March 17, 2001
DURHAM, N.C.-Milwaukee's dream season came to an end Saturday afternoon as No. 5 Duke defeated the Panthers, 96-63, Saturday afternoon at Cameroon Indoor Stadium in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
"It's always hard to end the season on a loss, but I'm really proud of the players and it's just a wonderful experience for us," said UWM coach Sandy Botham. "We are just taking a lot away from this season."
Making their first ever appearance in the Big Dance, no. 16-seeded UWM ended its Division I school record nine-game winning streak and finished with a 19-11 record on the season, while no. 1-seeded Duke (29-3) advances to the second round.
"Their size was a big difference," Botham said of Duke. "They just ran the floor very well. We had a hard time handling them in the transition."
"We faced a lot of full-court pressure this year, but not quite like this," said senior forward Nicole Luchsinger, who finished with eight points. "Duke had a lot of 'on-the-ball pressure' that made it difficult."
"Our trademark has been not to give up," said senior Teri Stoltenberg. "We've been that way the whole season. So coming into this game, I told the team that 'whatever you do, don't give up'. And we kept putting pressure on them, no matter what the score was. That's a credit to everyone on the team."
Sophomore guard Jessica Wilhite led all scores with 24 points while tying a career-high with six steals. Stoltenberg finished 3-of-4 from beyond the arc to tally nine points, and junior guard Holly Tamm also added nine points, all coming from the line.
"It's just a great experience for us," said Wilhite, on playing the top seed. "Facing the no. 1 team-there's not alot of teams that get to do this. We definitely learned a lot from this and we'll have a lot of confidence coming into next year."
Down 86-57with under three minutes to play, Wilhite made a small run to help the Panthers close the gap. She swished her fourth three-pointer of the game, then swiped the ball seconds later on defense and got a foul, making 1-of-2 at the line.
Milwaukee was able to beat Duke's tenacious press when Wilhite came up with the ball and sank a pull-up three-pointer at 13:06 left in the game. The Panthers beat the pressure just over a minute later later when Wilhite bombed another three to cut the lead to 62-43.
Duke finished with 64.5 percent from the field and 40-made field goals, both opponent season-highs against UWM. Milwaukee shot 31 percent and made 8-of-22 three-pointers. The Blue Devils outrebounded the Panthers, 39-29, and recorded 21 assists and 20 turnovers. UWM tallied 12 assists and 23 turnovers, while both teams grabbed 14 steals.
UWM opened the game 5-4, but Duke's quickness became apparent early as it went on a 14-0, including three steals that earned the Blue Devils fast-break layups. Milwaukee settled down and showed patience and good ball movement when Wilhite hit a jumper at the 12:39 mark, followed by a three-pointer from Stoltenberg to trail by 10 points.
Duke bulked up its lead again throughout the first half with hot shooting. The half closed with Milwaukee going on a 7-2 run, including a Stefanie Kaufmann jumper at the buzzer to trail the Blue Devils, 45-28.
The Blue Devils, making their seventh consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, improve their record at home to 59-5.
Saturday's NCAA Tournament loss also marks a farewell bid to three seniors: Stoltenberg, Luchsinger, and Janelle Jonason. The three players were Botham's first recruits and are a huge part of the program's building to winning its first MCC Championship and making its first berth into the Big Dance.
"I'm just enjoying this whole experience," said Luchsinger. "This is what we came to UWM for. Our dream was to make it to the NCAA Tournament and that is what we worked our butts off for four years for. And we got it done."
