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UW-Green Bay pulls big upset in opener

AMES, Iowa — It got a little shaky there at the end, but no matter.

What counted was that UW-Green Bay pulled out a rare victory in the NCAA women's tournament and the Phoenix will take it, regardless of how it came about.

Celeste Hoewisch scored 23 points and 12th-seeded Green Bay let most of a 16-point lead slip away before holding on to beat Virginia, 69-67, Sunday night in the first round of the NCAA women's tournament.

After it appeared the Phoenix (28-4) would win in a rout, fifth-seeded Virginia forced a slew of turnovers by turning up its defensive pressure and cut the lead to 64-63 on Ariana Moorer's two free throws with 32.7 seconds left.

But Green Bay steadied just enough to make five free throws in the closing seconds to advance.

"We did lose our cool a little bit," Green Bay's Adrian Ritchie said. "But I felt confident. ... I was proud that we pulled it out."

It was a disappointing ending for Virginia's Monica Wright, the ACC player of the year and the school's career scoring leader. Wright did her part with 34 points and nine rebounds, but didn't get the help she needed from her teammates.

Green Bay finished with almost twice as many turnovers (30) as field goals (16), but survived by making 34 of 40 free throws.

"You look at the difference of the game, probably the free throw line is a huge difference," Green Bay coach Matt Bollant said.

It was just the third victory in 11 NCAA tournament appearances for Green Bay.

Ritchie and Kayla Tetschlag each added 14 points for Green Bay, the first Horizon League team to earn an NCAA at-large berth.