Green Bay defeats Michigan State 65-56 to advance from Wichita

Wisconsin-Green Bay is headed to its first Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament.

Never mind for now that powerful Baylor awaits the fifth-seeded Phoenix on Sunday in Dallas. For now, it’s enough that Green Bay is going further than it ever has in the tournament after knocking off Michigan State 65-56 Tuesday night in front of 4,242 fans at Intrust Bank Arena.

“This is fair,” Green Bay coach Matt Bollant said. “Sometimes life isn’t always fair, but it was right today. This is right because of how hard they worked. This is the best group I’ve ever been around.”

Green Bay had lost a close second-round game at Iowa State last year, but returned this season with a goal to deeper into the tournament Green Bay (34-1) will take a 25-game winning streak against Baylor.

“Our maturity has grown by leaps and bounds since last year,” point guard Celeste Hoewisch said. “This team has a will to win.”

Green Bay needed all that to withstand a second-half charge from the fourth-seeded Big Ten champions.

Trailing by as much as 14 points in the first half, Michigan State came on strong after the break to cut the difference to one, 39-38, with about 12 minutes remaining.

“They had us really rattled in the first half,” MSU coach Suzy Merchant said. “I liked our fight in the second half.”

The Spartans began attacking Green Bay’s pressure defense, which helped force MSU into 25 turnovers. But that Spartan jolt seemed to push Green Bay back to life. With Hoewisch scoring five points, the Phoenix ripped off a 9-2 run for a 55-46 lead with about 4½ minutes remaining.

Hoewisch finished that stretch with a three-pointer right after MSU’s Lykendra Johnson went down at the other end of the court after catching a knee in the head. She lay on the court as play continued, but was later able to get up and continue.

“They should have stopped the game,” Merchant said.

Green Bay made it hard on itself by missing four straight free throws in the final minute. But Adrian Ritchie, who missed two of those, hit a pair with 20.8 seconds remaining with to put the Phoenix up 62-56.

The Spartans lost the ball with about 15 seconds remaining when Brittney Thomas stepped out of bounds. From there, the Phoenix finished off the victory with three free throws.

Ritchie came off the bench to lead Green Bay with 20 points. But if she wasn’t hitting the big shots for the Phoenix, it was Julie Wojta or Hoewisch. Wojta finished with 18 points.

“Julie had ice water in her veins,” said Hoewisch, who had 14 points and four steals.

Part of MSU’s early struggles was its inability to get Big Ten player of the year Kalisha Keane going offensively. She made 1 of 7 shots before the break. But she was also part of the Spartans’ answer in the second half, when she scored 14 of her 20 points.

Down the stretch, MSU’s Cetera Washington connected on consecutive baskets to keep the Spartans in the game. But she also missed the front end of a one-and-one with 1:29 remaining and Green Bay leading 59-50.

“They were bound to make a run,” Wojta said. “We just had to sustain our intensity and make another run at them.”

Five minutes into the second half and for the first time on the night, Keane finished an inside move for layup, then moments later nailed a threepointer. Johnson followed up going the length of the court for another layup. Keane repeated the move moments later to chop Green Bay’s 12-point halftime to one, 39-38.

But Michigan State’s runs came too late and weren’t frequent enough.

“We dug ourselves a whole we couldn’t get out of,” Thomas said.

Green Bay, which played few close games during the year when its winning margin was 22 points, began to get frazzled.

And usually it was Keane applying the pressure, both in guarding Green Bay’s Kayla Tetschlag and on offense. During a 15-7 run by MSU, Keane scored 11 points.

Green Bay was easily the quicker team in the first half as the Horizon League champions went into the break leading 35-23.

The Phoenix repeatedly blew past the MSU for easy layups off backdoor cuts or just driving the baseline. With the Spartans committing 15 turnovers in the first half, Green Bay was forever getting in passing lanes, stripping dribbles and picking up loose balls.

This story was originally published March 22, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Green Bay defeats Michigan State 65-56 to advance from Wichita."