Dec. 15, 2013

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team shot a season-low 27 percent from the field and could not recover, falling to Marquette University by a score of 71-52 Sunday afternoon.

The Panthers (2-8) and Golden Eagles (7-2) were playing for the first time since 2009, renewing the cross-town rivalry in front of a crowd of 787 at the Klotsche Center.

The teams also chipped in to help out during the holiday season. Head coaches Kyle Rechlicz and Terri Mitchell coached barefoot to help support the "Shoes for Africa" cause and players each donated a pair of shoes as starters were announced.

"I just wanted to say what a great opportunity it was for us to do the `Shoes for Africa' game against Marquette," Rechlicz said. "They are an amazing team and we knew that coming in to the game. Our goal was to keep them under 70 points - we actually did a pretty good job of that."

Milwaukee's game plan to limit Katherine Plouffe and Katie Young - who came in leading the team at 19.5 points per game and second at 14.1 ppg - worked well. Plouffe had just two points at intermission and finished with seven. Young went 1-for-7 from the floor and had just three points.

"We also wanted to keep their top two scorers under 10 points each and we were extremely successful in that as well," Rechlicz said. "The problem is that we couldn't hit our shots. I think we worked so hard on defense, that some of our normal players missed a lot of shots."

The Panthers were off all day. UWM once again made 10 three-pointers, but needed 37 attempts (27 percent) to get there and ended up going just 18-for-66 from the floor on the day.

Senior Angela Rodriguez paced the team with a game-high 19 points, finishing with six rebounds and five assists (just one turnover). Junior Ashley Green was the only other Panther in double-figures with 12.

Apiew Ojulu led four Golden Eagles players in double-figures with 18 points.

Up 13 at intermission, Marquette went on an 11-3 run to start the second half to make it 50-31 on the scoreboard. The closest the Panthers would get the rest of the way was 14 points.

Milwaukee hit just 26.7 percent (8-of-30) in the first 20 minutes and found itself trailing, 39-26, at intermission.

Marquette jumped out quickly, hitting close to 70 percent of its shots in grabbing a 12-4 lead. The Golden Eagles would continue to build, eventually taking a 25-12 advantage at the 11:01 mark.

The Panthers would use the three-ball to get back into it, hitting three in a row to make up a 9-0 run. A pair of three's by Rodriguez and one by Green trimmed the deficit down to four at 25-21, only to see Marquette stop the momentum and build it back to double-digits.

Up next, the Panthers remain at home and will have a week to prepare for their next game, taking on Illinois State at the Klotsche Center at 1 p.m. Dec. 22.