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Jenny Lindner
Jenny Lindner
68
Western Illinois WIU 1-1
76
Winner Milwaukee UWM 1-0
Western Illinois WIU
1-1
68
Final
76
Milwaukee UWM
1-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Western Illinois WIU 13 16 14 25 68
Milwaukee UWM 24 16 14 22 76

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Early Run Sparks Panthers To Season-Opening Win

Lindner, Kostowicz lead the way with 20 points each

MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee women's basketball team started the 2016-17 season on a strong note, jumping out to a big lead early and never looking back for a 76-68 win over Western Illinois Sunday afternoon from the Klotsche Center.
 
Jenny Lindner netted a game-high 23 points, while Steph Kostowicz started the season with a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds as the Panthers (1-0) improved to 4-1 in season openers under head coach Kyle Rechlicz.
 
"This absolutely feels good," Rechlicz said after the win. "There's always a little more excitement and a few more jitters when you're coming into that first game and I think that's why we turned the ball over more than I would have liked. I think we were just so excited to get out on the court and play somebody else. Western is a really good team and this is a good win."
 
Lindner was big early for Milwaukee, scoring 12 of her game-high 23 points in the first quarter alone. Meanwhile, Kostowicz was key late for the Panthers with 12 of her 20 in the fourth quarter.
 
Alexis Lindstrom and Bailey Farley also reached double figures in scoring for Milwaukee, with Lindstrom netting 11 and Farley another 10 off the bench in her first game for the Black & Gold.
 
Emily Clemans led the way for WIU (1-1) with 19 points, while Morgan Blumer added 17 points and 12 rebounds.
 
After Western Illinois started the game on a 9-2 run, the Panthers answered back in a big way with a 20-2 run of their own to quickly jump up to a big lead. After a short spurt by the Leathernecks, Milwaukee continued to sink shot after shot with another 12-3 run to swell the lead to 20 at 36-16 after a three-pointer by Lindstrom with 4:33 left in the first half.
 
"We have so many offensive weapons on the court and we really started getting our zone offense clicking," Rechlicz said. "We knew they were going to come into the game and play a lot of zone. I didn't think they would play the whole game in zone…so it took us a little bit of time to get that going. But when it started clicking, we were able to find the holes and that really started with Jenny and Steph. They did a good job of attacking that high post, middle area, and passing they really made some great decisions in that position."
 
WIU went on a run at the end of the second to cut Milwaukee's lead to 11 at the break and carried that over into the start of the third quarter, narrowing it down to 40-38 at the 6:38 mark in the third.
 
The Panthers would once again respond though, rattling off 11 straight, again capped by a triple from Lindstrom to once again bring the crowd to its feet.
 
UWM was able to keep the Leathernecks at arms length the rest of the way in comfortably heading to win number one of the season.
 
"You can credit that to our upperclassmen leadership," Rechlicz said. "With Sierra and Alexis running that point-combo position, and then you've got Jenny and Steph – they've played a lot of minutes in a Panther uniform. They don't get nervous. Teams are going to go on runs. You even saw that at the start of the game. We started down 9-2 before our team went on that run, and it was really nice just to see our team stay calm and not gain emotion into it."
 
Milwaukee dominated the rebounding battle Sunday, 41-27, and also went a near-perfect 18-20 from the free throw line.
 
Up next, the Panthers hit the road for the first time this season, heading just across the state line to Northern Illinois for a 5:30 pm contest Wednesday afternoon.
 
 
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