DETROIT, Mich. - Junior Jaleesa Armstrong scored 23 points and added 10 assists for a double-double to lead the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team to an 84-68 victory over the University of Detroit Wednesday evening at Calihan Hall.
 
The Panthers (5-8, 1-0 Horizon League) never trailed against the Titans (5-9, 0-1 Horizon League) in setting season highs with 84 points scored and 52.5 percent shooting from the field to claim a win in the first conference game of the year.
 
"I felt like this past week and a half, we really took the time to do the little things at practices. Tonight we played team basketball," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "If we can continue to work the ball and hit shots, it's going to be a great year."
 
Armstrong tied her season high with the 23 points and set a high-water mark on the year with the 10 assists to record her first double-double in a UWM uniform. She also tied a 15-year old program record for most makes without a miss from three-point range, finishing a perfect 5-for-5 from distance.
 
Senior Ashley Green ended the night with 16 points and a team-best eight rebounds. Freshman Jenny Lindner added one of her most complete games of the season, contributing 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
 
Sophomore Christina Wakeman chipped in eight points off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting as well.
 
Rosanna Reynolds and Haleigh Ristovski both had 18 points to lead Detroit.
 
The Panthers controlled the flow of the game the whole night, answering every run UDM made. The final one came early in the second half.
 
"We felt like we needed to out-tough them in the second half," Rechlicz said. "The team that was going to be victorious was the team that was going to be the toughest and I felt like we had some people step up in the second half defensively for us."
 
After the Titans trimmed the deficit to just two at 53-51, UWM responded with nine straight points to make it a 62-51 lead when Armstrong navigated her way through the lane for a layup at the 12:21 mark.
 
It was back to 10 points on a three by freshman Kelsey Cunningham with just under eight minutes to play – UWM's 15^th triple of the night – and it never dipped below double-digits the rest of the way.
 
"I think this is huge, just the confidence aspect," Rechlicz said. "We played a tough non-conference schedule to prepare us for this. We've tried to stay with non-conference opponents that fit our league and are a little bit above our league to put us in the best position to compete. For our players, this win shows that we can beat anybody in our conference. The effort was tremendous across the board."
 
The Panthers were not able to build on the sizzling start to the contest as well as they hoped, a run of play that saw them make their first six field goals of the night and jump out to a 16-3 advantage.
 
Milwaukee continued the torrid pace – making 9-of-11 from the opening tip – and eventually built the lead to 15 at 32-17 on a layup by Wakeman at the 9:59 mark.
 
From there, Detroit caught the hot hand, ripping off an 18-5 run that trimmed the deficit down to just two at 37-35. UWM responded, as three-pointers by Green and classmate Macie Dorow pushed it back to 43-35 and it was 43-39 at intermission.
 
Up next, the Panthers continue Horizon League play with a trip to Rochester to take on Oakland. The game will have an early tip off of 10:30 a.m. CST Saturday.