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Sierra Ford-Washington
Sierra Ford-Washington
53
UIC UIC 9-7, 0-5 HL
54
Winner Milwaukee UWM 8-7, 2-2 HL
UIC UIC
9-7, 0-5 HL
53
Final
54
Milwaukee UWM
8-7, 2-2 HL
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
UIC UIC 11 19 11 12 53
Milwaukee UWM 11 8 21 14 54

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Ford-Washington Sends UWM Home With The Win

Panthers improve to 2-2 in league play

MILWAUKEE – Sierra Ford-Washington hit a close-range jumper in traffic with seven seconds left on the clock to give the Milwaukee women's basketball team a well-deserved 54-53 win over UIC Thursday evening from the Klotsche Center.
 
Milwaukee (8-7, 2-2 Horizon) trailed by as many as 11 in the first half and was down by one with 17 seconds remaining. UWM drew it up for Ford-Washington to take the shot, and she hit it with a pair of UIC (9-7, 0-5 Horizon) players in her face to give UWM the lead with seven seconds left.
 
UIC had time for one last shot, but Jenny Lindner blocked the final attempt to seal the win for Milwaukee.
 
"The look in our players eyes, you could see how much they wanted (this one)," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "I was really proud of how hard they played, especially in the second half. There was no quit in them, they didn't look at the score, they just came out in the second half with this heart and this passion that we were going to find a way to win."
 
Ford-Washington led the way for UWM with 17 points, six rebounds and a pair of steals. Steph Kostowicz also was big offensively on the night, scoring 14 and grabbing nine boards.
 
Preseason league player of the year Ruvanna Campbell had a game-high 19 points to go with 15 rebounds in 39 minutes.
 
Lindner added eight points and four rebounds to go with her game-ending block.
 
Sydney Howard also came up huge for Milwaukee Thursday, with a line of three points, five rebounds and three steals, while forcing quite a few turnovers with her high-pressure defense all night long.
 
"She (Howard) has been incredible these last few games," Rechlicz said. "She's playing like a senior; like it's her last season. Not only was she picking up the pace on the offensive end looking for people up the court, but she was determining the pace on the defensive end. That's the best defense I've ever seen her play.
 
"The game ball definitely goes to Sydney Howard."
 
The two teams felt each other out slowly the opening quarter and were knotted up at 11-11 after 10 minutes.
 
Milwaukee struggled in the second quarter as UIC ramped up its defense and pushed the pace, taking a 30-19 lead into the half.
 
UWM quickly bounced back to start the second half. Back-to-back layups by Kostowicz followed by a three-pointer from Ford-Washington quickly cut the lead to just four.
 
A three from the corner by Alexis Lindstrom at the 3:28 mark gave Milwaukee its first lead of the half at 36-35.
 
From there, it was back and forth.
 
Knotted up at 46 apiece, it was Kostowicz in the lane followed by another triple from Ford-Washington to quickly give the Panthers a five-point advantage late in the game.
 
UIC was able to claw back and a pair of free throws by Caitlin Garant gave the Flames a 53-52 edge with 17 seconds left, setting up Ford-Washington's jumped down at the block for the thrilling Panther win.
 
"It was just fun to watch their reactions after the game and just know that they are really believing in each other," Rechlicz said. "Not just in what we're doing at Milwaukee, but in each other. It's great to have a team that fights like that for each other."
 
The Panthers remain at home for the brief two-game home stand, welcoming Valparaiso to the Klotsche Center Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest.
 
 
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