Quick Turnaround Sends UWM To Chicago Sunday

Panthers to close out non-conference play against Cougars

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee women's basketball team will look to close out nonleague play with a big win Sunday, heading to Chicago State to take on the Cougars. UWM and CSU will tip off at 2 p.m. from the Jones Convocation Center. Milwaukee is looking to bounce back after a 63-42 loss in its conference opener Friday, while Chicago State is looking to end a three-game skid.

PANTHER BITS
• Milwaukee suffered a 63-42 loss in its league opener at the hands of Green Bay Friday, hitting just 24 percent from the field.

• The Panthers return three starters and seven letterwinners from last season, welcoming nine newcomers to the roster, including six true freshmen.

• In the three seasons under head coach Kyle Rechlicz, the Panthers have set two of the top three program marks for three-pointers made and all three for three-pointers attempted, with highs of 255 makes and 733 attempts.

• Milwaukee also knows how to take care of the ball, setting the top three marks for fewest turnovers in a season over the past three campaigns. The school record of 14.9 per game was established in 2013-14.

• The Panthers were picked ninth in the 2015-16 preseason coaches' poll after finishing in eighth place a year ago.

• Kyle Rechlicz is in her fourth season after being named the seventh head coach in program history in May of 2012.

WHAT'S NEW
The Milwaukee women's basketball team will look to close out league play with a big win Sunday, heading to Chicago State to take on the Cougars. UWM and CSU will tip off at 2 p.m. from the Jones Convocation Center. Milwaukee is looking to bounce back after a 63-42 loss in its conference opener Friday, while Chicago State is looking to end a three-game skid.

LOOKING AT CHICAGO STATE
The Cougars were picked to finish eighth in the eight-team Western Athletic Conference preseason poll this year. The team is off to a 2-11 start and has dropped its last three, falling to Northern Illinois on Wednesday, 68-50. This will mark the third Horizon League game for CSU this season, with a pair of close loses already in the books to UIC (51-47, Nov. 16) and Oakland (74-51, Dec. 19).

Senior Layne Murphy is the leader on the court for the Cougars. The 6-2 forward is averaging 12.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game and is second on the team with 19 blocks this season. She also recently became the school's all-time leading rebounder with her 710th against Illinois State Dec. 21. Freshman Kaylee Allen is second on the team with 11.3 ppg, while Sh'Toya Sanders is averaging 8.9 ppg and 6.5 rpg as a freshman.

SERIES HISTORY
Milwaukee owns a commanding 15-2 overall record against Chicago State, as the two squads have squared off seven times in the last nine seasons. The Cougars last win in the series came on Dec. 13, 2006 with a 54-45 win in Milwaukee. The Panthers are a perfect 8-0 when making the trip to Chicago State. The Panthers beat CSU last year by a score of 69-47.

UP NEXT
UWM will make its first conference road swing of the season late next week. The Panthers will head to northeast Ohio for a Thursday evening contest against Youngstown State before a Saturday afternoon matchup against Cleveland State.

LAST GAME
Green Bay used a big run late to blow open an otherwise close game for a 63-42 win over the Milwaukee women's basketball team Friday afternoon from the Klotsche Center.

In the first Horizon League action of the season for either team, UWM (5-6, 0-1 Horizon) closed the gap to just seven midway through the third quarter, before Green Bay (11-2, 1-0 Horizon) went on a 19-2 run that spanned nearly 10 minutes to pull away late.

"That's how Green Bay plays," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "They're a very good team. This is what we've been telling our team is this is what it takes to be at the top of our league is to play with that toughness for 40 minutes. You can't do it for 30, and I felt that's what happened tonight."

Jenny Lindner led the way for Milwaukee with 12 points, while Steph Kostowicz and Alexis Lindstrom each added eight. Emma Roenneburg added a team-high seven rebounds in her second start of the year.

Kaili Lukan led all scorers with 17 points for Green Bay, also bringing in eight rebounds. Allie LeClaire added 15 points, while Lexi Weitzer added four to go with her career-high 16 rebounds.

Milwaukee connected on just 24.5-percent of its attempts for the game

CLOSING OUT THE NON-CONFERENCE
When Milwaukee heads to Chicago State on Sunday it will look to finish out its non-conference schedule with a winning record (currently 5-5). In fact, while it has been close plenty of times, UWM has not finished with a winning out-of-conference mark since the 2009-10 season when it went 6-5. Ironically, the sixth win in that season came against Chicago State.

BACK WHERE SHE STARTED
Sunday's game at Chicago State will mark the first time that Milwaukee has traveled to the Jones Convocation Center since the start of the 2012-13 season. In fact, that game was the first for head coach Kyle Rechlicz as Milwaukee's head coach - an 82-58 Panther win.

SWITCHING IT UP
Coach Rechlicz has changed up her starting line up the past two games with plenty of solid results already. Kelsey Cunningham has made her second and third starts to the season, while freshman Emma Roenneburg earned a spot in the starting rotation after returning from an early season injury. The duo combined for 13 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three blocks in the win over IPFW Dec. 28.

5-FOR-5
Despite playing in a season-low 19 minutes due to foul trouble, Steph Kostowicz still made quite the impact in Milwaukee's 73-60 win over IPFW Dec. 28. In fact, Kostowicz was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field in the game, the first time a Panther has finished without a miss in a game with a minimum of five attempts since Ashlee Imperial's 6-for-6 performance against Loyola back on Jan. 24, 2009.

10-FOR-10
While Kostowicz did it from the floor against IPFW, Jenny Lindner was perfect from the free throw line in that win. The sophomore drained all 10 of her attempts from the charity stripe, the first Panther to do so since Angela Rodriquez also went 10-for-10 at New Mexico State Nov. 30, 2013.

THE W'S AND THE L'S
As one might expect, there are certainly some stark statistical differences in Milwaukee's five wins compared to its six losses:

                                  W's        L's
FG%                            .440       .294
Def FG%                        .330       .450
3FG%                           .392       .216
3FG's Made/GM               8.0         5.0
PPG                             73.4       53.5
PPG Against                     58.0       72.8

AN OLD, OLD WOODEN SHIP
Milwaukee has had plenty of early season success, thanks largely in part to the teams very diverse attack. Four different players have led the Panthers in scoring in at least two games this season, including Jenny Lindner (six) and Sierra Ford-Washington (three).

WORKING THE GLASS
Milwaukee has made a clear emphasis on the rebounding front this season, and it has shown. The Panthers are out rebounding their opponents by just under six per game, including a decisive 50-26 edge against IPFW Dec. 28. In fact, UWM is averaging over 12 more boards than its opponents in wins (43.8-31.4), while that margin is much closer (41.3-40.8) in losses.

THE BIG 2-0...TIMES TWO
The Panther offense certainly was clicking in the 82-71 win at Eastern Illinois on Dec. 10. Milwaukee shot nearly 50 percent as a team in that game, headlined by Jenny Lindner and Sierra Ford-Washington both netting 25 points apiece. That marked the first time a pair of Panthers scored at least 20 points in a game this season.

400 AND COUNTING!
The Panthers have turned it up from three-point range recently, but have always been a threat from long distance. In fact, the team has a long history of making three's headed in to 2015-16. Milwaukee has made at least one three-pointer in every game dating back to an 0-for-4 showing from long-distance against Marquette back on November 26, 2002. That makes 400 games in a row heading into the game against the Cougars. It's still a ways to go for the NCAA record, however, which is held by Canisius at 510 in a row (1994-2011). The Horizon League record was halted four years ago when Loyola came up empty at 446. Cleveland State held the record previously - which was also the NCAA mark at the time - at 408 (1992-2007). For comparison, the NBA's longest streak is the Dallas Mavericks at 1,108 in a row.

I'LL TAKE LINDNER FOR 25 PLEASE
Sophomore Jenny Lindner was red hot in the second half of Milwaukee's win over EIU Dec. 10, finishing the game tied for a team high 25 points. That was already the second time this season the Neillsville, Wis. native has notched 25 this season, tying her career high set late last year. It marked the fifth 20-point game already in her young career.
1. 25 vs. UMKC, 11/16/15
2. 25 vs. Youngstown State, 2/19/15
3. 25 vs. Eastern Illinois 12/10/15
4. 20 vs. Cleveland State, 2/28/15
5. 20 vs. La Salle, 11/28/15

EFFICIENT, TOO
Not only did Lindner tie her career high with those 25 points in the season opener, but she did it with some of the most efficient shooting in school history by making 10 of her 12 shots on the night. That 83.3 field-goal percentage marked the third-best marksmanship in a single UWM game.

1. .909 (10-of-11), Nichole Drummond, 2/11/06
2. .857 (12-of-14), Traci Edwards, 2/21/08
3. .833 (10-of-12), Lindner

GO FISCH
Freshman Alyssa Fischer was key off the bench in Milwaukee's win over Eastern Illinois Dec. 14. The Manitowoc native went 4-of-8 from the floor - including 2-of-4 from three - for a season-high 10 points. That was a big lift for Fischer, who had been in an offensive funk since dropping 22 against Tiffin in the exhibition.

ALL A-BOARD
Steph Kostowicz's performance against NIU on Dec. 3 was one for the ages. The sophomore hauled in an incredible 20 rebounds in the big win to go with 11 points for her second double-double of the season. The 20 rebounds shattered her previous career-high of 14 and ties her for sixth-most in program history. It is also the first time a Panther has collected 20+ rebounds in one game since Traci Edwards accomplished that feat Dec. 30, 2006.

SPORTSCENTER TOP 10
When Sydney Howard hit a three-pointer from near midcourt to beat the halftime buzzer in the Dec. 3 win over NIU, she not only brought the crowd to its feet for a standing ovation, she got the attention of the national media. Howard's buzzer-beater was featured the following day on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays of the day.

EARLY CHARITY SUCCESS
The Panthers are off to an impressive start from the free throw line, currently near the lead in the Horizon League with a 73.4 percent clip after sinking 152-of-207 in their first ten games. That's a better ratio than the past few seasons. Milwaukee shot 69.8 percent last year and have not finished over 70 percent since a program-record 79.1 percent showing back in 2010-11.

PRESEASON PUBLICITY
Sophomore Jenny Lindner was named to the Preseason All-Horizon League Second Team in the league's annual preseason poll by the staff at the College Sports Madness website.

A WHOPPER OF AN OPENER
The 22-point margin of victory was nearly the highest in the history of the program. The only bigger one? That would be Kyle Rechlicz's first-ever game on the Panther bench, a 24-point win over Chicago State, 82-58, back on November 9, 2012.

NEW-LOOK PANTHERS
Milwaukee will have a new look to the roster this season after graduating three influential seniors from a year ago. The roster features six players who were on the team in 2014-15 and nine newcomers. Among the new faces are a trio of transfers (one will be sitting out, one a JUCO transfer and one ready to play this season after sitting out a year ago due to transfer rules) as well as six true freshmen all looking to make a good first impression.

TIME TO STEP UP
The situation allows the Panthers an opportunity for new players to step up or returning players to expand their roles from last season. The team will return just under half - 48.6 percent - of its scoring (963 of 1,981 total points) and just over half - 51.5 percent - of rebounding (558 of 1,083 total individual rebounds). When you break it down further, senior Jordyn Swan, who will miss the season due to injury, accounted for returning totals of 201 points and 108 boards.

HOW THEY ROLL
The Panthers were at it once again from deep last season and it would have been more noticeable had they not been even better at it the previous two years. The team once again finished close to the top of the record book for three-pointers made and attempted. Prior to Kyle Rechlicz's arrival, the most three's made was 212 and attempted was 586. The marks set in 2012-13 (255 of 726) smashed the old standards. In 2013-14, the team finished at 241 makes and 733 attempts, both numbers ending in the top two all-time. After three seasons under Kyle Rechlicz, the triple-happy Panthers nearly hold each of the top three marks for 3's made and attempted for a season.

3's MADE
1. 255 in 2012-13
2. 241 in 2013-14
4. 205 in 2014-15

3's ATTEMPTED
1. 733 in 2013-14
2. 726 in 2012-13
3. 676 in 2014-15

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
The Panthers set a record for fewest turnovers per game in 2012-13 at 16.2 - an impressive total considering the record that they broke was the former standard of 17.3 set during the 2001-02 campaign (an improvement of over one per game). The new record did not last long, however, as UWM turned the ball over just 14.9 times per contest in 2013-14 to shatter the record once again. The team came close again last season and the past three years under Kyle Rechlicz now account for the top three entries in the record book.

TEAM TURNOVERS PER GAME
1. 14.9 turnovers per game, 2013-14
2. 15.2 in 2014-15
3. 16.2 in 2012-13

MAKING A NAME FOR HERSELF
Head coach Kyle Rechlicz was named the seventh coach in program history in May of 2012. She also got off to one of the best starts - becoming the first UWM coach to win three of her first five contests of her initial campaign. In her first season, Rechlicz was also one of the youngest coaches at the NCAA Division I level - just seven coaches had earlier birth years when the 2012-13 campaign began.

WATCH 'EM ANYWHERE
Fans will have the opportunity to watch the Panthers all season long. The team will play five games on local broadcast television, once again returning to Time Warner Cable SportsChannel. Another 16 games will be carried live online on ESPN3 as well as four other road games via opponent platforms. For the Panthers' TWC SportsChannel contests, Bob Brainerd and former UWM great Maria Viall will once again be calling the action.

HEAD TO THE BIG 920
Nearly every Milwaukee regular-season game will once again be available on the radio and online via "The Big 920" on your AM dial. Scott Warras is back for his 10th season donning the headset. Fans can also catch Warras' call with the majority of the team's ESPN3 webcasts. A select few games will not be aired due to broadcast conflicts.

WELCOME
Head coach Kyle Rechlicz rounded out her staff in the offseason with a series of moves. Ashlee McGee moved up a spot in the assistant coach hierarchy and former video coordinator Dan Carey was promoted to assistant coach, with the recruiting coordinator role also added to his title.

Mike Hamilton was hired as the new Video Coordinator and Molly Hanson as the Director of Basketball Operations.

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Players Mentioned

#12 Kelsey Cunningham: G; 5' 9"; Sophomore

#15 Sydney Howard: G; 5' 7"; Senior

#32 Steph Kostowicz: F; 6' 2"; Sophomore

#20 Jenny Lindner: G; 6' 0"; Sophomore

#5 Alexis Lindstrom: G; 5' 7"; Junior

#41 Jordyn Swan: G/F; 6' 0"; Senior

#21 Alyssa Fischer: G; 5' 9"; Freshman

#24 Emma Roenneburg: F; 6' 2"; Freshman

#30 Sierra Ford-Washington: G; 5' 8"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#12 Kelsey Cunningham
: 5' 9"; Sophomore
: G

#15 Sydney Howard
: 5' 7"; Senior
: G

#32 Steph Kostowicz
: 6' 2"; Sophomore
: F

#20 Jenny Lindner
: 6' 0"; Sophomore
: G

#5 Alexis Lindstrom
: 5' 7"; Junior
: G

#41 Jordyn Swan
: 6' 0"; Senior
: G/F

#21 Alyssa Fischer
: 5' 9"; Freshman
: G

#24 Emma Roenneburg
: 6' 2"; Freshman
: F

#30 Sierra Ford-Washington
: 5' 8"; Junior
: G