Dec. 13, 2002

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - Geneva Livingston's desperation fadeaway with 1.1 seconds left thwarted a furious second half rush by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team as the University of New Hampshire claimed a 71-69 non-conference victory here Friday (Dec. 13). Down 11 points at the half, UWM stormed back to take the lead twice late in the second half but the visitors connected on big shots down the stretch to hold on for the victory. With the win, New Hampshire improves to 4-3 on the season while Milwaukee drops to 3-6.

"I just feel bad for the Milwaukee women's basketball fans," UWM head coach Sandy Botham said. "We didn't come to play tonight. We let them come into our gym and beat us up. We played with no pride, no conviction, and no urgency. They took it right at us and we did nothing about it."

Milwaukee came out and grabbed a 10-4 lead at the 16:04 mark when Maria Viall connected on a jumper in the lane. The UWM lead was brief, however, as UNH roared back to score 17 of the next 21 points to go up 21-14 with 10:38 remaining in the half. The visitors continued to pound the ball inside to 6-3 Maren Matthias, who finished time and again en route to 20 first half points. The Wildcats took a 13-point lead, 32-19, at the 5:20 mark of the first stanza on a Matthias free throw and ended up heading to the locker room with the eleven-point bulge.

UNH hit four of eight from three-point land in the first half while forcing 12 Panther turnovers. Meanwhile, UWM shot just 36.7% from the floor as its two leading scorers, Viall and Jessica Wilhite, were held to a combined two points. Freshmen Anne Witte and Nichole Drummond kept UWM afloat with a combined 18 first half tallies.

After a brief but fiery halftime speech by Botham, Milwaukee came out in a full court press to start the second half and it led to immediate dividends. The Panthers scored the first seven points of the half to cut the UNH lead to 37-33 with 18:31 remaining in the game. With 13:51 left, the Panthers cut the lead to one, 45-44, when senior Antoinette Gregory connected on her first three-pointer of the year.

The persistent Panthers continued to press, and grabbed their first lead of the contest at the 7:10 mark when Wilhite hit all three free throws to make it 59-57. Two straight buckets by UNH's Sarah Rappaport made it 61-59 Wildcats but a Teri Huff layup and a Wilhite three gave UWM a 64-61 cushion with 5:29 to play in the game. New Hampshire returned the favor to UWM, and forced two consecutive turnovers while the Panthers tried to inbound the ball.

New Hampshire seemingly appeared to take control of the game with an 8-0 run, capped by two Aubrey Danen free throws with 1:45 left to give UNH a 69-64 lead. However, a trifecta by Wilhite and two Kimberly Becker free throws tied the game at 69 with 1:12 remaining to play. After Colleen Mullen missed a three-pointer UWM had the ball with 51 seconds to play. Jess Wilhite narrowly missed a 15-foot jumper and Molly O'Brien failed to convert on the follow and UNH came away with the ball with 17 seconds remaining and set the stage for Livingston's heroics.

Without calling a timeout, UNH hurried the ball down court and caught UWM in a helter-skelter defense. With :08 seconds remaining, Livingston drove baseline, lost control of the ball, and flung a fall-away jumper from 15-feet that found the bottom of the net with 1.1 seconds to go. Milwaukee's last possession fell short as Wilhite failed to get off a three-pointer before time expired.

"Well, after a game like this it's obvious we need to get in the gym and practice," Wilhite said. "We really have some things to work on and we just haven't had a whole lot of consistency in practice. Hopefully we can get things straightened out soon."

Teri Huff led UWM with a career-high 17 points on seven-of-twelve shooting in just 18 minutes of play. Wilhite finished the game with 14 points and a career-high tying seven steals. The freshman Drummond played her best game of the season, scoring 13 points in 25 minutes while fellow newcomer Witte finished the game with 10 tallies. Matthias added ten points in the second half as she posted game best totals of 30 points and 10 rebounds. Lindsay Adams also reached double figures for UNH with 10 points.

Viall, UWM's leading scorer and the 2001-02 Horizon League Player of the Year, scored just two points on the night while fouling out in just 13 minutes of action. This marks the first time the junior has failed to reach double figures in 16 games.

"With Maria struggling we need some other people to step up and it was nice to see Nichole do that tonight," added Botham. "She is a nice slasher and a great athlete who just has a knack for the game."

UWM will take a week off for final exams before playing an exhibition game versus Wisconsin AAU, Saturday (Dec. 21) at 2 p.m. in the Klotsche Center. The Panthers will return to "real" game action next Saturday (Dec. 28) when they host San Francisco at 1:00 p.m.