March 1, 2012

Box Score

CHICAGO, Ill. - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team led by nine points with less than seven minutes to play, but could not hold off a late charge in falling to UIC, 59-52, Thursday night at the UIC Pavilion.

Freshman Ashley Green tied her career-high with a game-high 18 points to lead the way. Junior Sami Tucker scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to record her sixth double-double of the season and ninth of her career.

The Panthers (9-19, 5-12 Horizon League) were playing without sophomore co-captain Angela Rodriguez, who missed the first game of her UWM career with an ankle injury.

"You have to put forty minutes together and we just didn't do that," Milwaukee head coach Sandy Botham said. "We had 36 good, solid, focused minutes and we just lost our focus down the stretch defensively. Give UIC credit for sticking with it and knocking down the big shots when they needed to."

Shamiea Green led the Flames (17-11, 10-7 Horizon League) with 15 points and seven assists despite 11 turnovers and Kiara Strickland added 12 points and seven rebounds in the win.

"I thought we controlled the game for a great portion of the night," Botham said. "That's what makes it so hard that it was a loss for us because we did a lot of positive things but weren't able to put it away. It was hard (without Angela). It changes your rotation; we went a little deeper and longer into the bench than we normally do. But, with or without Angela, we should have won that game."

A close game well into the second half, UWM used a 16-7 run to turn a 32-32 tie into its biggest lead of the night. Green's layup at the 6:46 mark made it 48-39 and seemed to give Milwaukee control of the contest.

That was when the Flames got hot. Three straight makes cut the lead to three at 48-45, but freshman Kiki Wilson stemmed the tide, making a pair of free throws after Jasmine Bailey fouled out to push the lead back to five at 52-47 with 4:33 to play.

UIC's Emily Kobel then stepped up, making back-to-back three-pointers. Her second from distance gave the Flames a 53-52 advantage and they would lead from there. All in all, UIC would tally 20 of the final 24 points of the night after sinking six free throws in the final minute.

Milwaukee played some inspired basketball after UIC's Bailey went out with her third foul of the first half. After the Flames took their biggest lead at 21-14 with 9:12 to go, UWM scored 14 of the final 19 points of the first to lead, 28-26, at halftime.

UIC started out red-hot from the field, making eight of its first 11 shots from the floor. In fact, the team was over 70 percent from the field for the first 12-plus minutes of the night.

The Panthers put the clamps on from there, holding UIC to just three makes in its final 13 attempts and forcing nine turnovers to turn the table and lead at intermission.

Tied early, 8-8, UIC made the first run of the game and used a 10-4 spurt to lead 18-12. Down 21-14, a 9-2 UWM run made it 23-23 at the 6:30 mark on basket by Green. A possession later, the Panthers would then take their first lead of the night at 26-25 on a three-pointer by Tucker.

Tucker had eight points and six rebounds in the first half alone, with Green in double-figures by intermission with 10.

Up next, the Panthers wrap up the regular season with a return trip to Chicago, taking on Loyola Saturday at 2 p.m. They do know a few things about their final seed in the conference standings. The first thing is that they control their own destiny - a win guarantees a home game Monday. Secondly, they cannot finish 10th but can still finish anywhere from seventh to ninth. The team currently sits in eighth place in the Horizon League.