Green Bay, Wis. - Top-seeded
Green Bay (27-4) had its record 27 consecutive home-court winning streak snapped
by fourth seeded Cleveland State in (18-13) the Horizon League Tournament
semifinal game falling 83-75 in overtime. Ironically the last time Green Bay
lost on their home court in a conference tournament game was in 2008 when the
No. 4 seed Vikings upset No. 1 seed Green Bay.
"I felt tonight was a much higher level basketball game than
it was two years ago, they stepped up and made great plays," said head coach
Matt Bollant.
Green Bay struggled in the first half getting into its game
rhythm while Cleveland State didn't let the top-seeded Phoenix intimidate them
with its home court advantage, "we always want to be proactive and instead we
were reactionary the whole game," said Bollant.
Both teams each built a six point lead with the Vikings
shooting 42 percent while the Phoenix shot 35 percent and managed to head to
the locker room with a two-point lead (30-28) at the break.
Cleveland State started off the second half by taking a
one-point lead off a three-pointer from Shawnita Garland who finished the night
with 21 points. The Phoenix led by as many as seven but Cleveland State kept
fighting under the leadership of senior Kailey Klein who scored a game high 28
points and had five steals.
"We talk all year that the championship teams get stops and
we had the inability to get stops when we needed to," said Bollant.
In the second half Cleveland State shot 75 percent from the
field compared to Green Bay's 50 percent. With 1:05 to play in regulation Klein
broke a 64-64 tie by draining a three-pointer. Green Bay answered with 0:35
left when Celeste Hoewisch (Hortonville, Wis.) sank her only three of the game
from the top of the key to tie the game at 67 and force overtime.
In overtime Green Bay scored first with a rebound and layup
from Hoewisch who finished the night leading the Phoenix with 20 points. With
less than three minutes to play in overtime, the Phoenix turned the ball over
three times while the Vikings scored on every Green Bay miscue.
"It's real disappointing how we didn't get it done down the
stretch; we just didn't go after lose balls the whole game like we should've playing
on our home court," said Kayla Tetschlag (Sheboygan, Wis.) who had her fourth
double-double of the season scoring 16 points and grabbing a game high 14 rebounds.
The Vikings finished with a 12-5 scoring run to advance to
Sunday's Championship game where they will face second seeded Butler (23-8).
"We did enough to win the basketball game; we just didn't
get enough stops defensively. Give them credit they hit some great shots and we
just didn't get a defensive stop when we needed," said Bollant.
Green Bay will now wait to see which tournament they will be
playing in during the post-season. With key wins over Wisconsin, Marquette and
DePaul and winning their last nine of ten games the Phoenix will hope for an
at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. "These kids deserve to be in the NCAA
tournament after the season we had with beating two top 50 teams and winning
nine of our last 10 games, I think this team deserves to get an at-large bid to
the tournament," said Bollant.
The women's NCAA selection show will be Monday night at
6:00. By virtue of winning the regular season Horizon League title Green Bay is
guaranteed a spot in the post season. The WNIT Tournament bracket will also be
announced Monday night between 10-11:00 p.m.
---www.GreenBayPhoenix.com---
