Horizon League Moments: Green Bay Goes to the Sweet 16

Note: With the Horizon League celebrating the 10th anniversary of its name change, the League will be looking back at significant moments from the last 10 years. 

The Green Bay women's basketball program had long been the dominant program in the Horizon League, claiming at least a share of 13 straight Horizon League regular season titles and reaching the NCAA Tournament on 11 occasions. In those previous 10 trips, though, the Phoenix had fallen short of the second weekend of play, until a group came along to help Green Bay become the first Horizon League women's basketball team to reach the Sweet 16.

Green Bay breezed through the Horizon League regular season, turning in its second undefeated League mark in the last three years. With a core group of Kayla Tetschlag, Celeste Hoewisch and Julie Wojta, the Phoenix were solid on both ends of the court, clinching the League's NCAA Tournament auto-bid with a 74-63 win over Butler in front of a packed Kress Events Center.

Taking a No. 13/11 ranking into the NCAA Tournament, the Phoenix were rewarded for a 32-1 regular season with a No. 5 seed in the tournament, where they faced off with 12th-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock in Wichita, Kan. Having been on the opposite end of a 5-12 upset the year before, when Green Bay knocked off Virginia in the opening round, the Phoenix dug deep to avoid a similar fate and hung on for a 59-55 victory. Tetschlag, the Horizon League co-Player of the Year, led the way with 24 points and 11 boards.

Reaching the round of 32 for the second straight year, the Phoenix once again met a No. 4 seed with a berth in the Sweet 16 on the line. This time, though, Green Bay led wire-to-wire, taking care of Big Ten foe Michigan State, 65-56, and claim the Sweet 16 bid. Wotja (18 points) combined with Adrian Ritchie to score 38 of the team's points, supplementing a 10-point, 12-rebound night for Tetschlag and a 14-point effort from Hoewisch. Ritchie's 20 points were the only bench points for the Phoenix, who outscored the Spartans, 20-0, off the bench.

After the game, head coach Matt Bollant recognized the hard work of his team, saying, "I stood in the locker room before the game and told the girls that this is right and this is fair because of how hard they have worked, their integrity and their character. It is the best team that I have ever been around. Life isn't always fair and the right thing doesn't always happen, but more than any other game that I have ever been a part of, I felt like the right thing happened today."

Reaching the Sweet 16, the Phoenix were tasked with stopping No. 1 seed Baylor and its star player, Brittany Griner. It would take 47 points from Griner to hold off a spirited Green Bay squad in an 86-76 loss in the Dallas Regional.

It took Green Bay a little while to find its method of attack against Baylor, but once the Phoenix found their legs, they had no problem going toe-to-toe with the Big 12 champion Bears. Trailing by nine at the half, Green Bay closed within three points early in the second half, bringing the crowd to its feet for the underdogs, but the Phoenix could draw no closer as Baylor eventually moved back into control of the game.

Tetschlag and Hoewisch would finish their careers with 27 and 20 points, respectively, in their final game, while the Phoenix set numerous team and Horizon League records along the way, including a League single-season best 34 wins.  The duo, along with fellow senior Heather Golden, went 117-17 in their four-year tenure with the Phoenix, raising the bar for Horizon League women's basketball.