Feb. 6, 2014

Box Score

ROCHESTER, Mich. - Oakland University used a red-hot start to the second half and a big advantage in rebounding to help claim an 80-67 comeback victory over the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team Thursday afternoon at the O'rena.

"I give Oakland and their coaching staff a lot of credit for their game plan in the second half," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "I felt like they came out with an incredible amount of fire and we didn't match it. We played hard and fought, but just couldn't come up with the ball during key moments of the game."

It was a tale of two halves, seeing the Panthers (7-14, 3-5 Horizon League) lead by 11 points at intermission and still by 10 with under 15 minutes to play in the game. The Golden Grizzlies (9-13, 4-5 Horizon League) reversed their fortunes at that time to claim the victory, outscoring Milwaukee 56-32 overall in the second period.

Senior Angela Rodriguez led the way for the Panthers with a game-high 23 points, chipping in six rebounds and four assists. Junior Ashley Green was the only other player in double-figures, finishing with 14 points. Sophomore Avyanna Young was limited to 24 minutes by foul trouble, ending just short of another double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.

"I thought Sydney Snower and Bre Warren provided us with huge sparks off the bench," Rechlicz said. "They both made big plays on offense and defense for us. Now it is time to regroup and work on getting the next one."

Bethany Watterworth led the Golden Grizzlies with 22 points, with Elena Popkey adding 20. Kim Bee posted a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds to go along with five blocked shots.

Oakland held a huge advantage of 59-37 in rebounds, including a 23-10 edge on the offensive glass. Trailing by 11 at intermission, OU quickly trimmed the lead to five just minutes in. Seven points in a row by Rodriguez restored the margin to 10 at 47-37 with 14:20 to go, but from there it was a different game.

"We have been stressing rebounding from the beginning of the season and have even made some adjustments to how we are teaching it to better suit our players," Rechlicz said. "Today it came down to toughness and Oakland had more than we did in the second half. We gave up 23 offensive rebounds and seven were on free throw-line boxouts. It's going to be tough to win any game with those kinds of numbers, especially games on the road."

Oakland used a quick 10-0 run to tie the contest at 47-47. It was part of a bigger 20-4 scoring run that gave it the 57-51 advantage with just under nine minutes to play. They couldn't miss in the comeback run, sinking close to 75 percent (14-of-19) of their field goal attempts to turn the 11-point deficit into a six-point advantage.

The Panthers would battle back, but Oakland had an answer each time. The lead was 10 for the first time on a pair of Popkey free throws at the 6:23 mark. UWM dug deep and battled back to within five, but a three-pointer at the 1:35 mark pushed the margin back to nine and ended any hope of a final comeback.

Following a slow start to the day, Milwaukee turned it on the rest of the first half. Trailing 7-2 early, the Panthers outscored the Grizzlies, 33-17, the rest of the way to take a 35-24 lead into the locker room.

Defense led the way. They held Oakland to just 20.6 percent (7-of-34) from the field and without a make on 10 attempts from three-point range. Milwaukee bounced back quickly from that slow start, tying the game at 10-10 on freshman Sydney Snower's three-pointer at the 13:47 mark.

Green capped what was a 10-3 run and gave UWM its first lead on a putback at 12-10. The team had another scoring run in it, using a 10-2 stretch to build the lead to 25-17. The advantage grew to double-digits for the first time with just under 30 seconds to go before intermission, when Young finished a contested up-and-under move to make it 34-24 on the scoreboard.

Up next, the Panthers travel on to Detroit to take on the Titans Saturday. Tip time is 1 p.m. CST.