Green Bay women beat Purdue Fort Wayne 76-63 for back-to-back Horizon League Tournament titles
Green Bay women beat Purdue Fort Wayne 76-63 for back-to-back Horizon League Tournament titles
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Natalie McNeal scored 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds as top-seeded Green Bay beat No. 2 seed Purdue Fort Wayne 76-63 on Tuesday to claim back-to-back Horizon League Tournament championships.
Green Bay (29-5) extended its winning streak to 22 games, the longest since rattling off 24 in the 2012-23 season. Green Bay also secured its 20th NCAA Tournament appearance in coach Kayla Karius’ first season at the helm.
Purdue Fort Wayne (25-8) was seeking its first Division I NCAA Tournament berth.
Green Bay trailed 51-50 with 2:56 left in the third quarter before Jenna Guyer made two 3-pointers and scored eight points during a 10-2 run to take a 60-53 lead into the fourth.
Bailey Butler scored the opening four points of the fourth to give Green Bay the first double-digit lead of the game. The Phoenix scored 12 of the opening 14 points of the fourth before Purdue Fort Wayne made its first field goal with 4:08 left on Sydney Freeman shot in the lane.
Green Bay improved to 14-1 in the series with Purdue Fort Wayne, with a one-point loss coming earlier this season.
Jasmine Kondrakiewicz and Callie Genke each scored 10 points for Green Bay. Guyer scored all eight of her points in the second half. McNeal was 11 of 20 from the field and 4 of 4 at the free-throw line.
Freeman led Purdue Fort Wayne with 18 points. Jordan Reid added 12 and Jazzlyn Linbo 11.
McNeal made 6 of 9 shots in the first half for a game-high 14 points as Green Bay and Purdue Fort Wayne played to a 40-40 tie after both teams shot above 51% from the field.
Purdue Fort Wayne made seven 3-pointers in the first half before finishing 9 of 23.
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