#HLWBB Power Rankings — Week 14

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

Green Bay formally clinched the Horizon League’s top tournament seed and a share of the regular season title on Saturday. Those outcomes have been inevitabilities for quite a while, though the way it finally happened involved as much drama as the Phoenix have faced during a 15-0 start to HL play. On Thursday, GB had to work its way back from a 19-2 Robert Morris surge to open the evening, and still trailed 58-53 into the final minute of play. After a Maddy Skorupski jumper and a Colonials turnover, Kamy Peppler’s three-pointer with 11 seconds left tied the contest up. RMU left time on the clock after misfiring on a game-winning attempt and, following a Phoenix timeout, Peppler’s last-second heave caromed home and eventually led the SportsCenter Top 10. Two days later, GB trailed Youngstown State by five with 3:21 remaining, but Jenna Guyer scored the last eight points of the affair to squeeze out another tight victory.

Despite that disappointing ending against Green Bay, Youngstown State’s close call against the once-again champions shows that the Penguins are a worthy pursuer that shouldn’t be counted out in a potential rematch next month. The Phoenix are always tough on interior players, but Sarah Baker nevertheless emerged from the fray with a strong 18-point, seven-rebound outing to lead the home team. Erica King fired in 12 points, important scoring, as Casey Santoro, Danielle Cameron, and Sophia Gregory were all held under their typical production. King also starred in the Guins’ mid-week blowout of Milwaukee with 17 points, five rebounds, and five assists, while Baker, Santoro, and Paulina Hernandez scored in double figures as well, and Gregory offered 14 rebounds and six assists to go with her nine tallies.

The race for third place in the conference felt more potato sack than F1 over the last week, but Robert Morris – unlike the two teams immediately behind – managed to survive without an ugly loss. Colonials fans might dispute that characterization a bit, given how the final seconds of their home defeat to Green Bay on Thursday played out, but in terms of a bottom-line result, the outcome was hardly damaging. RMU certainly had an ugly win, given that Milwaukee forced overtime in Hoop Township on Saturday, but Bobby Mo ultimately prevailed after scoring the first eight points of the extra period. Eva Levingston had four of those, capping off a career-high total of 19, alongside seven rebounds. Aislin Malcolm (18 points) and Jada Lee (13 points, a career-high 11 rebounds) also had big games against the Panthers.

The past week, as much as any other time period, was a microcosm of Cleveland State’s season. The Vikings looked as impressive as any team in the conference (up to and including Green Bay) while locking down explosive Purdue Fort Wayne during the second half on Saturday, powering a surprisingly-comfortable 73-56 victory. Colbi Maples was outstanding, with 27 points on 10-for-18 shooting, while Izabella Zingaro dominated the middle of the floor with 18 points and 11 rebounds. However, CSU occupies sixth place in the HL standings instead of, say, second because of lifeless efforts like a 78-70 setback at IU Indianapolis three days before hosting PFW. Zingaro was stellar in the defeat as well, with a 24-11 double-double, but the Vikings struggled to find other answers offensively, or slow down the Jaguars on the opposite end of the floor. Cleveland State’s fate is pretty closely tied to its ability to find some sort of consistency.

In one week, Purdue Fort Wayne went from the team with (probably) the strongest claim to second best in the Horizon League, to being dragged back into the swamp of teams jockeying for third through sixth places behind Green Bay and Youngstown State. That situation came about thanks to a pair of ugly road losses, including a stunning upset at Wright State, followed by a defeat at Cleveland State that was never truly in doubt over the final 15 minutes. Those results highlight one of the wilder home-away splits out there: the Mastodons are 11-1 overall inside the Hilliard Gates Sports Center, and just 3-8 in their opponents’ gyms (in HL play, those records are a bit muted to 6-1 at home and 3-5 on the road). In other words, PFW’s conference tournament survival might depend on avoiding sixth place, and even then, there’s reasonable doubt hovering over the ‘Dons chances of winning on a neutral floor in Indianapolis.

Jeff Hans and the Northern Kentucky staff haven’t been among the group publicly taking aim at the Horizon League’s scheduling, but few would blame them if they did. The Norse play just once between January 31st and February 12th, ahead of a three games in eight days stretch. That latter period includes travel to and from Wisconsin and meetings with Green Bay and Milwaukee, followed by a clash against second-place Youngstown State back at home, a brutal run by any measure. Fortunately for NKU, they took care of business in their only contest over the two weeks leading up to it by edging Oakland 77-76 on Tuesday. Anna Hamilton was the hero of the day, thanks to a winning and-one play with 13 seconds remaining, while Karina Bystry helped set it up with a wild corner three off the top of the backboard on the previous Norse possession. If Northern Kentucky can survive its next three games, a soft closing schedule awaits.

IU Indianapolis has been on a fantastic run since January 17th, including four victories in six contests since that date. It’s hardly been a case of the Jaguars knocking down tomato cans either; three of their four victims were Youngstown State, Northern Kentucky and, on Wednesday, Cleveland State. Against the Vikings, Indy’s impressive pressure defense and aggressive offense led to plenty of downhill points for the likes of Destini Craig, as well as Hailey and Olivia Smith. Neveah Foster provided an important counterpoint with a team-best 22 points, including six three-pointers in ten attempts. Foster connected for 17 more tallies in a solid road win at Wright State three days later, while Hailey Smith had a double-double and Ariana Williams also enjoyed a solid outing. The Jags are now just two games behind Northern Kentucky for fifth place, which could certainly become an interesting race over the last three weeks of the regular season.

Injuries and depth have started to affect Oakland a bit, as the Golden Grizzlies dropped a pair of games during the week by a combined four points (though a road loss to Northern Kentucky is decidedly more palatable than a home defeat versus Detroit Mercy). Of course, OU is already well ahead of expectations in Keisha Newell’s first season, so a likely finish somewhere between seventh and ninth can fairly be called house money and a solid base for continued growth. That concept of “growth” is a scary thought for Horizon League opponents though, particularly when it comes to Makenzie Luehring. The freshman guard continued what’s become a month-long rampage against the Titans with a career-best 33 points, marking her fifth consecutive 20-plus point outing. Filippa Goula has stepped up as well, including a new personal high of 22 points at NKU on Tuesday.

Breezie Williams was electric for Wright State on Thursday, scoring 28 points to help the Raiders collect their biggest win in quite some time, a 70-67 upset of Purdue Fort Wayne. In fact Williams was, quite literally, unstoppable, as she hit all five of her three-point tries and connected on 11 of her 13 field goal attempts overall. Claire Henson and Lauren Scott added 12 and 11 points, respectively, while Olivia Brown made four vital free throws in the closing seconds. As impressive as all of that was, the key to the game might have been that the Raiders – one of the country’s 30 worst teams for rebounding rate – managed to step up and beat the Mastodons on the glass by a 37-26 count. Kari Hoffman’s crew has its annual swing through Detroit Mercy and Oakland in the coming week, followed by an important game (for potential tiebreaking purposes) against Milwaukee.

Detroit Mercy finally wiped out an 11-game losing streak in one of the most rewarding ways possible: by beating archrival Oakland on their home court. The victory was the Titans’ first in the O’rena since January 7, 2017 (a losing streak that had reached seven games) and was possible thanks largely to the exploits of Kailee Davis. The Northern Kentucky transfer bucketed 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting, and has abruptly re-emerged as the sort of scorer that can make a huge difference down the stretch for UDM. Myonna Hooper was also massive in the fourth quarter for the Titans, who ultimately needed to secure a couple of late defensive stops to clinch the upset. Any substantial move up the standings is likely an impossible ask at this stage, but with Davis in form, eighth place isn’t out of the question.

Dropping to last place here is a bit of a tough break for Milwaukee, because the Panthers showed respectably during the week, despite a decisive loss to Youngstown State on Thursday. The bounceback from that was significant, including a near-upset at Robert Morris two days later. Grace Lomen had a monster game, including 30 points and makes on six of her 12 three-point attempts. However, she misfired at the end of regulation, and RMU went on to dominate overtime. It is worth mentioning that in the real world, UWM remains one game ahead of both Detroit Mercy and Wright State – and owns a combined 3-0 record against those teams – a good posture in the battle to avoid the HL tournament’s play-in game, followed by a trip to Green Bay for the first round. Another win or two against a tough closing schedule would go a long way towards locking in that bit of safety though.

Player of the Week

Breezie Williams (Wright State)

Though Izabella Zingaro, Makenzie Luehring, Jenna Guyer, and Grace Lomen each offer compelling arguments, Williams’ game against Purdue Fort Wayne was tied for the fifth-highest scoring total by any Horizon League player this season. Not only that, but the Bryant transfer got there far more efficiently than anyone else on that list, and the explosion led the way to one the biggest upsets of the year.