ROCHESTER, Mich. - Oakland University shot a season-high 54.8 percent and got a career high 23 points from Nola Anderson to lead the way to an 89-56 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team Saturday at the O'rena.
 
"A lot of credit goes to Oakland. They come in fresh, they came in well-prepared and they took it at us," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "They played really, really tough and if you want to be one of the top teams in the league, it's that toughness – that mentality – that you have to play with."
 
The Panthers (5-9, 1-1 Horizon League) led the Golden Grizzles (7-7, 1-0 Horizon League) in the opening minutes but could not overcome a pair of first-half scoring runs and the hot shooting by Oakland.
 
Senior Ashley Green paced Milwaukee with 12 points, but was hampered by foul trouble all game, picking up her fourth with close to 12 minutes left in the contest. She was joined in double-figures by junior Jaleesa Armstrong with 11.
 
"I felt like some of them were out of her control, but we have to learn how to play without Ashley," Rechlicz said. "There are going to be times, in games, where we don't have her on the level that we need her and we need other people to step up. We did have some players that played really, really hard tonight. Those last seven to eight minutes, we really focused on playing those players. The ones that were going to crash really hard, the ones that were going to run back on defense every single time. I thought there were some people on our team that gave us some really good minutes."
 
Junior Sydney Howard set a career high in rebounds for the second straight game, grabbing seven today after collecting six Wednesday. She added nine points to flirt with her first career double-double.
 
Sinclair Russell helped out the home team with career highs in points and rebounds, finishing with a double-double of 15 points and 15 boards. Four of five OU starters finished in double-figures.
 
Oakland led by 13 at the break and made its first five shots of the second half to quickly extend the lead to 18 points. From there, UWM never got it back below 10, as the Panthers did not help their own cause by shooting 31.6 percent on the day.
 
Milwaukee trailed 39-26 at the half when the Anderson sank a three-pointer at the buzzer from halfcourt. Two scoring runs set the game apart early. The Panthers led early at 12-9, but a 13-2 run turned a four-point UWM lead into a 22-14 advantage by the home team.
 
Milwaukee hit a couple of buckets to stem the tide, but the Grizzlies did it again, this time with a 10-2 spurt that extended the lead to 12 at 32-20 at the time.
 
Up next, the Panthers return home and are set to play a doubleheader with the men's team Wednesday at UWM Panther Arena. The women welcome Wright State to downtown Milwaukee, set for a 5 p.m. tip.