Women rally, beat Milwaukee in Horizon League quarterfinals

((Contributed by Wright State Sports Information))

Senior guard LaShawna Thomas led all scoring with 21 points during Wright State's 63-58 victory over Milwaukee in the Quarterfinals of the Horizon League Tournament at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio.

Wright State trailed by as much as nine in the second half and was down two with 2:52 remaining, but the Raiders outscored Milwaukee 9-2 the rest of the way to pull out a 63-58 win over the Panthers in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Women’s Basketball Championship Wednesday night at Wright State’s Nutter Center.

WSU, the #4 seed in the tournament, scored the first five points of the game and led 8-2 on a Molly Fox three-point play with 16:36 to go in the first half, only to see #5 seed Milwaukee answer with five straight to draw to within one and eventually take the lead at 21-17 with seven unanswered at the 5:13 mark.

Back came the Raiders with eight in a row of their own, half of those by LaShawna Thomas, and the margin was still four until a three in the final minute by Stephanie Schell made it 29-28 at the break.

Ta-myra Davis opened the second half scoring with a free throw before the Panthers took their biggest lead of the contest at 39-30 with 11 straight points, the first eight by Anne Breland.

Wright State chipped away at the deficit and eventually tied it at 46 on two Thomas foul shots with 6:29 left. A Shaunda Sandifer layup again tied it before two Lindsay Laur free throws gave Milwaukee a 56-54 edge with 2:52 to play.

After Thomas tied for the sixth time with a pair at the line, Sandifer connected on two foul shots at the 2:11 mark to put the Raiders up for good. Davis extended the lead to four with two more free throws, but a Lindsay Laur jumper made it a one-possession game at 60-58 with 58.6 seconds left.

Thomas, though, banked in a jumper in the lane at the 33.5-second mark and after the Panthers missed a three-attempt on their next possession, Davis hit one of two at the line with 4.2 seconds left to round out the scoring.

WSU shot 33 percent overall and was held to its lowest three-point total of the season as the Raiders were only two of 19, but went 17 of 26 at the line, 15 of 20 in the second half. Milwaukee, meanwhile, shot 34 percent for the game, nine of 25 from behind the arc, but was just five of six at the stripe.

Wright State led 24-4 in points in the paint, 11-5 in points off of turnovers and 13-4 in second-chance points as it held a 47-43 rebounding edge, 13-8 on the offensive end.

Thomas paced all scorers with 21 for WSU, while both Davis (14 points, 15 rebounds) and Samdifer (11 points, 15 rebounds) each posted double-doubles. Fox had nine off the bench.

Laur recorded a double-double of 17 points and 13 boards for Milwaukee (12-18) while Breland also had 17, all but two coming after halftime, and Angela Rodriguez 15, 10 in the first half.

With the win, Wright State ties the 2004-05 squad for the most wins for the program (19) since moving up to Division I. The 19 victories only trail the 24-6 mark in 1986-87, WSU’s final season in Division II, for the most ever in school history.

Wright State (19-11) now advances to the semifinals against #1 seed and #13/11 Green Bay (30-1), who rolled to a 89-41 decision over Loyola in another quarterfinal contest. The Raiders and Phoenix meet on Friday at 9:00 Eastern at the Kress Events Center on the Green Bay campus. The winner of that game will take on the Butler/Cleveland State winner on Sunday, March 13, at 1:00 Dayton time, again in Green Bay.