March 12, 2014

Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team held Wright State University to its second-lowest field-goal shooting percentage of the season but could not pull out the victory, falling in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Tournament by a score of 73-64 Wednesday night at the Nutter Center.

The Panthers (8-22) trailed by just two at halftime and were within three of the Raiders (24-8) with under six minutes to play, but could not get any closer down the stretch in seeing their 2013-14 campaign come to a close.

"We made an incredible run at the end of the first half to put ourselves in a position to go into the locker room with a lot of confidence," UWM head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "We made a run on the defensive end getting stops and put some key baskets together. The second half, I just felt like we turned the ball over at very inopportune situations. They didn't necessarily lead to baskets at the other end, but kept us from getting the baskets that we needed in order to compete."

Senior Angela Rodriguez led the way with 17 points in her final game in a Milwaukee uniform. Sophomore Avyanna Young added 14 points and a career-best 18 rebounds. Junior Ashley Green also had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds to round out the players in double-figures.

"I thought that Avyanna Young stepped up huge tonight having 18 rebounds," Rechlicz said. "Ashley had a double-double and you can't forget to mention our seniors - all three of them really played with a lot of heart and emotion tonight."

Horizon League Player of the Year Kim Demmings led the Raiders with a game-high 25 points. Tay'ler Mingo added 24 points and Ivory James chipped in a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards.

Young set a school record with her sixth-straight double-double, breaking the mark of five set by both Lindsay Laur (2010-11) and Erica Young (1993-94). It was also her 17th double-digit rebounding game of the season, just one off the school record of 18.

"I think we took a huge step forward with the culture we want to build for the program. It started from the top with the leadership," Rechlicz said. "It's where we want to take our program. I told them, `the product that we put on the floor tonight was Milwaukee basketball'. The energy that we played with, the tenacity going after the rebounds and the togetherness is how we want to play basketball."

A runner by Green cut the deficit to just three at 56-53 with 5:54 to play, but Wright State responded with a 10-2 run to lead, 66-55, and the closest UWM would get the rest of the way was six points.

The Raiders came out of the locker room and used a 12-4 run to jump out to a 39-29 advantage. Junior Macie Dorow buried back-to-back three-pointers to cap an 11-4 run and make it 43-37 at the 11:53 mark.

Defense was the name of the game for both sides in the first half, with the Panthers limiting the 10th-ranked offense in the nation to just 27 points and 25 percent (8-for-32) shooting. It was UWM with the better start, jumping out to a 9-3 lead while holding the Raiders to just one made field goal on their first 13 attempts.

Wright State found a way to get back into the game and eventually took its first lead at 15-14. A Rodriguez jumper at the 10:05 mark helped the Panthers retake the lead at 16-15 and the teams traded punches for a while, resulting in seven lead changes.

Two runs defined the final portion of the period, with a 10-2 WSU run temporarily giving it control at 25-18. Not to be outdone, the Panthers finished the period by scoring seven of the final nine points to trim the deficit to just a basket at halftime at 27-25.

The Panthers season comes to a close at 8-22. WSU advances to the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament Friday at Green Bay.