SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP)-- Courtnay Pilypaitis and May Kotsopoulos made sure
Vermont didn't panic after squandering a 14-point lead against
Wisconsin.
The pair, who led Vermont in dancing and singing
during pregame warmups in the NCAA tournament game, helped the
Catamounts regain their composure after falling behind by four points in
the second half.
Kotsopoulos tied the score with a 3-pointer midway
through the second half, then Pilypaitis scored Vermont's next three
baskets, including a three-point play, en route to the 64-55 win over
the seventh-seeded Badgers.
"I think we were a little nervous
about the lead," Kotsopoulos said. "But once we calmed everything down
we went back to what was making us successful."
Pilypaitis scored
25 points and Kotsopoulos added 14 to lead the Catamounts to their first
NCAA victory in six tries.
"It's amazing for us," Kotsopoulos
said. "We're very happy with it, but we want to keep going."
The
10th-seeded Catamounts (27-6) bucked the trend of the top seed winning
in this year's tournament by overcoming misses on their first nine shots
of the second half. The better seeds didn't lose on the opening day of
the tournament for only the third time since the field expanded to 64
teams in 1994.
Wisconsin (21-11) opened the second half on a 12-0run to go ahead 37-33. But the Badgers, who had come back from
double-digit deficits three times this season, couldn't hold off the
Catamounts.
"I think what happens when you have a lead is that
mentally you start protecting the lead instead of playing basketball,"
Vermont coach Sharon Dawley said. "We knew that we had to fight back."
Alyssa
Karel hit a 3 for Wisconsin to cut the lead to 46-44 with 6:38 left,
but Vermont went on a 9-2 run to extend it back to 55-46. Wisconsin
never got closer than four points.
"They just hit some big shots,"
Wisconsin coach Lisa Stone said. "I thought our defense was much better
in the second half. We played our kind of defense. We settled down, but
it came down to them making big shots and they hit them."
Dawley
said she wasn't worried about the slow start in the second half.
"We're
such good shooters that if we miss 10, we're going to start making
them," she said.
Pilypaitis, who didn't attempt a shot until
midway through the first half, said she just tried to stay patient.
"I
just wanted to pick and choose my shots knowing that I am going to have
their best defender on me," she said. "I think I was just trying to let
everyone get comfortable and then pick my spots to shoot."
The
game was much different from a year ago, when the Catamounts were a 16th
seed and were routed 104-65 in the first round by Connecticut.
It
was just the fourth NCAA tournament win in 19 tries for teams from the
America East. The other wins were 10th-seeded Hartford against Syracuse
in 2008, 11th-seeded Hartford against Temple in 2006 and 10th-seeded
Maine against Stanford in 1999.