GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay (27-3, 15-3) women's basketball quest for its 10th Horizon League tournament championship got off to a slow start but it held on to beat in-state rival Milwaukee (12-19) 72-48 to advance to Friday's semifinal.

“This time of year you want to move on and I'm happy that we're doing so on Friday,” said head coach Matt Bollant.

Green Bay turned the ball over 13 times in the first half and shot 37 percent, scoring just six points in the paint, “We didn't get a lot of finishes inside in the first half but we did keep stressing to try and go inside first,” said Bollant.

The Phoenix headed to the locker room with the 33-26 lead and some foul trouble as Kayla Tetschlag (Sheboygan, Wis.) had three and Julie Wojta (Mishicot, Wis.) and Sarah Eichler (Grafton, Wis.) each had two.

“Kayla did a great job playing in the first half with her fouls and carried her smart play into the second half while playing great defense on Milwaukee's best player (Laur),” said Bollant.

Defense prevailed in the second half for Green Bay as they forced the Panthers to turn the ball over 14 times, scoring 21 points off the miscues, “We didn't pressure them as much as we wanted to defensively in the first half but in the second half we really stepped it up and played tighter and moved the ball around in the zone better,” said Tetschlag who led all scorers with 16 points and nine rebounds.

After Milwaukee cut Green Bay's lead to seven with under 12 minutes to play, freshman Adrian Ritchie (De Pere, Wis.) gave the Phoenix a much-needed spark. Ritchie stole the ball, passed it to Celeste Hoewisch (Hortonville, Wis.) who then found Heather Golden (De Pere, Wis.) for a three-pointer. Green Bay followed up with two consecutive fast breaks off Milwaukee turnovers building their lead to 14.

 “One of the ways Heather can show toughness for the team is by making threes and she stepped up and hit two big ones for us in the second half,” said Bollant.

Green Bay went on a 12-3 scoring run shooting 53 percent in the second half while tying a Kress Center record for three-pointers made (11). Eichler scored a career-high 15 points while Hoewisch also chipped in 15 and tied a career high six assists. Green Bay's win also tied its home court winning streak at 27 games.

The Phoenix will host four-seeded Cleveland State in Friday's semifinal game at 8:00 p.m. The winner will play either Detroit or Butler in Sunday's championship game at noon.