By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – Ten days after losing a heartbreaker in a road game to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the UW-Green Bay women’s basketball team turned the tables on the Panthers last night.
No. 3-seeded Green Bay defeated No. 6 Milwaukee 57-42 in a Horizon League quarterfinal game at the Kress Events Center.
With the victory, Green Bay advanced to the semifinals, where it will face No. 4 Cleveland State Mar. 7 in Indianapolis.
Green Bay defeated Cleveland State 66-64 at the Wolstein Center in the final game of the regular season.
Top-seeded IUPUI will face No. 7 Oakland in the other semifinal, with the winners playing March 8 for the automatic bid into the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 Tournament.
“We did a good job in the lane and kept them off the glass,” Green Bay Head Coach Kevin Borseth said. “We put an emphasis on the paint. Milwaukee dominated us down there (Feb. 21). Now we have to get ready for a physical Vikings team. I don’t know what to tell you at this point. (Cleveland State) has arguably the best scorer (Destiny Leo) I’ve ever seen in women’s college basketball.”
Against the Panthers, Cassie Schiltz led the Phoenix with 14 points and 7 rebounds.
Julia Hartwig was the only other Green Bay player to notch double figures with 11 points and 3 assists.
The Phoenix shot 40.4% from the field and outrebounded the Panthers, 37-29.
A striking stat was the defensive effort Green Bay put together.
The Phoenix (19-6 overall, 15-4 Horizon) held Milwaukee’s leading scorer, Megan Walstad, to five points in 31 minutes of action.
It equaled the Panthers’ worst offensive output of the season after they lost 79-42 to Florida State in November.
Sydney Staver finished with nine points on 4-of-10 shooting to lead Milwaukee in scoring.
Schiltz scored 8 of the first 10 points for Green Bay, as it eventually built a 16-7 lead in the opening quarter.
“Everything went in at the beginning,” Schiltz said. “We knew we had to start the first five minutes with good play.”
Milwaukee (14-16, 13-9) stayed strong and cut the Phoenix lead to 19-14 after Emma Wittmershaus buried a triple midway through the second quarter.
The Panthers also forced back-to-back shot-clock violations after switching to a zone defense.
“We weren’t very good when they switched defenses,” Borseth said. “We tried a couple of things we thought would get them out of it. Both of them failed. After that, I thought we started to move the ball better.”
Sydney Levy and Bailey Butler hit key shots and Hartwig a conventional three-point play as part of a 9-0 run that eventually gave Green Bay a 30-20 lead at halftime.
The Phoenix continued to execute their offense in the third quarter, while the Panthers went cold, connecting on only three shots.
With a 45-27 lead entering the final quarter and its season on the line with each game, Green Bay scored seven of the first nine points to take a commanding 52-29 lead with about seven minutes remaining.
Down the stretch, Milwaukee’s trapping defense had little traction, as the Phoenix celebrated the double-digit victory with their 2,014 fans in attendance.