Feb. 8, 2014

Box Score

DETROIT, Mich. - Five players reached double-figures in scoring but it was not enough for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team, falling to Detroit Saturday afternoon at Calihan Hall by a final score of 80-68.

The Panthers (7-15, 3-6 Horizon League) led, 54-51, with just under 12 minutes to play, only to see the Titans (4-18, 1-8 Horizon League) outscore them 29-14 the rest of the way to claim the conference victory.

"It was tough and it goes back to the same thing that haunted us at Oakland and that was rebounding," UWM head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "I feel like I am saying the same things over and over again, but it's something that we really have to get better at if we want to be competitive the rest of the season. I know that we can compete with these teams and I feel like our players have a sense of confidence that they can, it's just that we couldn't get our hands on the ball. We gave up 22 offensive rebounds; we had 18 turnovers - there are not a lot of teams you can beat in this conference when you have statistics like that."

Junior Ashley Green paced the offense with 15 points, adding eight rebounds. Senior Angela Rodriguez had 14 points, with senior Emily Decorah adding 12 of her own.

Sophomore Avyanna Young nearly had a double-double, finishing with 11 points and nine rebounds. Classmate Sydney Howard took advantage of her first career start, finishing with a career-high 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor.

Senee Shearer netted a game-high 21 points for the winners. Haleigh Ristovski added 15 points and seven rebounds.

Turnovers hurt the Panthers chances dramatically. After turning the ball over just 17 times the past two games combined, UWM made 18 miscues today and they were turned into a 22-9 advantage by Detroit in points off turnovers.

"We have to get back to taking care of the basketball," Rechlicz said. "It's something we have really prided ourselves in, was trying to keep it in that 13-14 turnover range, not going above 15 and the last few games it really cost us."

Following the eighth tie of the afternoon, Milwaukee led, 54-51, on a Rodriguez three-point play at the 11:52 mark.

From there it was all Titans, using a 13-4 run to take a 64-58 lead at the 8:02 mark. The run eventually grew to 19-5 to give them a double-digit lead for the first time at 70-59 on a putback by Ristovski with 2:56 to go.

The teams played an entertaining first half that featured seven ties and eight lead changes. It was Detroit that came out of the gates quickly, scoring the first eight points to force a Rechlicz timeout. That did the trick, as the Panthers - led by a trio of consecutive three-pointers by Decorah - rolled up a 16-4 scoring run to take a 16-12 lead on a Young jumper at the 11:49 mark.

From there it was all back-and-forth, with the biggest lead for either team just four points. Rodriguez's pair of free throws with 16 seconds left forced the seventh tie at 38-38 and were the final points of a first half that saw Milwaukee shoot 47.1 percent (16-of-34). But, 10 UWM turnovers were turned into 11 points by the Titans to help them stay in the game.

The Panthers outshot Detroit on the day, 43.8 percent (28-for-64) to 38.9 percent (28-for-72) for the Titans.

Up next, the Panthers return home and are off for the week, returning to the court to welcome Green Bay. Tip off time Saturday is 2 p.m.