Time to go dancing for UWGB women

GREEN BAY – The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women’s basketball team is heading back to Notre Dame.

UWGB received a No. 8 seed and will play No. 9 seed Purdue in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday in South Bend, Ind., after brackets were released Monday night.

The Phoenix and Boilermakers face off at 4 p.m. at the Purcell Pavilion in a game broadcast on ESPN2.

UWGB played at the same venue earlier this season, taking then-No. 1 Notre Dame down to the wire in a 71-67 loss.

The Phoenix is making its 17th appearance in the NCAAs and has gone 6-16 all-time in tournament play.

It’s the sixth time it has earned a single digit seed and the second time in the last three years.

UWGB previously was a No. 8 seed in 2003, when it beat No. 9 Washington in the first round before losing to No. 1 seed LSU.

“You go through it and everybody asks who you think you will draw over the course of time,” UWGB coach Kevin Borseth said. “I think we looked over probably, I don’t know, 20 different names during the course of time.

“Purdue was one of the teams we could have drawn, obviously, and did. We are just a small school, small conference, going to the Big Dance. We are pretty excited.”

UWGB has gone 1-1 all-time against Purdue and last played the Boilermakers in November 2015 in West Lafayette, Ind.

The Phoenix won 81-78 in double overtime, beating a Purdue squad ranked No. 24 in the country.

Both teams still have players who appeared in that game. It includes Phoenix starters Mehyrn Kraker, Jessica Lindstrom, Lexi Weitzer and Allie LeClaire along with one of its top reserves in Sam Terry.

Purdue enters 22-12 overall and finished tied for fourth in the Big Ten at 10-6. It advanced to the championship game of the conference tournament in Indianapolis, which included a win over No. 9 Ohio State in the semifinals.

It lost to No. 4 Maryland 74-64 in the title game.

The Boilermakers are making their 26th trip to the NCAAs. They have gone 46-24 all-time and won a national championship in 1999. They also have been to three Final Fours, eight Elite Eights and 12 Sweet 16’s.

Purdue has three players averaging in double figures, led by the trio of senior guard Ashley Morrissette (16.4 ppg), freshman guard Dominique Oden (10.6 ppg) and senior forward Bridget Perry (10.3 ppg).

“When you get on the court, you go back to your instincts as a team, the things that you do,” Borseth said. “I think we will do that. We will trust our preparation and do the things that we do and kind of go from there.

“I tell you, to get there is really special. We have done that a number of times. A couple of our teams have advanced beyond that first round. It’s a very difficult thing to do. I don’t know how many people realize how difficult that is. Certainly it is attainable.”

If the Phoenix does beat the Boilermakers, it likely would have a rematch with No. 1 seed Notre Dame in a second-round game.

“We put ourselves in a position to be in the tournament,” Kraker said. “A couple weeks ago everyone was questioning if we would even make it in. So the fact that we are here, we don’t want to say we are just happy to be here, but we got ourselves in this position.

“Why not go win a game? At this point, man, four years I have been here we haven’t won a game. Why not this year?”