Feb. 7, 2002
MILWAUKEE-After a 20-point lead at halftime, the UWM women's basketball team survived poor shooting in the second half to still pull out the 65-47 victory over Wright State Thursday night at the Klotsche Center.
Milwaukee (17-6, 11-1 Horizon) connected on just 28 percent of their shots in the second half and finished with 32 percent overall from the field.
"Things didn't fall well for us tonight," UWM coach Sandy Botham said. "Obviously we're happy with the win after pulling it out, but it was ugly. I'm disappointed that we didn't show that much focus. We kind of played without a lot of intensity, almost like we just expected to win."
The Raider's zone gave the Panthers fits all night, collapsing on Maria Viall to take away the inside game. Though Viall had trouble receiving the ball, Jessica Wilhite and company were left open on the perimeter. The Panthers attempted 37 shots from three-point range to set a school record, and connected on 13 of them.
"Once Maria got the ball, she was having trouble just getting it back out," Wilhite said. "They were collapsing on Maria a lot, so that left me open on the outside."
Wilhite led with a game-high 18 points, all coming from beyond the arc. Stefanie Kaufmann, Holly Tamm and Malika Willoughby also tallied two three pointers each.
UWM led, 42-22, four minutes into the second half , but the Raiders scored 13 consecutive points to cut their deficit to seven. Milwaukee's drought came from eight straight misses from the field.
Tamm broke the Panthers' silence when she scored on a reverse layup with 10:37 to play. Wilhite then sank her fifth three-pointer on the night to bring UWM's lead back into double digits. Kaufmann hit a three to give Milwaukee the 15-point lead and, after Wright State made a three to answer, she nailed another from long range for the 53-38 lead with 7:37 remaining in the game.
Tamm finished with 12 points, while Viall ended up scoring 10. Though the Panthers missed a lot of shots from the field, they got some points off the offensive boards. UWM outrebounded Wright State, 44-31.
UWM takes the weekend off of competition, but travels next week to compete against Cleveland State Thursday and Detroit Saturday.
