Nov. 15, 2007

Box Score

NORMAL, Ill. - The Green Bay women's basketball team (1-1) could not overcome a 22-point deficit Thursday night in its 79-70 road loss to Illinois State at Redbird Arena. It was the first loss for the Phoenix in five games against the Redbirds.

"We didn't play our best tonight, and Illinois State took advantage of it," said head coach Matt Bollant. "We were a step slow defensively tonight, and we couldn't slow them down. Give Illinois State credit, they came out and battled hard."

Four players reached double figures for Green Bay, led by Erin Templin's career-high 13 points, but the Phoenix committed an uncharacteristic 21 turnovers in the contest, including 12 in the second half.

Also in double figures for the Phoenix were Rachel Porath and Kati Harty with 11 points apiece and Kayla Groh's 10 points, which all came in the second half.

With just over 11 minutes left in the game, Green Bay trailed 61-37 on a layup by Kristi Cirone. But the Phoenix battled back, and aided by a 9-0 run over a three-and-a-half minute span, Green Bay cut the Illinois State lead to seven with just under a minute to go. But the Phoenix could not get any closer the rest of the way.

Illinois State (2-0) shot 54.9 percent from the field, including 41 percent from three-point range. Freshman Shala Jackson led the way with 20 points off the bench for the Redbirds while Cirone and Maggie Crick had 14 points apiece.

Green Bay out-rebounded Illinois State, 35-31, with Templin again leading the way with eight caroms.

Green Bay concludes its season opening road swing Saturday when the Phoenix takes on Missouri State at 1:05 p.m. in Springfield, Mo.