purdue Fort Wayne), the flip side of that is a pretty manageable run of games for most of January. That upcoming slate includes both scheduled games against the Norse and Wright State, while GB’s only top-four opponent during the next four weeks, Detroit Mercy, will visit the Kress Center.

Given the chaos in the middle of the Horizon League standings over the last couple years, it seems obvious that any team capable of consistently beating the other schools in that chunk of the table would quickly rise to join the contenders. With that in mind, Detroit Mercy passed what could probably be considered its toughest and most important conference challenge to this point, by going on the road and defeating Robert Morris 66-58 on Saturday. After an 11-0 second-quarter run was quickly erased, the Titans finally built some permanent separation with a 10-0 surge early in the fourth quarter. Aaliyah McQueen’s three capped off that rally, a good chunk of her seven points over the final ten minutes, while Emaia O’Brien scored 19 times, including five triples.

Oakland eked out a tough win on Sunday, in overtime against better-than-their-record Northern Kentucky, to improve to 3-0 in Horizon League play – quite the start for a team that was picked ninth in the conference’s preseason poll (and 11th in our version of it). Maddy Skorupski showed out for the Golden Grizzlies with 29 points, while playing all 45 minutes of the contest. The Michigan State transfer was at her best during the last five of those minutes, first feeding Lianna Baxter for a bucket that gave OU the lead for good, then stealing the ball from Jaci Jones and cruising in for an and-one play in the final minute that essentially sealed the result. Macy Smith, who also played the entire game, added 20 points, while Madison Royal-Davis collected a double-double that included a career-high 14 rebounds.

As the weeks have rolled on, it seems pretty clear that this Robert Morris team is legitimate. Maybe not “win the league” legitimate just yet, but with an HL record that includes a win over Milwaukee and very respectable losses to Purdue Fort Wayne, Oakland, and now Detroit Mercy, the lifeless Colonials of the last couple years are clearly long gone. The team could use another scorer or two – particularly someone that can consistently hit threes – but RMU remains very strong defensively, ranking among the top 100 nationally in categories like points allowed, turnover rate, and defensive rebounding rate. They’ve managed to overcome their deficiencies, to some extent, with balance. Though Noa Givon has been the Colonials leading scorer this season, including a team-high 12 in the loss to Detroit Mercy, four of her teammates had at least eight points in Saturday’s game.

Milwaukee might be 3-12 overall and 0-4 in conference play, but it’s worth considering that within the Panthers’ last five HL regular season games (including the 2023-24 finale), they have won at Green Bay and very nearly took a game at Cleveland State as well. That latter contest occurred on Sunday of course, when the three-point barrage of Jada Donaldson, Anna Lutz and Hallie Majoros, along with stout interior defense by Lutz and Jorey Buwalda, put Milwaukee in position for what would have easily been the biggest upset of the conference season so far – even with leading scorer Kacee Baumhower held completely off the scoresheet by the Vikings. The Panthers clearly have a pretty high ceiling, and despite a slow start, the pieces remain in place for a top-half finish and a serious push towards Indianapolis at the end of the season.

During the stream of IU Indianapolis’ never-in-doubt 65-50 win over Youngstown State on Saturday, the play-by-play broadcaster indicated that Katie Davidson might be close to returning from her early-season wrist injury. Adding the superstar back into the lineup would be a boon for a Jaguars team that lost 11 straight games after a season-opening blowout of Evansville, though they certainly didn’t need her against YSU. Faith Stinson took over in the paint against the Guins’ young post rotation, throwing in a career-high 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting, to go with eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Steady Alexa Hocevar added 11 points and seven rebounds, while Azyah Newson-Cole fired home 13 points. The Jags clearly have some players on the roster, and it’s easy to see how things might take off for them at full strength.

It’s a little concerning that, on the return to conference play this week, Youngstown State looked to have more in common with their Bucknell lows than their Northern Kentucky highs in their loss at IU Indianapolis, but at least some of that can be written off to the inconsistency inherent in a young team. That youth has really started to make its status as the program’s future clear, with three Guins owning solid cases for inclusion on a mid-season all-freshman team (if there was one). Against the Jags, it was Erica King’s turn, as the sparkplug guard scored 13 points in 24 minutes and was also extremely disruptive defensively. It’s probably appropriate that YSU is perfectly .500 – 7-7 overall, 2-2 in the Horizon League. Where to from here?

Northern Kentucky once again found itself a tough-luck loser at the end of a well-played game, this time at home against a suddenly-solid Oakland squad. The contest witnessed the return of Macey Blevins after a month on the shelf, and the senior was outstanding, including 20 points on 8-for-18 shooting, along with eight assists and five rebounds. HL Freshman of the Year contender Kamora Morgan logged a team-high 23 points with seven rebounds, while Mya Meredith just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. The Norse sit at 3-11 overall and 0-3 in conference play, though they’re reasonably healthy for the first time in quite a while, so in some sense, any true assessment of the team should start here. That said, NKU is making the always-dreaded Wisconsin trip this week, so there’s a chance that things get a bit worse before they get better.

Is there a path to redemption for Wright State this season? Given that the Raiders had already lost to a Division II team (Findlay) and an Evansville team coming off of a 4-28 season (though the Aces are somewhat improved this year), it’s hard to think of their beating at the hands of a very good Purdue Fort Wayne squad as rock bottom. However, the unavoidable truth is that WSU is 2-12 overall (including eight losses in a row) and 0-4 in the Horizon League. Though three of the Raiders’ next five games should be more attainable than PFW right now, they’re quickly running out of time to join the fight in the middle of the standings, unless they can find a way to slow down opponents through the middle of the floor. To that end, Florrie Cotterill, a 6-2 freshman from England, has seen an uptick in her minutes of late.

Player of the Week

Maddy Skorupski (Oakland)

In a holiday week with just five total games and ten teams playing one time each, the process was pretty simple: pick an MVP from each game, then pick one of those five finalists as the winner. Skorupski’s monster stat line and decisive plays, in a contest where Oakland needed every single bit of what she had to offer, separate her from the other four.

Also considered: Faith Stinson (IU Indianapolis), Jordana Reisma (Cleveland State), Amellia Bromenschenkel (Purdue Fort Wayne), Emaia O’Brien (Detroit Mercy)

Past winners:

December 22: Aaliyah McQueen (Detroit Mercy)
December 15: Jordana Reisma (Cleveland State)
December 8: Lauren Ross (Purdue Fort Wayne)
December 1: Halle Idowu (Northern Kentucky)
November 24: Lauren Ross (Purdue Fort Wayne)