#HLWBB Power Rankings — Week 10

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Photo: Green Bay Athletics
RankTeamLWChange
1Purdue Fort Wayne1
2Green Bay2
3Cleveland State3
4Detroit Mercy4
5Northern Kentucky6+1
6Oakland5-1
7IU Indianapolis8+1
8Wright State11+3
9Youngstown State10+1
10Milwaukee7-3
11Robert Morris9-2

Lauren Ross’ buzzer-beating three gave Purdue Fort Wayne a 78-75 victory over Cleveland State on Sunday, but more importantly than that, it established the Mastodons as the clear top dog in the Horizon League at this point. PFW is 8-0 in the conference, including wins over both the Vikings and Green Bay, and would need to suffer a pretty substantial upset somewhere in the next seven weeks to end up as anything less than regular season co-champions. Ross, who is shooting exactly 50 percent from deep this season, making her one of the nation’s best from behind the arc, held that average by going 5-for-10 against CSU on the way to 19 points. She was well supported offensively by Amellia Bromenschenkel, Sydney Freeman, and Jazzlyn Linbo, who overcame substantial foul trouble to manage 14 points on 7-for-8 shooting. Ross (16 points, eight rebounds) and Bromenschenkel (14 points, 11 rebounds) also led the way in a 70-58 win over Milwaukee on Thursday.

After looking a bit unsteady at times over the first couple months of the season, Green Bay has recently gotten back to their usual “mowing down everything in their path with minimal stress” posture. The Phoenix took care of Youngstown State and Robert Morris on the road this past week to extend their winning streak to six games and keep pace with the top of the conference. Natalie McNeal led the way with a monstrous 22-point, 18-rebound effort against the Colonials, and she also scored 17 against the Penguins. The most significant bad news for GB right now concerns their injury list, as Kayla Karius announced this week that Maddy Schreiber’s absence dating back to early December is due to a broken wrist. Schreiber has been snakebitten during her college career, as a torn labrum caused her to miss the second half of the 2022-23 season. In this case, however, Karius hopes that Schreiber can return to the lineup before tournament time. Additionally, reserve guard Maren Westin will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

With PFW’s victory at the Wolstein Center on Sunday, Cleveland State lost on its home floor for the first time since January 14, 2023, though the Vikings’ concerns are much more immediate than a line in their media guide. CSU remains a very-solid 5-2 in Horizon League games, of course, trailing only the Mastodons and Green Bay in the standings, but Chris Kielsmeier’s team has only intermittently looked like the dominating force that most predicted before the season. Embedded in that conference record is an overtime escape against Milwaukee, a road win at Wright State that nevertheless saw the Raiders batter CSU from three-point range, and last Sunday’s victory at Detroit Mercy, which was largely propped up by one decisive run. The good news for the defending regular season champions is that the schedule softens a bit over the next couple weeks. However, they’ll need to get right by January 30th to have a shot of winning at Green Bay.

Detroit Mercy head coach Kate Achter collected her 100th career win in style on Saturday: by downing Oakland 67-59 at Calihan Hall to assert not only control over UDM’s biggest rival, but also a place among the Horizon League’s top four. It’s easy to forget now, with the Titans ascendant, but the Golden Grizzlies have largely owned the all-time series. OU enjoyed a 20-10 record against UDM until the most recent contest, including a 12-game winning streak that began during the 2017-18 season and ended last year. Aaliyah McQueen – who was a part of that winning streak while at OU – torched her old team for 21 points and 17 rebounds, while electric Emaia O’Brien had 23 points, six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. It was a big enough result to quickly wash away a mid-week clunker against Wright State that, in the end, didn’t do a ton of damage to UDM’s position within the conference.

It’s hard to argue that Northern Kentucky can truly compete at the top of the HL, but it’s also hard to argue that the Norse haven’t been playing some very solid ball lately. On Saturday, NKU splattered IU Indianapolis 80-63 to win their third game in a row and improve to 3-4 in HL play. It’s probably worth mentioning that the Norse’s four conference losses include road games against Cleveland State and Green Bay, as well as an overtime home defeat against Oakland, while they’ve beaten Milwaukee, Robert Morris (on Wednesday), and the Jaguars. Those lists read like a textbook case of a team that should live somewhere in the 5th through 7th place slots until it shows otherwise. Macey Blevins suffered an apparent ankle injury late against IU Indy, and though it didn’t look to be anything that will sideline her long term, Jeff Hans can ill afford to lose a player who’s averaged 14.2 points per game since returning from a separate injury earlier this season.

Just as Oakland seemed on the precipice of contention following their upset of Cleveland State on January 3rd, the Golden Grizzlies were dog walked by Purdue Fort Wayne two days later. Then, this past week, OU dropped games against IU Indianapolis and Detroit Mercy, each of which were concerning in somewhat similar ways. The Jaguars entered Wednesday’s game 3-12 overall, but the Grizzlies surrendered a 23-5 run during the third quarter, turning a ten-point lead into an eight-point deficit, and never recovered. Then, on Saturday, UDM held Oakland scoreless for an 8:20 span in the first half, and seemed to crack the code on handling Maddy Skorupski and Macy Smith, holding the usually-lethal duo to 29 combined points on 10-for-28 shooting (with an assist to some first-half foul trouble for Smith). It’s clear that the Grizzlies are a solid team, though their exact ceiling is open to interpretation.

To say that IU Indianapolis had a rough first half in Truist Arena on Saturday would be a significant understatement, given that the Jaguars trailed 37-10 into the last minute of the second quarter, ultimately losing for the first time this season when Katie Davidson played the full game. However, the Jags showed potential much greater than their record on Wednesday, when they went into the O’rena and took care of a tough Oakland team that was less than a week removed from beating CSU. Davidson was stellar in that contest, including 23 points (on 8-for-16 shooting) and seven rebounds, while Nevaeh Foster, Jada Patton, and Alexa Hocevar all scored in double figures. IU Indy trailed the Golden Grizzlies 47-37 early in the third quarter, then led 60-52 early in the fourth quarter after forcing five OU turnovers in roughly seven minutes. Kate Bruce’s squad will be completely done with the Vikings, Green Bay, and Purdue Fort Wayne after February 2nd, so don’t be surprised to see them go on a late-season run.

Don’t look now, but Wright State emerged from the throes of a ten-game losing streak to win both of their games this past week, climbing ahead of both Milwaukee and Robert Morris in the conference standings. The Raiders used a nicely-balanced effort to upset Detroit Mercy on Wednesday, which involved building a 45-31 lead midway through the third quarter. The Titans rallied, eventually tying the game 58-58 with 2:50 remaining, but Amaya Staton triggered an immediate and decisive 7-0 run from there, highlighted by an and-one bucket that proved to be the winning points with 68 seconds to go. Another well-timed surge helped deliver a 77-62 victory over Youngstown State on Sunday. With the Raiders’ lead trimmed to 47-46 in the back half of the third quarter, buckets from Makiya Miller, Abbie Riddle, and Rylee Sagester, as well as a Staton free throw, built an 11-0 spurt, and the Penguins would never bring the margin under six points the rest of the way.

Youngstown State was undoubtedly disappointed when they let that winnable game against WSU slip away, but the Penguins still feel like a team that can do some damage when everyone is firing at once. That wasn’t really the case against the Raiders, as Jewel Watkins was limited to 4-for-15 from the floor while Erica King was 2-for-12, offsetting strong efforts by the likes of Malia Magestro and Haley Thierry, who had a season-high 12 points. Even on Thursday, when the Guins managed to stay within ten points of Green Bay, Magestro was held without a field goal and Watkins scored just nine points on 15 field goal attempts, while King and Sophia Gregory picked up a lot of the slack. YSU has two attainable games at home this week, including Northern Kentucky – who they’ve already beaten on the road this season – and Robert Morris.

Milwaukee only played one game this past week, a Thursday contest at Purdue Fort Wayne that became the Panthers’ ninth loss in ten tries, but it’s hard to be too critical of a 12-point road defeat against a title contender. Payton Rechlicz scored a career-high 19 points against the Mastodons, and she was supported by Kacee Baumhower’s 15, along with eight points and eight rebounds by Jorey Buwalda. Panthers coach Kyle Rechlicz (Peyton’s mother, of course) told MKEPanthers.com that “Purdue Fort Wayne is an incredibly aggressive team. They work for every single steal, and if you look at points off turnovers, that’s the game.” To her point, Milwaukee committed 21 turnovers, leading to 31 PFW points, nearly half of their 70. Overall, the Panthers have taken better care of the ball this season (point guard Kamy Peppler has knocked half of a giveaway off her game average), though they’re still running at a net -3 turnovers per outing because they’re one of the worst teams in the country at forcing miscues.

After going through most of the season as a “they feel much better than their record” team, Robert Morris has crashed a bit recently, including decisive losses to Northern Kentucky and Green Bay this past week to fall to 1-6 in Horizon League games. Even with a new coach and a heavily revamped roster, the story largely remains the same: the Colonials are strong defensively, as their 62.1 points allowed per game ranks just outside of the top 100 nationally, but struggle to score themselves, placing among DI’s bottom quartile in most offensive metrics. That’s the sort of issue that’s best corrected with another recruiting cycle or two, but for the time being, RMU’s defense still makes them a consistent upset threat. Mya Murray led the way with 17 points and nine rebounds against the Norse, and Isys Grady has begun to offer some more consistent production – she’s scored at least ten points and grabbed at least five rebounds in three of the Colonials’ last five games.

Player of the Week

Natalie McNeal (Green Bay)

Green Bay’s injury issues have made the Phoenix more top-heavy than they’d prefer, but it probably won’t be an issue if the team’s established stars produce the way McNeal did in GB’s two more recent games. Her 18 rebounds against Robert Morris on Saturday were the most by a Phoenix player since Madison Wolf’s 18 against Oakland during the 2019-20 season. The last time someone had that many boards while also scoring 20 points? February 15, 2018, when Jessica Lindstrom had 23 points and 21 rebounds at Cleveland State.

Also considered: Aaliyah McQueen (Detroit Mercy), Katie Davidson (IU Indianapolis), Macey Blevins (Northern Kentucky), Maddy Skorupski (Oakland), Lauren Ross (Purdue Fort Wayne)

Past winners:

January 5: Sydney Freeman (Purdue Fort Wayne)
December 29: Maddy Skorupski (Oakland)
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)

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