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UWM WBB team
71
Northern Kentucky NKU 16-10, 8-7 HL
78
Winner Milwaukee UWM 16-10, 10-5 HL
Northern Kentucky NKU
16-10, 8-7 HL
71
Final
78
Milwaukee UWM
16-10, 10-5 HL
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Northern Kentucky NKU 16 15 12 28 71
Milwaukee UWM 22 14 15 27 78

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Panthers Cool Off Red-Hot Northern Kentucky

Ford-Washington leads the way with 24 points

MILWAUKEE – Sierra Ford-Washington scored a game-high 24 points as the Milwaukee women's basketball team notched a big 78-71 win over a red-hot Northern Kentucky team Thursday night from the Klotsche Center.
 
The win is a huge one for Milwaukee (16-10, 10-5 Horizon), moving them into a tie for second place in the league standings with three games left in the regular season. UWM is tied in the league standings with Wright State, with the two teams set to square off Saturday.
 
The loss is just the second in the last eight games for Northern Kentucky (16-10, 8-7).
 
"They (Northern Kentucky) are a good team and their coach has them playing very good basketball coming down to tournament time so we knew this was going to be a tough game from the start," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "The first half was pretty much all offense – it was an offensive clinic for everybody to see. And I knew that once we started figuring out what offense they were running and how to defend it with our defense, we would be able to make some plays with our defense down the stretch."
 
The win guarantees Milwaukee a winning season in both the regular season and in the Horizon League – the first time either has happened since the 2007-08 season.
 
Ford-Washington led the way for Milwaukee with 24 points, with 11 of those from the free-throw line.
 
Steph Kostowicz continued her string of strong showings, netting 19 points to go with 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season.
 
Sydney Howard also was huge for Milwaukee in this one. The senior scored a season-high 15 points of 6-10 shooting (3-6 from behind the arc), while running the offense for the Panthers.
 
"She stepped up big," Rechlicz said of Howard. "At the beginning of the game they decided not to guard her very much; they were going to pack it in, and she just came in with a lot of confidence like a senior should do.
 
"We have all the confidence in the world for her to take those shots, and she nailed them."
 
Christine Roush had a team-high 19 points for NKU.
 
Both teams came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, highlighted by Howard. NKU was begging the Panther point guard to shoot and she did just that, connecting on a pair of triples early and scoring eight of her points in the first 10 minutes to give her team a 22-16 lead after one.
 
The shooting came down to earth a little in the second and third quarters with the Panther lead kept close.
 
But UWM used one of its patented runs that have sparked this team so many times this season in the fourth quarter to take control.
 
After an NKU three cut the Panther lead to just five in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, Milwaukee used an 11-3 run to seize control. Howard got things going with a layup before back-to-back buckets by Kostowicz quickly gave the Panthers an 11-point advantage. A pair of Ford-Washington free throws stretched the lead to 13 with 5:39 to play and another lay in by Kostowicz gave UWM its largest lead of the night at 72-57 with just 1:50 left on the clock.
 
Milwaukee once again won the rebounding battle, 41-34, and had a 4-1 edge in blocks on the night. UWM also outshot NKU, 47.1 percent to just 32.8.
 
The next game is a big one in the Horizon League as Milwaukee and Wright State – tied in the league standings for the second seed – square off Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. from the Klotsche Center.
 
 
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