Nov. 3, 2013

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team used a 12-0 scoring run just after halftime to take control against Wisconsin Lutheran College and never looked back in claiming an 89-62 victory Sunday afternoon at the Klotsche Center.

"A lot of credit to Wisconsin Lutheran," UWM head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "At the beginning of the game, they were feisty and aggressive just like we thought they were going to be. They really attacked us and put us on our heels, which got us into foul trouble early."

Five players scored in double-figures, with Milwaukee asserting itself after coming out of the halftime locker room and slowly building its lead from double-digits to as many as 28 down the stretch. The game, which was the exhibition opener for the 2013-14 campaign for both squads, saw six ties and 10 lead changes in the first 20 minutes.

"We had five on double figures," Rechlicz said. "I told the team afterwards, anytime we can have that happen, it puts us in a good position because the next team is thinking `who do we have to stop'. With having that many players scoring double-figures, it's just awesome because we are really playing a team game."

Senior Angela Rodriguez led the way with a game-high 23 points on the day and had a trio of three-pointers to start the second half and get UWM going.

Junior Janna Swopshire posted a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds, junior Ashley Green had 16 points and four steals and senior Kimee Chandler and sophomore Avyanna Young both had 11 points. Young added eight rebounds and three steals to her final stat line.

"I think we played really well together," Rechlicz said. "We only had nine turnovers to 12 assists, we really worked to make those extra passes - it was definitely fun coaching out there today."

Kristen Schulz led WLC with 14 points. Melanie Laete posted a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Warriors came out quickly and led by as many as four on a three-pointer by Rachel Hoft at the 15:29 mark to make it 11-7. That woke up the Panthers, who responded with 10 points in a row to take a 17-11 advantage just four minutes later.

The back-and-forth contest went to halftime tied, 36-36, with the Warriors scoring the final five points of the period while making 50 percent of their first-half field goals and all 14 of their free throw attempts.

It was just too much UWM in the second. The teams traded baskets for the first three minutes before the Panthers would rattle off those 12 points in a row in less than three minutes. Green hit a layup and one of two free throws, followed by a basket and two free throws from Swopshire. Rodriguez netted a three in transition after a turnover and Young's layup at the 14:42 mark made it 56-43 on the scoreboard.

"I thought our conditioning really helped us," Rechlicz said. "It is something we have really prided ourselves on this preseason and this summer is to get into better shape and that really helped us in the second half when we continued to run, do our transition offense and we were getting easy buckets."

A 15-5 run would push the advantage higher, with Chandler's long three with just over four minutes remaining giving UWM its first 20-point cushion of the afternoon.

For the game, UWM shot 41.4 percent from the floor, compared to WLC's 38.8 percent. The defense forced 25 turnovers to help a 29-5 advantage on points off turnovers and the team also recorded an 11-0 margin in fast break points.

Up next, the regular season gets underway November 14 when the Panthers host the Wisconsin Badgers in a 7 p.m. start at the Klotsche Center.