Box Score |  Notes

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Dec. 31, 2007) - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team hit its first 7 three-point attempts and led by as many as 23 in the first half in rolling to a 77-61 win over La Salle Monday afternoon at the Klotsche Center.

"We talked about bringing our energy, intensity and our fight from the get-go and I thought we did that," Milwaukee head coach Sandy Botham said. "It came against a good La Salle team that we lost to last season on the road. It was nice to get two (wins) in a row."

All 14 Panthers (5-6) played, with 11 scoring points and 13 grabbing rebounds. The Explorers (6-7) dressed just eight players.

Junior Traci Edwards led Milwaukee with her second-straight double-double and third in four games. She finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Emily Markert and freshman Maurika Hickman each tallied a season-high 11 points off the bench.

Carlene Hightower led La Salle with 14 points before leaving the game early with four fouls. Jamie Walsh added 13 points and Alyse Hoover 12 for the visitors.

The Explorers scored the first basket of the game, that was their only lead of the game as the Panthers rattled off the next 13 points of the game for a 13-2 lead just under six minutes into the game.

"We're an inside-outside team," Botham said. "We've seen games where we couldn't hit anything from the field. It's so much a big part of our game plan. So it was nice to hit the open jumpers."

UWM built its first-half lead to 37-14 on a pair of free throws by Edwards with 6:28 to go in the half. The lead was 44-21 on two more charity tosses by Edwards with just over 30 seconds to go in the frame.

The Panthers shot 57.7 percent in the first half and was 7-of-8 from behind the three-point line. Their defense was stout, holding La Salle to just 39.1 percent shooting in the frame.

After intermission, La Salle looked to cut into the lead, but was unable as Milwaukee led by as many as 26 on several occasions in the second half. Botham began clearing the bench with over seven minutes remaining in the game.

Every Panther played at least six minutes and their bench forged a 46-9 scoring advantage over La Salle's.

"I thought our bench production was great," Botham said. "When you have that kind of production there is no one player they can key on."

For the game, UWM was dominant on the boards, outrebounding the Explorers 40-19, allowing just one offensive board to their opponents. Milwaukee also shot 50 percent from the field and finished at 52.2 percent on three-pointers. La Salle shot 62.5 percent in the second half to finish at 51.1 on the day.

"Our goals were to dominate the boards--we did that, shoot 50 percent--we did that. We wanted to take care of the ball better and we're getting better," Botham said. "We had 22 assists over 17 (turnovers). We doing the right things and focusing in on things like that and taking care of business.

"It's a weakness of theirs and a strength of ours, so we knew that could be the difference of the game, and it was," Botham added on the rebounding advantage. "That was something we emphasized--omitting them on their side of it and getting extra ones for ourselves. Those are the intangibles. Rebounding is an attitude and it was good to see that."

The Milwaukee defense forced 16 Explorer turnovers, including a season-high-tying 12 steals. UWM also dished out 22 assists compared to 17 turnovers.

The Panthers end the non-league season with two wins and a 5-6 record. They'll kick off the league season to start the new year, heading to Dayton, Ohio, Thursday to take on Wright State. They then play at Detroit Saturday.

"It's a good confidence-booster heading into the league. Our motto is `watch us grow.' That's our coach's motto. We still have learning to do," Botham said. "Our players really have been determined in practice to continue to get better. We are seeing that carry over into the games. We are going into the league on the right note."