Mark another win for the Green Bay Phoenix women, as they rolled past Oakland on Thursday night, beating the Golden Grizzlies 75-39. The win is Green Bay’s 15th in a row, as they look to keep pace with the conference leading Mastodons who are off until Saturday.
Both teams were unable to score on their respective opening possessions, feeling each other out, until a Maddy Skorupski steal led to Macy Smith getting Oakland on the board first. Green Bay quickly answered with a 3 ball from Callie Genke. Oakland’s next trip down gave the Golden Grizzlies the lead back after Lianna Baxter cleaned up a rebound and got the second chance shot to go.
From there, it was all Phoenix. Green Bay held Oakland scoreless for nearly 7 minutes of the opening quarter, going on a 16-0 run. Genke and Cassie Schiltz each hit two 3s in the run, as well as getting buckets from Bailey Butler and Jenna Guyer. Oakland finally got back on the board with a layup from Smith, which Jasmine Kondrakiewicz answered with one of her own. Skorupski split a trip to the free throw line in the closing seconds of the opening frame to close Oakland’s deficit to 21-7.
Jasmine Dupree-Hebert hit a 3 on the Golden Grizzlies’ opening possession to keep the little bit of momentum the home team had going against Green Bay. Maddy Schreiber scored right back on Green Bay’s first possession of the quarter, opening another scoring run by the Phoenix. Natalie McNeal would add 3 made free throws, followed by a Guyer layup. McNeal got two layups of her own to go, before Guyer earned and converted an And 1, giving Green Bay a 35-10 lead. Dani Grim ended the run for Oakland with 3:00 left in the second quarter, their first basket since the opening possession. Guyer and Schreiber would each score for the Phoenix to continue building onto the lead. Baxter did give Oakland the final points of the first half, making a 3 with 0:43 left in the quarter, but Green Bay still led 39-15 when the halftime horn sounded.
Schiltz caught fire to open the third quarter, making three 3s in the opening few minutes, part of a 11-2 run by the Phoenix to start the period. Kylie Buckley broke the run briefly with a made layup before McNeal was able get the hoop and the harm for an And 1. She would hit the free throw after the third quarter media timeout, and score again minutes later to extend the lead again. Skorupski did get Oakland another bucket, but it would be the teams last points of the quarter as Green Bay outscored them 22-6 in the third, and held a 61-21 lead after 3 quarters of play.
Karius did go deeper into her bench, giving most of the period to the reserves. Meghan Schultz, Ellie Buzzelle, and Sophie Lahti all got significant minutes in the final stanza, and each scored at least once, with Buzzelle adding 6 to lead the trio. Oakland nearly matched their scoring output for the first 3 quarters combined in the 4th, totaling 18 points against the Green Bay bench. Unfortunately for the Golden Grizzlies it was too little too late as the Phoenix remained firmly in control.
Green Bay had four double digit scoring efforts in the contest, being led by Schiltz’s game-high 15 points. McNeal chipped in 12, with Genke and Guyer each scoring 11.
The Phoenix stay in the greater Detroit Metro area, traveling to play Detroit Mercy on Saturday, February 15th. Tipoff is slated for 12pm CT.
