Dec. 28, 2002

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - It was all Maria Viall all the time at the Klotsche Center Saturday (Dec. 28) as the 6-3 junior led the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team to a 58-51 win over the University of San Francisco in non-conference play. Viall led all players with 25 points, 15 rebounds, and five blocks, while eclipsing the 1,000-point total for her career. The win snaps a two-game losing streak for Milwaukee (4-6 on the year), while the tough-luck Lady Dons fall to 2-9 on the season.

"The last couple of games I haven't played as strong as I should and I was basically sick of not playing well," Viall said. "It's nice to reach 1,000 points but honestly it hadn't even crossed my mind. We knew what we had to do today and we went out and got the job done. It's nice to head into conference play on a winning note."

The two teams played a very tight first half and went into the halftime lockerroom tied at 24. UWM held the Lady Dons to 33.3% shooting in the first stanza while connecting on 43.5% of their own field goal attempts. Viall, who dominated play on both ends of the court, finished the first half with eight points, seven rebounds, four assists, and four blocked shots in 18 minutes of action.

The lead exchanged hands three times in the first three minutes of the second half before USF went on a 8-2 run to grab its biggest lead of the game, 36-30, on a Carey Sauer three-pointer with 15:40 left to play. Milwaukee tied the game right back up with a 6-0 run, capped by two Kimberly Becker free throws with 13:34 remaining.

The game was tied two more times, the last at 42-42 with 7:46 left to go, before Milwaukee inched ahead thanks to Viall and two timely buckets by sophomore Teri Huff. With 2:48 remaining in the game Huff put Milwaukee ahead for good when her driving layup made it 50-49. The 5-10 lefty made it 54-51 just over two minutes later when she scored on another driving bucket. Viall then sealed the win, going four-of-four from the free throw line and grabbing three rebounds in the game's final 30 seconds.

The win snapped a season-high two game losing streak for the Panthers and helped them improve to 2-2 at home on the young season. The 25 points were a season-high for Viall while the 15 rebounds and six assists both are career-high numbers.

"I thought we were very evenly matched with USF and they are a very good team who has ran into some very tough teams," UWM head coach Sandy Botham said. "Both teams were hungry for a victory and when USF went on a little run we persevered and hung on. Maria was just great today. We wanted to use her as much as possible and I think we did that."

Becker added 11 points and six rebounds for UWM while senior guard Antoinette Gregory dished out a career-high seven assists. Joy Hollingsworth paced San Francisco with 17 points while Sauer added 14 points.

Milwaukee will enjoy one day off before opening 2002-03 Horizon League play at Loyola on Monday (Dec. 30). UWM will head to Chicago for a 7 p.m. tipoff at the Gentile Center.