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Sierra Ford-Washington
Sierra Ford-Washington
82
Winner Milwaukee UWM 4-3
71
Eastern Illinois EIU 1-8
Winner
Milwaukee UWM
4-3
82
Final
71
Eastern Illinois EIU
1-8
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Milwaukee UWM 25 22 13 22 82
Eastern Illinois EIU 20 12 21 18 71

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Lindner, Ford-Washington Lead Milwaukee Past EIU

Duo combined for 50 of team’s 82 points on the night in big road win

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Sierra Ford-Washington and Jenny Lindner each had 25 points and six rebounds to lead the Milwaukee women's basketball team to a convincing 82-71 win over Eastern Illinois Thursday night from Lantz Arena.
 
Milwaukee (4-3) shot nearly 60 percent from the floor in the opening half, taking a 47-32 lead at the break and then held off a pesky EIU (1-8) squad down the stretch for the win.
 
"This feels great, especially on the road. It's always difficult when you go into somebody else's gym," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "I really like how our team fought back. I thought we had a little bit of adversity when we gave up our lead and then we made a push. We made that push with several people and I couldn't be more proud of us to get this win on the road."
 
Ford-Washington led the way early with 17 first-half points, while Lindner picked up her team in the second with 16 in the final 20 minutes to help secure the win.
 
"Sierra tonight was a complete player," Rechlicz said. "She was amazing on both the offensive and defensive end. She just really controlled the game. She was able to find people with five assists and just one turnover. She's really starting to get into the flow of Milwaukee basketball, which is great to see.

"And then Jenny - she's had a couple games where she wasn't as on as she normally likes to be, but she came through for us. She hit some really big shots for us and had some big plays down the stretch."
 
Steph Kostowicz just missed a double-double with nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
 
Freshman Alyssa Fischer notched a career-high 10 points, while Alexis Lindstrom added nine points and five rebounds.
 
As a team, Milwaukee had 20 assists on the night, a season high.
 
UWM came out of the gates red hot. After a brief 10-6 lead by EIU, Milwaukee was nearly perfect. Back-to-back threes by Ford-Washington gave the Panthers a lead they would never relinquish. Next was a three-pointer followed by a 15-footer, both by Linder, to quickly stretch the lead to seven.
 
Eastern Illinois used a small run to close the lead to just two before Milwaukee poured it on the rest of the second quarter. Ford-Washington started it with a jumper before a three by Lindstrom. A layup by Lindner followed by yet another three from Ford-Washington stretched the lead to 12 with 6:58 to go in the second quarter.
 
Fischer gave the Panthers a 16-point lead late in the half with Milwaukee's seventh three-pointer in the opening 20 minutes.
 
EIU was able to make a push in the third quarter, cutting the lead to just one at 54-53, but UWM was able push back with a 6-0 run of their own to close out the third quarter and they would never look back en route to the road win.
 
"That's one of the things we've really been trying to build on this year with such a young group is, when we're put in those situations how do you respond," Rechlicz said. "There are so many moments in the game where there are those runs. I thought our team really came back strong and one of the reasons for that was we didn't turn the ball over. That's our least amount of turnovers this season at 15 and that's where we want to be consistently."
 
Milwaukee dominated the boards on the night, outrebounding EIU, 42-30. UWM forced 14 turnovers on the night and finished the game shooting 47.5 percent from the field, second-best on the young season.
 
The Panthers now turn their attention to Denver University, as the Pioneers will come to the Klotsche Center on Monday for a 7:05 p.m. contest that will be aired on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel.
 
 
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