by By: Joey Daniels (@GBPhoenixWBB)
VALPARAISO, Ind. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – Benefitting from another balanced performance, the Green Bay women’s basketball team won its seventh game in a row on Thursday night, defeating Valparaiso 67-52 at the ARC in league play.
Green Bay (16-3, 6-0 HL) remained perfect in conference play with its 15-point victory, thanks to six different players registering eight points or more. Jessica Lindstrom enjoyed the best game of her young career, as the freshman finished with a career-high in points with 13 and rebounds with nine.
Mehryn Kraker and Megan Lukan each finished in double figures with 10 points. Lukan also swiped four steals as Green Bay finished with nine steals as team. Ellen Edison was responsible for three of those thefts, as the senior played a season-high 24 minutes off the bench.
The Phoenix held Valparaiso (4-16, 0-7 HL) to 2-for-12 shooting from three-point land and forced them into 21 turnovers. Green Bay struggled from long range going 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) and committed its second-highest foul total this season with 23.
“The first half was picture perfect and our defense did a great job. The second half got away from us a little bit, we fouled too much and that was a bit frustrating,” head coach Kevin Borseth said.
Megan Lukan opened the game with a three-pointer which gave Green Bay a lead it would never relinquish. The Phoenix led for all but 49 seconds in the game, thanks in large part to a 9-0 run that extended the GB lead from 7-5 to 16-5.
Tesha Buck (Mdewakanton Sioux) and Kaili Lukan each notched eight points, while Sam Terry chipped in with nine. Lukan and Buck also finished with four assists each in the game.
Valparaiso did outscore Green Bay in the second half 35-29 and was led by Abby Dean who finished with 14 points.
“We had a couple of lineups together that have never played together. It was lineup scenarios that we weren’t used to. The second half they came right at us and we fouled them,” Borseth said.
The Phoenix will wrap up its fourth-straight road game and go for its eighth win in a row on Saturday (Jan. 31) when it visits UIC. Tip-off in Chicago is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT.
