Green Bay Women, Wright State Men Capture 2018 Little Caesars Horizon League Tournament Championships
07 Mar / 2018
DETROIT – The top-seeded Green Bay women’s basketball and second-seeded Wright State men’s basketball teams claimed the 2018 Little Caesars Horizon League Tournament titles at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday. The Phoenix defeated No. 3 Wright State in the women’s championship game, while Wright State defeated eighth-seeded Cleveland State in the men’s final.
With Tuesday’s wins, both the Green Bay women and Wright State men earned automatic berths to the 2018 NCAA Women’s Basketball and Men’s Basketball Championships, respectively.
The 2018 All-Tournament teams and full recaps for both championship games and appear below.
2018 Horizon League Women’s Basketball Championship All-Tournament Team
Allie LeClaire, Green Bay
Jessica Lindstrom, Green Bay
Jen Wellnitz, Green Bay
Mackenzie Taylor, Wright State
Chelsea Welch, Wright State
Most Valuable Player: Allie LeClaire, Green Bay
2018 Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship All-Tournament Team
Tyree Appleby, Cleveland State
Kenny Carpenter, Cleveland State
Khalil Small, Green Bay
Grant Benzinger, Wright State
Loudon Love, Wright State
Most Valuable Player: Grant Benzinger, Wright State
WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME RECAP
No. 1 Green Bay 62, No. 3 Wright State 44
In the Motor City Madness women’s championship game, it was the No. 1 seed Green Bay Phoenix capturing a fourth straight conference tournament title with a 62-44 victory over the No. 3 seed Wright State Raiders. The Phoenix have cut down the Horizon League nets in seven of the last eight years
Having trailed at the half in two previous tournament games, Kevin Borseth’s squad was determined not to let it happen a third time.
They reversed that trend in a major way, racing out to a 17-point advantage at intermission.
“Slow start game one, finish strong -- slow start game two, finish strong,” said Borseth. “Fast start game three, I’m thinking, ‘Okay, now what?’ Do we have a letdown in the second half or just go? We knew we had to come out in a hurry and luckily we were able to sustain it for a whole game.”
It was All-Horizon League Second Team senior Allie LeClaire that broke the game open for Green Bay. LeClaire ended the first quarter with a circus basket, tossing in a shot while crashing to the ground and drawing a foul in the process. It put the Phoenix up 18-8 after one quarter.
LeClaire stayed hot in the second, drilling a 3 to put Green Bay up 13. Then she cashed in again from downtown. And one more time for good measure. For the half, LeClaire racked up 16 points and six rebounds, and the Phoenix led 38-21.
The suffocating Green Bay defense held Wright State without a basket over the last seven minutes of the second quarter, the Raiders misfiring on nine consecutive shots during the stretch.
“That’s the best defensive team in the country,” said Wright State head coach Katrina Merriweather. “It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.”
Chelsea Welch, the Horizon League Player of the Year, managed to score 11 points in the half, but shot just 2-of-10 from the floor. She’d finish the game 2-of-15 for 13 points.
The Raiders’ flame-throwing junior Mackenzie Taylor could not carry over her momentum from the previous rounds. After making nine 3-pointers coming into the game, Taylor was quiet in the title game, scoring five points.
Wright State made a slight push late in the third, cutting the Green Bay edge to 47-36. Frontcourt stalwarts Lexi Smith and Nia Sumpter found their way inside for the Raiders to fuel the run.
But Caitlyn Hibner and All-Horizon League First Team member Jessica Lindstrom swished back-to-back 3s for the Phoenix, extending the lead out to 19 and shutting the door on a possible Wright State comeback.
Lindstrom finished with a double-double, collecting 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year Jen Wellnitz dished out eight assists, grabbed four steals and helped mute the production of Welch and Taylor.
LeClaire, selected as the Little Caesars Horizon League Women’s Championship Most Valuable Player, led all scorers with 24 points. She averaged over 20 PPG at Motor City Madness, the only player to do so. She was joined on the All-Tournament team by Lindstrom and Wellnitz.
Welch and Taylor also earned All-Tournament honors for the Raiders.
With the loss, Wright State’s record drops to 23-10.
With the victory, Green Bay (29-3) earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. They will await their opponent, with brackets set to be released Monday, March 12 at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN.
MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME RECAP
No. 2 Wright State 74, No. 8 Cleveland State 57
In the Motor City Madness men’s championship game on Tuesday night, it was the No. 2 seed Wright State Raiders securing their first Horizon League tournament title since 2007 with a 74-57 victory over the No. 8 seed Cleveland State Vikings.
With just over seven minutes to go in the opening half, rocksteady junior Mark Hughes buried a triple to give Wright State a 22-21 lead. From there, it was off to the races for Scott Nagy’s unflappable bunch of Raiders.
Senior Grant Benzinger, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, competed with a reckless abandon during his game-high 39 minutes. When he wasn’t hitting 3s or tapping in offensive rebounds, he was launching himself into the Little Caesars Arena stands chasing down loose balls. Benzinger led all scorers with 19 points while adding eight rebounds.
“I’ve coached a lot of guys over many, many years,” Nagy said. “Grant might be the only one I’ve had to ask to quit diving on the floor. But it just shows you how badly he wanted this thing.”
After three grueling, white-knuckle victories spanning four nights, Dennis Felton’s group from Cleveland State appeared just a tad leg-weary in the tournament final.
Wright State hustled down a number of offensive rebounds in the second half to extend possessions, contributing to a key 18-3 overall edge in second-chance points.
After heading to the break trailing 34-26, Cleveland State rattled off a quick five points to begin the second half to pull within three.
But as they did all tournament long, Wright State answered right back, this time with a 10-2 burst highlighted by a spectacular drive and finish by freshman Everett Winchester with just under 15 minutes to go.
The Vikings would draw no closer than seven the rest of the way.
Winchester's crowd-pleaser was followed a short time later by a highlight-reel play from Conference Freshman of the Year Loudon Love. Handling the rock out beyond the 3-point arc, the 275-pound Love shook his defender with a crossover, then spun into the lane and finished with a double-pump layup on the opposite side of the hoop -- though he wasn’t sure his coach would be as enamored with the sequence.
“Coach (Nagy) will probably say I stumbled into it and to stop dribbling the ball on the perimeter,” joked Love. “But I think it was an energy play and it was good to get the team going.”
Cleveland State was led by its pair of All-Tournament Team guards: Kenny Carpenter scored 18 points and Tyree Appleby chipped in 15 to go with five assists. Appleby’s late fireworks against Northern Kentucky and his last-minute game-winner against Oakland will endure as signature moments in Horizon League lore.
“Tyree is going to be a special player,” Carpenter said of his gutsy freshman teammate.
The champion Raiders got important offensive contributions from Cole Gentry and Jaylon Hall. Each scored 11 points, making up for the atypical off-night offensively for Love (3-of-10, nine points).
Cleveland State’s season comes to an end with a 12-23 overall record.
With the victory, Wright State (25-9) earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, the third trip in program history (1993, 2007). They now await their opponent, with brackets set to be released Sunday, March 11 at 6:00 p.m. on TBS.
