GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Fresh off an impressive 77-73 victory over North Dakota State in the season opener Sunday, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team remains on the road to take on the University of North Dakota Tuesday. The game, scheduled as part of a men's/women's doubleheader, is slated to begin at 8 p.m. The Panthers are in search of their first 2-0 start to a season since the 2009-10 campaign.
LOOKING AT NORTH DAKOTANorth Dakota was 22-10 a year ago and co-Big Sky Conference regular-season champions, advancing to the NCAA Tournament. UND has four starters returning including Mia Loyd who averaged 13.6 points and led the team in rebounding as a freshman at 9.0 per game. The team was recently picked to repeat its title according to the Big Sky Preseason Coaches Poll. UND garnered 61 points to finish just outside the Top 25 in the preseason CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll. The team dropped a 68-59 decision to Colorado in its season opener.
Travis Brewster, the 2013-14 Big Sky Coach of the Year, begins his third season at North Dakota. He has a 33-28 overall record and has ties to UWM as a former assistant coach (2006-07).
SERIES HISTORYThe series is brief, having played just once and that matchup came last season. The Panthers dropped a 78-66 decision at the Klotsche Center in December.
LAST GAMEAshley Green got her senior campaign off to an impressive start, scoring a career-high 36 points and adding a double-double with a career-best 15 rebounds to help Milwaukee to a 77-73 victory over North Dakota State University Sunday afternoon at Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse.
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Green had a great day to lead the Panthers (1-0) to the victory over the Bison (1-1) in a contest that marked the 2014-15 season opener for UWM.
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Freshman
Jenny Lindner played 29 minutes off the bench, finishing with 12 points and seven rebounds. Junior
Jaleesa Armstrong had 10 points, six assists and just one turnover and junior
Jordyn Swan added eight points and four boards to lead the offense.
FOR OPENERSThe Panthers now hold an 8-17 record in season-openers at the NCAA Division I level (dating back to 1990-91) after topping North Dakota State. A year ago, Milwaukee fell to the Wisconsin Badgers by a score of 85-60 at the Klotsche Center in the season opener. Head coach
Kyle Rechlicz is now 2-1 in openers, as UWM ran away with an 82-58 win over Chicago State in Rechlicz's debut contest two years ago.
BEST EVERAshley Green's 36 points against NDSU Nov. 16 were also the most-ever for a Milwaukee player in a season opener, topping the 30 that Traci Edwards netted in the initial game of 2007-08.
It was also a marked improvement to season openers for Green personally. She finished with three points as a junior against Wisconsin, five against Chicago State as sophomore and did not score in her freshman debut off the bench.
SETTING THE BAR HIGHAshley Green has been a starter since early in her freshman campaign and has already accumulated a lengthy resume when it comes to personal statistical highlights. She one-upped all of that in just one performance in the season opener, setting new career-highs in both points scored and rebounds. Her 36 points topped her former best of 33 that she scored against Bradley December 4, 2012. Meanwhile, the 15 rebounds eclipsed her former career-best of 14, accomplished twice prior. In addition, she also tied her collegiate-best with the 13 made field goals.
FILLING IT UPThe 36-point effort from
Ashley Green is now tied for the fourth-highest single-game scoring effort in program history.
1. 45 points, Traci Edwards, 2/21/08
2. 42, Edwards, 1/20/07
3. 38, Andrea Filipek, 1/23/99
4. 36, now accomplished four times
KELSEY, I SEEKelsey Cunningham added her name to a short list against the Bison Nov. 16. She became the 13th freshman to start a season opener in the 25-year program history at Milwaukee and the first since Kiki Wilson in 2011.
JUST ANOTHER GAMEAfter averaging 17.1 points per game as a senior in high school, freshman
Jenny Lindner picked it right up on the collegiate level with 12 points and seven rebounds in her UWM debut against NDSU Nov. 16. The 12-point effort marks the most for a Milwaukee freshman in a season opener since
Angela Rodriguez finished with 16 points in the 2010 opener against Oklahoma.
PRESEASON PUBLICITYSenior
Ashley Green was named to the Preseason All-Horizon League Second Team in the league's annual preseason poll of head coaches, media members and sports information directors.
NEW-LOOK PANTHERSMilwaukee will have an interesting look to the roster this season after graduating three senior starters from a year ago. The roster features five players who were on the team in 2013-14 and seven newcomers. Among the new faces are a pair of transfers (one will be sitting out per NCAA regulations), a senior playing her first season of collegiate hoops and four true freshmen all looking to make a good first impression.
TIME TO STEP UPThe situation allows the Panthers an opportunity for new players to step up or returning players to expand their roles from last season. The team will return just 30.7 percent of its scoring (608 of 2,081 total points) and 36.9 percent of rebounding (370 of 1,004 total individual rebounds). When you break it down further, senior
Ashley Green accounts for 70 percent of that returning point total and 55 percent of the boards.
IT'S AN OLD HABITThe Panthers have turned it up from three-point range recently, but have always been a threat from long distance. In fact, the team has a long history of making three's headed in to 2014-15. Milwaukee has made at least one three-pointer in every game dating back to an 0-for-4 showing from long-distance against Marquette back on November 26, 2002. That makes 360 games in a row heading into the game against North Dakota. It's a ways to go for the NCAA record, however, which is held by Canisius at 510 in a row (1994-2011). The Horizon League record was halted two years ago when Loyola came up empty at 446. Cleveland State held the record previously - which was also the NCAA mark at the time - at 408 (1992-2007). For comparison, the NBA's longest streak is the Dallas Mavericks at 1,108 in a row.
IT AIN'T EASY BEING GREENOne look at the career statistics of senior
Ashley Green show an impressive trajectory. In each season at UWM, she has increased both her scoring average and her rebounding average and will look to continue the trend over her final campaign. As a freshman in 2011-12, Green averaged 10.4 points and 5.4 rebounds. She upped that to 11.6 ppg and 6.2 rpg and then followed that up with a junior season where she contributed 14.2 ppg and 6.7 rpg.
HOW THEY ROLLThe Panthers were at it again last season and it would have been more noticeable had they not been even better at it two years ago. The team once again finished close to the top of the record book for three-pointers made and attempted. Prior to
Kyle Rechlicz's arrival, the most three's made was 212 and attempted was 586. The marks set in 2012-13 (255 of 726) smashed the old standards. Last year, the team finished at 241 makes and 733 attempts, both numbers ending in the top two all-time.
MAKING BUCKETSThe 90 points Milwaukee scored against Cleveland State Feb. 23 last season marked a season-high, topping the 86 it scored against Western Illinois Nov. 17. UWM went 4-1 last season when it scored over 80 points. That was a one-game jump over the prior year, when the Panthers scored at least 80 points four times. This is a marked change for the offense. Looking back, the last time a UWM team scored more than 80 points at least four times in the same season was 2006-07 (four times that campaign). The last time Milwaukee netted at least 80 more than four times was back in 2000-01, when it did so seven times.
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESSThe Panthers set a record for fewest turnovers per game in 2012-13 at 16.2 - an impressive total considering the record that they broke was the former standard of 17.3 set during the 2001-02 campaign (an improvement of over one per game). The new record did not last long, however, as UWM turned the ball over just 14.9 times per contest a year ago to shatter the record once again.
SELECT COMPANYSenior
Angela Rodriguez went over 1,500 career points at the end of last season to become just the fifth player to reach that level in a UWM career. She started the season in 17th place on the all-time list moved all the way up to No. 5 (1,564).
AND NOW THERE IS 19There was another addition to the 1,000-point club a year ago and it happened against Youngstown State Feb. 21.
Ashley Green finished with 17 points that day against the Penguins, with her three-pointer with 5:20 remaining pushing her career total from 998 to 1,001 to become the 19th player to score over 1,000 career points at UWM.
1,000/500Green not only scores, but rebounds. Sitting at 499 career rebounds headed into the game at UIC Feb. 17 last season, she grabbed an early board to become the 23rd player in program history to collect 500 rebounds in a career. She is now just the fifth player to have recorded over 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in a career in UWM's NCAA Division I era. The rest of the list includes Traci Edwards (2,340 pts/1,193 reb), Maria Viall (1,867/971), Lindsay Laur (1,404/791) and Sami Tucker (1,172/774).
BIG-TIME HONORAngela Rodriguez was named Second-Team All-Horizon League last season, becoming the first Panther to earn postseason all-league honors since 2010-11. She also earned a spot on the Mexico National Team in October, one of 12 chosen to play on the squad.
ASSIST RECORD IN HANDSenior
Angela Rodriguez broke the Milwaukee single-season record for assists against Wright State March 1 of last season. She went into the contest against the Raiders with 151, and her third of the day near the end of the first half in Dayton gave her 154 to break the mark of 153, set by Pam Bartnik during the 1993-94 campaign. She finished with 168.
MAKING A NAME FOR HERSELFHead coach
Kyle Rechlicz was named the seventh coach in program history in May of 2012. She also got off to one of the best starts - becoming the first UWM coach to win three of her first five contests of her initial campaign. In her first season, Rechlicz was also one of the youngest coaches at the NCAA Division I level - just seven coaches had earlier birth years when the 2012-13 campaign began.
HOOPS COUCH POTATO Fans will have the opportunity to watch the Panthers all season long. The team will play five games on local broadcast television, once again returning to Time Warner Cable SportsChannel. Another 18 games will be carried live online on the Horizon League Network. For the Panthers' TWC SportsChannel contests, Bob Brainerd and former UWM great Maria Viall will once again be calling the action.
Early season games will also be available on the SEC+ Network (Missouri) and the WAC Digital Network (UMKC).
HEAD TO THE BIG 920Every Milwaukee regular-season game will once again be available on the radio and online via "The Big 920" on your AM dial.
Scott Warras is back for his ninth season donning the headset. Fans can also catch Warras' call with the majority of the team's HLN webcasts. A handful of games will be aired on WISN 1130 AM due to broadcast conflicts.
WELCOMEHead coach
Kyle Rechlicz rounded out her staff in the offseason by hiring
Ashlee McGee as an assistant coach and
Scott Warras as the Director of Basketball Operations.
Kelly Poster also begins her first season as the team's athletic trainer.
McGee comes to Milwaukee after most recently serving as the women's basketball assistant coach at Tennessee State University since the summer of 2012. Warras, the voice of the Panthers on radio broadcasts for the past eight seasons, joins the Milwaukee staff on a full-time basis and will work directly with Rechlicz on coordinating team travel, budget, practices and other program functions.
UP NEXTThe team heads back to Wisconsin and has the remainder of the week off to prepare for its home opener Saturday. UWM welcomes Bowling Green for the rare 11 a.m. tip-off.