GREEN BAY — You can’t ask for a better game than the one on Saturday at the Kress Center.
The first place in the Horizon League UW-Green Bay women’s basketball team (25-5,18-1) looks to take down Purdue Fort Wayne (23-6,18-1), who is also in first place. The victor wins the conference crown and earns the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League tournament.
The Mastodons gave the Phoenix their only conference loss.
“It's obviously a big game, but we’re treating it like no other,” said senior Maddy Schreiber.
The Phoenix are riding high into Saturday winning 18 in a row. For head coach Kayla Karius, she says that loss to the Mastodons back on December 7, feels like a long time ago.
“I think the encouraging part and what we’ve been telling our team – is we’ve improved so much since then we look like a very different team in the best way,” said the first-year Phoenix head coach.
It was only a one-point loss, but it was a learning lesson, showing the Phoenix that they needed to be a much more physical team.
“I just think that they were physical at times with us,” said Karius. “We didn’t handle that well and we continue to see that physicality throughout conference play and I don’t know if that will rattle us as much. There’s a lot of things we have more experience in, but we need to finish around the rim better.”
One person who thrives around the rim on offense and defense, senior guard Natalie McNeal, who leads the Phoenix in points (14) and rebounds (7) per game. She missed the first matchup against the Mastodons.
“[McNeal] is such a big presence for us and obviously leading us in scoring and is just so different than all the rest of our players,” Karius said. “[She] just loves the mid-range shot, is so athletic and gets to the rim and her defensive presence has really improved this year and just love the defensive intensity that she plays with and she’s a leader.”
What better way to send out seven seniors, six of whom have been a huge part of the program for quite a few years with a Horizon league regular season title at home at the Kress. Of course, the goal for the squad is to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
“You can just tell that the experience and the time that they've spent here has left a huge impact on this program for years to come,” said Karius.
Tip-off is at 1 p.m. Saturday and the Phoenix are urging fans to be seated by 12:45 p.m.
