UWGB women's basketball is back in March Madness for the first time since 2018 after winning Horizon League Tournament championship

Finally.

After several seasons of heartbreaking losses, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women’s basketball team is headed back to the NCAA Tournament.

UWGB beat Cleveland State 64-40 on Tuesday in the Horizon League championship game at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis.

The Phoenix (27-6) earned an automatic bid to the Big Dance for the first time since 2018, and it did so in convincing fashion.

"Just really excited to come out on top today,” UWGB coach Kevin Borseth said. “A hard-fought contest. Cleveland has a great program. The two of us have been battling back and forth for the last couple of years, and today happened to be our day. Our kids have really worked hard for it. Really happy for them."

UWGB took an 8-5 lead on a 3-pointer from Cassie Schiltz with 5 minutes, 11 seconds left in the first quarter and never relinquished the advantage against a CSU squad that won the Horizon League regular-season championship.

Junior guard Natalie McNeal scored a career-high 32 points and shot 15-for-21 in the win. She was the only Phoenix player in double figures, receiving a loud ovation after coming out of the game in the final minute.

The 5-foot-8 McNeal has been a thorn in CSU’s side since she transferred to UWGB from St. Louis University before last season.

The Vikings’ Syracuse zone defense has given the Phoenix fits at times in the past. It’s part of the reason UWGB had been eliminated in the Horizon tournament each of the last three seasons by CSU before getting to play party spoiler in this one.

Win or lose, McNeal has been the zone buster in every game against CSU.

The former Germantown star scored her previous career-high of 30 points in the last meeting between the teams in February and has averaged 20.3 points and 8.5 rebounds while shooting 63% (51-for-81) in six games against the Vikings.

UWGB shot 49.1% overall (27-for-55) on Tuesday, with Schiltz and sophomore forward-center Jenna Guyer each complementing McNeal’s huge game with 8 points each.

"I came to Green Bay with hopes of being on a winning team like this,” McNeal said. “It’s really rewarding to have teammates like Cassie and everyone, and Coach Borseth made it into a reality."

UWGB’s defense shines

McNeal was the big story on offense, but a Phoenix defense led by junior point guard Bailey Butler perhaps was even more impressive.

UWGB entered with the best scoring defense in the 11-team Horizon but was facing the best scoring offense in CSU.

The defense won out.

CSU shot just 32.7% overall (16-for-49) and 19% from 3-point range (4-for-21). It had 14 turnovers and was outrebounded 41-19.

Vikings junior guard and Horizon League player of the year Colbi Maples had 22 points but mostly was a one-woman show. Only three other CSU players had a field goal, and while Maples shot 10-for-20, the rest of the team was 6-for-29.

CSU (29-5) was held to its fewest points since scoring 30 against UWGB in March 2019.

Maples and senior guard Mickayla Perdue have served as the Vikings’ 1-2 scoring punch all season.

Perdue, who was a first-team all-conference selection and the league’s newcomer of the year after previous stops at Toledo and DII Glenville State in West Virginia, entered averaging a team-high 17.2 points but was held to just 7 points and 2-for-12 shooting.

It was only the fourth time in 28 starts this season that she was held to fewer than 10 points.

UWGB is 23-0 this season when holding opponents under 60 points.

UWGB pulls away early

The Phoenix scored the final four points of the first quarter and seven of the first 10 of the second to take a 19-10 advantage after a jumper from McNeal with 7:50 left in the first half.

UWGB took a double-figure lead on a basket from Guyer less than two minutes later and never led by fewer than 10 points the rest of the way.

It was natural to think the Vikings would at least make one hard charge, but it never came.

The Phoenix was up 13 at halftime, 18 at the end of the third quarter and by at least 16 for the final 10 minutes.

It was a far different story in the title game between the teams last season, when CSU broke a 20-all tie early in the second quarter and never trailed again.

Or in the semifinals in 2022 when the Vikings handed the Phoenix its worst postseason defeat since it moved to Division I in 1987.

Or the quarterfinals in 2021, when CSU prevented UWGB from advancing to at least the semifinal round for the first time in more than 25 years.

Not this time. This time it was all Phoenix.

Phoenix is ready to go dancing

UWGB will learn its opponent for the opening round of the NCAAs on Sunday.

It earned a No. 7 seed the last time it went dancing, losing to No. 10 Minnesota in the first round in 2018.

The highest seed in program history came in 2011, when the Phoenix received a No. 5 on the way to making its only Sweet 16 appearance.

UWGB is seeking its first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2012, when it beat Iowa State in the opening round before almost pulling an upset against No. 2 Kentucky in the second round in a 65-62 loss.

Schiltz got emotional when talking about what it meant for the Phoenix to not only get back to the NCAAs, but to do it for Borseth.

She even made Borseth cry.

“I wanted to come to Green Bay because of Coach,” Schiltz said. “To be back in this moment, he has won several times, but I saw him cry before the game started. Just to be able to win this one for him means so much. He cares about us as players, but he cares more about us as people. He values family. To be able to get to do it all together with our families is awesome.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: UWGB women earn trip to NCAA Tournament with win over Cleveland State