COLUMBIA, Mo. - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team put up a valiant effort in the second half against Missouri University before falling, 68-55, Sunday afternoon at Mizzou Arena.
 
"I knew we would never quit, that word is not in our team's vocabulary," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "I knew they would fight. We just made some poor decisions up to that point and if we took care of the basketball better and started rebounding, I knew we would have a chance."
 
The Panthers (1-4) held a Tiger team (4-1) that came into the day averaging 82 points a game almost 15 below its average.
 
"A lot of credit to Missouri," Rechlicz said. "Their coaching staff came up with a great game plan and really made our players have to think. This is only going to help us as we head in to the next set of games."
 
Senior Ashley Green paced UWM with 14 points. Senior Macie Dorow finished just one point off her career-high, scoring 13, including a trio of three-pointers.
 
"As a senior, Macie took over and stepped up," Rechlicz said. "She gave us a huge lift in the second half and really knocked down some key shots to help us on that run."
 
Junior Jordyn Swan had eight and Sydney Howard chipped in with a nice statline of 5 points/3 rebounds/4 assists/2 steals.
 
Jordan Frericks led three Tigers in double-figures with 13. UWM held Morgan Eye, one of the more prolific three-point shooters in the country, to just three points on 1-of-8 shooting.
 
"I think we were really locked in to two of their best players," Rechlicz said. "Eye is a great shooter and Frericks is the heart and soul of their team and she hadn't scored much until the end of the game when she got to the free throw line and some easy buckets off of our press."
 
Trailing by 19 points with under 16 minutes to play, the Panthers used a brilliant 15-2 run to get back into the game and make Missouri grind it out down the stretch.
 
UWM actually trimmed the deficit to just five at 57-52 on a steal and coast-to-coast layup by freshman Steph Kostowicz with 3:45 left in the contest.
 
Unfortunately, that stretch of great play was followed by turnovers on three straight possessions, as Mizzou responded with a 10-0 run to regain control and lead 67-52 with just about a minute to play.
 
The first half was not pretty, but could have been worse for the Panthers, who trailed 37-23 at the half despite shooting just 31 percent from the floor and committing 10 turnovers.
 
Milwaukee jumped out quickly and led, 8-6, at 15:19 mark on a transition layup by Green.
 
From there, it was all Mizzou, as UWM went cold from the floor. The Panthers made just one of their next 14 attempts from the field, getting outscored 21-4 over a nine-minute period as the Tigers scored 13 in a row at one point to eventually take a 27-12 advantage with 6:30 to play in the first half.
 
For the game, UWM shot 32.8 percent (20-of-61) and Missouri ended at 43.9 percent (25-of-57) from the floor. The Tigers outrebounded the Panthers 51-30 and held a 32-14 advantage in the paint and 15-0 on second-chance points.
 
Up next, the three-game road trip concludes Tuesday with a stop at UMKC, set for a 7 p.m. tipoff.