Horizon League Women's Basketball Release #2
Nov. 13, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format 
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Butler junior Lade Akande was named Horizon League Women's Basketball Player of the Week after she helped the Bulldogs to a 59-58 win over Ohio with 23 points and six rebounds.
Horizon League Player of the Week
Lade Akande, Butler
Sr. * C * Robinson, Ill.
Butler center Lade Akande collected her second career Player of the Week award. Akande has not been named player of the week since her freshman season (Dec. 26, 2005). The 6-foot-1-inch junior received the award after she helped the Bulldogs to a 59-58 win against Ohio, which was picked to win the Mid-America Conference. Against the Bobcats, the Illinois native poured in 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting and pulled down six rebounds. In addition, Akande connected on 7-of-9 shots from the free-throw line.
Other Top Performances for the Week Ending November 11
Traci Edwards, Milwaukee
Jr. * C * Menasha, Wis.
Edwards helped the Panthers to a 1-1 mark this past week. The Panther junior began the week on Friday by scoring 30 points and collecting 14 rebounds in a 88-76 win at Chicago State. Edwards followed that performance with 11 points and eight rebounds in a 63-43 setback against Illinois on Sunday.
Kayla Groh, Green Bay
Sr. * G * Elkhart Lake, Wis.
In her lone game this week, Groh scored 20 points and pulled down five rebounds in 36 minutes to help the Phoenix defeated 2007 NCAA tournament participant Drake on Friday. Groh's 20-point output was the third of her career.
Brittany Boeke, Loyola
Fr. * F * Cherry Valley, Ill.
In her first career collegiate contest, Boeke finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds as Loyola got past Robert Morris (Ill.) 67-52. Boeke became the first freshman in LU history to record a double-double in her first game in the Maroon and Gold.
Jessie Miller, UIC
So. * G * Richfield, Minn.
Miller led UIC with 19 points and four assists against Central Michigan in the team's season opener on the road. Miller shot 58 percent from the field and was 2-for-7 from beyond the arc. The Minnesota native also pulled down four rebounds and collected two steals.
Jessica Schloemp, Youngstown State
Sr. * F * Findlay, Ohio
Schloemp opened the 2007-08 campaign by recording her fifth career double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds in a 62-53 loss to Buffalo on Sunday. Schloemp connected on 6-of-14 shots from the free-throw line.
Angel Roque, Cleveland State
So. * G * Mississauga, Ontario
Roque posted a career-high 13 points in Friday night's season opening loss against Wisconsin. The CSU guard connected on 4-of-6 shots from the field, including 2-of-2 from beyond the arc.
News From Around the League
Butler
Despite losing two of the most prolific three-point shooters from last season in Jackie Closser and Ellen Hamilton, the Bulldogs used the three-point shot to aid their offense in the first game of the year against the Bobcats. Butler finished the game with five fewer field goals made (18 to 23), but the Bulldogs' 6-for-21 mark from beyond the arc trumped the Bobcats' 1-for-9 shooting and proved to be the difference.
Sophomore Susan Lester, a Preseason All-League Second Team member, finished second on the Bulldogs with 12 points, with two triples and a 4-of-4 mark from the free throw line, and added six rebounds.
The Bulldogs topped the Bobcats despite a significant shortcoming on rebounding, with Ohio holding a 42-27 edge on the boards.
The Bulldogs head to Bradley on Tuesday (Nov. 13) to take on the Braves at Robertson Field House at 8:00 p.m. ET. Butler earned its first win of 2006-07 at home against the Braves with an 85-73 victory at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Cleveland State
CSU is out of action until Saturday, when it hosts Akron at 3:00 p.m. Following its game with the Zips, the Vikings will hit the road for seven of its next eight games.
Freshman Shawnita Garland got her collegiate career off to a great start as she posted 12 points, five boards and two steals in 27 minutes off the bench.
CSU is now 12-23 in season openers. In addition, Friday's opener was the earliest season opener in school-history. It broke the previous record by one day (set last season).
Dominique Butler posted two steals Friday night against Wisconsin, the 37th time in her career that she notched more than one steal.
Detroit
The Titans opened up their 2007-08 campaign on the road and came up short in both contests, UDM fell 85-65 against Western Carolina in Cullowhee, N.C., on Friday and then dropped a 91-47 decision to Southeastern Conference member school, Auburn.
Senior India Bruster tied for a game-high 14 points against the Lady Catamounts and grabbed a team-high nine boards. Junior Sandi Brown shot 5-of-11 from the field on Friday to net 12 points, while junior Zemora Davis added 10 for the Titans
Bruster scored in double digits again versus the Tigers as she was 5-of-8 from the field for 10 points. Sophomore Heather Hatter matched Bruster's effort with 10 points on Sunday. The Titans will open up their home slate on Wednesday as they host Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m.
Green Bay
For the 21st straight year, Green Bay opened the regular season on the road, as the team has never opened its schedule at home since joining the Division I ranks in 1987-88. Green Bay improved to 11-10 with the win and snapped a two-game losing streak in season openers.
Green Bay will play their second and third road games of the year against the Missouri Valley Conference when the Phoenix takes on Illinois State and Missouri State this week. For the non-conference season, Green Bay has four road games against Valley foes this season. Also of note, with its contest against Southern Illinois later this year, Green Bay will have played all members of the Valley, the first conference that the Phoenix has played each team at least once in non-conference action.
Dating back to Jan. 1, 2002, Green Bay is 147-28 for an .840 winning percentage.
Loyola
Brittany Boeke (12 rebounds) and Jennifer Juergens (10) became the first set of Loyola teammates to notch 10 or rebounds in the same game since Jenna Real and Emily Ponder did it on Dec. 8, 2004 at IUPUI.
Loyola held Robert Morris to just 13 percent shooting (4-of-31) in the first half, holding the Eagles scoreless for over nine minutes en route to a 40-14 lead at halftime.
Loyola, which finished 11th in the nation last season in free-throw percentage, knocked down its first 12 from the line and finished 18-of-23 from the stripe for the game.
Milwaukee
In UWM's 88-76 win over Chicago State on Friday the Panthers set a school record for points in a season opener. The record had been 84 points by the 1982-83 squad. The Division I record was 77 by the 1995-96 team.
Traci Edwards had 30 points in that game, setting a school record for points in a season-opener. Aubri Rote added a career-high 20. It was the first time since Feb. 11, 2006 that Milwaukee had two 20-point scorers in the same game.
Rote finished the game 6-for-7 from three-point range. She is tied for sixth in three-pointers made in a game in school history. Edwards moved from 11th to eighth in school history in scoring over the weekend, pushing her career point total to 1,156. She also moved to fifth on UWM's Division I scoring list. In addition, the Panther junior tied a school record she already shared when she tallied 30 points in the opener, her fifth-straight 20-point outing. Then, Sunday she extended her school-record streak of double-digit scoring games to 24.
UIC
UIC was edged in its season opener on the road to Central Michigan on Friday, 76-71. The Flames shot 57 percent from beyond the arc (4-for-7) in the second half. UIC totaled six steals, 13 assists and five blocks against CMU.
Sophomore Jessie Miller was 7-for-12 from the field, totaling a team-high 19 points. Miller drained two treys and grabbed a team-high four assists. Junior Meghan Hutchens notched 14 points and team-best four three-pointers and six boards. Sophomore Briana Hinkle totaled 10 points, while senior Nicole Rinaldi tied the team-high with six rebounds.
UIC welcomes Northwestern in its home opener on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Pavilion.
Valparaiso
Valpo faces seven teams that ranked or received votes in the preseason polls. Valparaiso committed 29 turnovers in the opener. Freshman Jasmine Ussery led Valpo with 5 rebounds against Bowling Green. Valpo continues its string of six straight games away from the ARC this week with 3 road contests.
On Monday, Valparaiso fell short of No. 20 Purdue as it fell 65-62 in front of over 8,000 fans at Mackey Arena.
Wright State
Wright State trailed by just 11 at the half and by 13 with 11 minutes to play, but Boston College closed the game with a 24-5 run as the Eagles defeated the Raiders in the season opener for both teams Friday afternoon at Conte Forum in Boston.
After shooting 50 percent in the first half, WSU hit just five of 16 shots the final 20 minutes for 31 percent and 42 percent overall. The Eagles held a 36-15 rebounding advantage and forced Wright State into 29 turnovers while committing 16, resulting in a 18-0 differential in second-chance points and 32-6 in points off of turnovers. The reserves for Boston College outscored the Raiders 30-2
Kanisha Ward led the way for the Raiders with 14 points, 11 in the first half, and had five rebounds, four assists with three steals while Sheylani Peddy, in her collegiate debut, added eight points, five assists and four steals.
Youngstown State
Senior Heather Karner led all scorers with 17 points in a 62-53 loss at Buffalo. Karner also grabbed five rebounds.
Junior Tiara Scott scored 10 points with five rebounds in her Division I debut.
Senior Lauren Branson dished out four assists and now has 330 career assists. She needs 47 more to move into sixth place on the YSU all-time list and 70 more to become the sixth player in school history to tally 400 assists in a career.
