#HLWBB Power Rankings — Week 9

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

It probably shouldn’t be surprising that for all of the chaos throughout most of the conference this season (see below), perennial powerhouse Green Bay has remained mostly immune. The Phoenix were the victim of an unexpected recent result, a 16-point loss on December 20th, but had the good sense to make sure it happened in a non-league game, at Miami University. Since then, Kayla Karius’ squad has run off three straight Horizon League wins, including dominating efforts against Wright State and Robert Morris, and a squeaker over Cleveland State on Friday. In that contest against the Vikings, GB had to rally to erase a fourth-quarter deficit, then received the good fortune of two free throw misses by CSU’s Izabella Zingaro with two seconds remaining in a one-point contest. Jenna Guyer scored 55 points in the Phoenix’s three games over the past week, an outstanding stretch for one of the HL’s best players.

Though graduate power forward Faith Burch abruptly left the team for “personal reasons” over the Christmas break, that’s about the only thing that hasn’t gone perfectly for Youngstown State of late. In their first game without Burch, the Penguins earned a gritty road win over rival Cleveland State behind 18 points by former Viking Paulina Hernandez. Despite a slow start, YSU ended up shooting incredibly well in the contest, 46 percent overall, including four three-pointers in nine tries by Casey Santoro. Neither the start, nor any other segment, went slowly in a 97-20 New Year’s Eve romp over Division II independent Salem where all 11 remaining Guins scored points, led by a career-high 18 from Hayden Barrier.

Purdue Fort Wayne blew a 14-point halftime lead on its home floor and was stunned in overtime by Northern Kentucky on Monday – more on that spectacle in a bit – a game that (along with YSU-CSU) almost feels like a referendum on the state of the conference right now. While recent years have seen heavy stratification near the top of the standings, nobody, not even Green Bay, seems completely untouchable right now. The defeat wasted a 19-point effort by Mastodons forward Lili Krasovec, a career best for the Boston College transfer. Shorthanded Oakland was the victim of a thorough 84-64 bounceback effort on Friday, including what’s become a pretty routine 24 points on 9-for-12 shooting by Alana Nelson. Significantly, the ‘Dons will see IU Indianapolis, Robert Morris, and Youngstown State this week, a healthy test.

Don’t look now, but Northern Kentucky has become an absolute wagon, largely behind star freshmen Karina Bystry and Maddie Moody. The Norse went 3-0 in Horizon League play over the past week, most notably including that 88-85 overtime shocker at Purdue Fort Wayne on Monday. NKU trailed by seven with just over three minutes remaining, but outscored the Mastodons 13-6 over what was left of regulation. The final points of the rally came on a spectacular heave at the buzzer by Taysha Rushton, a shot that made the SportsCenter Top 10. Jeff Hans’ squad then engineered a five-point comeback during the back half of OT, for one of the signature wins of his tenure so far. Subsequent blowout victories against IU Indianapolis and Detroit Mercy weren’t quite as cinematic, though NKU held the Jags to just eight points in the first half.

Don’t form any inflexible opinions about Cleveland State, because they’ll probably be proven wrong by next week. At Christmas, it could be argued that the Vikings were well on their way, thanks to wins over resurgent NKU and a then-top-100 College of Charleston in Puerto Rico. However, CSU returned from break with a thud, including a torching by a former team member, Hernandez, in Monday’s loss against Youngstown State. That was only prelude to something much worse: getting run by Milwaukee over the second half on Sunday for one of the ugliest defeats the Vikings have suffered in quite a while. However, even between those two games, there’s a bit of conflicting information. Cleveland State was quite literally two made free throws away from winning in Green Bay on Friday, something beyond the reach of any bad team, and most good ones too. Which is the real CSU? Stay tuned.

Robert Morris hasn’t looked entirely like the contender projected this preseason, with the latest evidence arriving in the form of a 64-43 loss to evergreen barometer Green Bay on Sunday. Losing to the Phoenix isn’t a catastrophe in an of itself (since most do), but it’s a bit harder to explain what happened on Monday, when the Colonials blew an eight-point lead against Oakland in the last five minutes. In some superficial sense, Bailey Kuhns had the best game of her time in Hoop Township against OU with 23 points and 12 rebounds, but she also committed three crucial turnovers down the stretch. In between the Oakland and GB contests, Aislin Malcolm scored 18 points to help RMU pull away late against Milwaukee.

IU Indianapolis ended up scoring 44 points in that throttling by NKU, recovering in the second half well enough to avoid headlines (after all, 16 total points in a conference game isn’t even seen in UConn’s Big East). Despite all of that though, it wasn’t an awful week for the Jaguars. E’Zaria Adams had a nice run in the latter stages of the Norse game, as did freshman forward Julia Hall, who has quietly put together a pretty positive rookie season so far. Kate Bruce’s squad earned a reasonably-solid home win over Milwaukee on Monday, paced by 32 combined points from Olivia and Hailey Smith, and a defense that held the Panthers under 50. The Jags are a flawed team that lacks depth and a ton of productive size, but they’ve still proven thorny for opponents more often than not.

There’s not really a ton to suggest that Milwaukee’s upset of Cleveland State on Sunday is more than an isolated data point – the Panthers are still just 1-4 in the HL – but it is at least worth considering UWM’s schedule to this point. Between the Vikings, Purdue Fort Wayne, Youngstown State, Robert Morris, and IU Indianapolis, Kyle Rechlicz’s team has faced something of a gauntlet, and now has momentum into this weekend’s trip to Detroit Mercy and Oakland. Jorey Buwalda had a monstrous day against CSU, not only through her 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists, but also her work locking down Vikings center Zingaro as the game went on. She wasn’t quite as effective in Friday’s loss to RMU, though Jada Williams had a nice game off the bench with 11 points.

It wasn’t terribly surprising that Wright State got its doors blown off by Green Bay on Tuesday, but the Raiders have quietly started to look like a middle-of-the-pack squad. WSU improved to 2-3 in Horizon League play by defeating reeling Detroit Mercy on Friday, a result that would have raised plenty of eyebrows even a week earlier. It was actually quite an impressive effort, given that the Raiders built a nine-point halftime advantage, then saw UDM storm back to take a pair of brief leads late in the third quarter, before the frame ended on a 56-56 tie. A team still “learning how to win” (a cliché, but one with truth behind it) might have folded at that point. Instead, WSU surged late behind Breezie Williams (26 total points, eight in the fourth quarter) and Abbie Riddle (14 total, six in the fourth) to win fairly comfortably.

Oakland is presently dealing with injuries to Cali Denson and Filippa Goula, far from ideal for a team that doesn’t have a ton of margin for error to begin with. Regardless, even without Denson, the Golden Grizzlies pulled off a 61-58 stunner at Robert Morris on Monday. How stunning, exactly? RMU led 58-50 with 4:41 to go, and Oakland closed the contest with nine consecutive stops – thanks largely to seven forced turnovers during that stretch – and on an 11-0 run. Literally, out of nowhere. Makenzie Luehring continued to bolster her postseason awards case with 17 points to lead the Grizzlies, while Lianna Baxter added 13. Baxter also played very well against Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday, with 15 points and six rebounds, but OU couldn’t overcome a slow start in the 20-point loss.

Despite an unremarkable non-conference run, Detroit Mercy showed plenty of promise by beginning the Horizon League season 2-0, including a home upset of Cleveland State on December 4th. Since then, however, the Titans are just 1-5, including an inexplicable 86-80 loss to NAIA school Rochester Christian on Monday. UDM then followed that stunner against the Warriors with decisive setbacks at both Wright State and Northern Kentucky over the weekend. The Titans closed last season on a 3-10 skid and, all told, are now 4-10 to start this year. That’s quite a departure from expectations for a veteran roster that was generally projected among the top half of the conference. Makayla Jackson (23 points against RCU) and Jasmine Edwards (21 points versus WSU, and 30 rebounds during the week) continue to be bright spots for Kiefer Haffey.

Player of the Week

Karina Bystry (Northern Kentucky)

Green Bay’s Jenna Guyer won the Horizon League’s official award for the week, and while she is a worthy pick, so is Bystry. The Norse rookie showed out against Purdue Fort Wayne with 25 points and seven rebounds, fueling one of the most significant outcomes of the season to date. She followed that up with solid efforts against both IU Indy and Detroit Mercy, helping NKU emerge as a major player in the conference race.

Also considered: Jenna Guyer (Green Bay), Breezie Williams (Wright State), Paulina Hernandez (Youngstown State), Alana Nelson (Purdue Fort Wayne), Lianna Baxter (Oakland), Maddie Moody (Northern Kentucky), Jorey Buwalda (Milwaukee)