Women's Basketball November 13, 2016

Milwaukee Kicks Off 2016-17 Season Sunday

Panthers look to continue momentum from last year

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee women's basketball team officially kicks off the 2016-17 campaign this week, welcoming Western Illinois to the Klotsche Center for a 4 pm matchup. The Panthers are coming off their best season in the last decade, where they went 19-13 overall, finished second in the Horizon League in both the regular season and the conference tournament and earned a berth to the WNIT - nearly pulling off the upset at Minnesota.

WHAT'S NEW
The Milwaukee women's basketball team officially kicks off the 2016-17 campaign this week, welcoming Western Illinois to the Klotsche Center for a 4 pm matchup. The Panthers are coming off their best season in the last decade, where they went 19-13 overall, finished second in the Horizon League in both the regular season and the conference tournament and earned a berth to the WNIT - nearly pulling off the upset at Minnesota.

LOOKING AT WESTERN ILLINOIS
The Leathernecks are coming off a 16-16 season just one year ago, including a trip to the WBI that saw them take down fifth-seeded Southern Illinois before bowing out. WIU deployed a very balanced offense last year, with five different players averaging double-digit scoring. While the two leading scorers have graduated, three remain, including Germantown native Taylor Higginbotham, who averaged 12.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last season. Western Illinois already started its 2016-17 season on Friday with a 113-29 win over Monmouth College.

SERIES HISTORY
Sunday's contest will break the 5-5 tie in the all time standings between Milwaukee and Western Illinois. The two teams last faced one another two years ago, with WIU coming away with a 79-59 win in Macomb. Milwaukee's last win in the series came back on Nov. 26, 2011 with a 79-66 victory.

UP NEXT
The Panthers hit the road for the first time this season later this week, heading to Northern Illinois for a Wednesday contest at 5:30 pm.

LAST GAME
Behind a herculean effort from Big Ten Player of the Year Rachel Banham, the University of Minnesota was able to escape with an 87-80 win over the Milwaukee women's basketball team Wednesday night from Williams Arena in the opening round of the WNIT.

Steph Kostowicz was nearly perfect all night long, leading Milwaukee (19-13) with 30 points. Three other Panthers scored in double figures in the narrow loss.

Milwaukee held Banham to just 13 points in the first half, but she showed why she is one of the leading scorers in NCAA history with 35 points in the second half for a game-high 48 for Minnesota (20-11).

"This was a hard-fought game today and I couldn't be more proud of my team for competing in such a great environment," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "Hats off to Minnesota and to Rachel Banham. Obviously she's one of the best players in the country.

"I thought we did a really great job. We came in on the road feeling like we could win and with a lot of confidence. We played our hearts out for 40 minutes."

Kostowicz was huge for UWM all night long, finishing just shy of her career high with 30 points on 12-15 shooting. She also led all players with 11 rebounds.

Sierra Ford-Washington came up with numerous big shots and finished with 18 points, seven assists and a pair of steals. Jenny Lindner had 12 points and seven rebounds, while Alexis Lindstrom added 10 points.

FOR OPENERS
The Panthers hold a 9-17 record in season-openers at the NCAA Division I level (dating back to 1990-91). A year ago, Milwaukee had one of its best openers to date with a 70-48 win over UMKC - the second-largest margin of victory in a season opener for UWM. Jenny Lindner led the way in that one with 25 points and the defense was solid, forcing 22 turnovers. Head coach Kyle Rechlicz is now 3-1 in openers, as UWM ran away with an 82-58 win over Chicago State in Rechlicz's debut contest three years ago.

BEST EVER
Ashley Green netted 36 points in Milwaukee season-opening win at North Dakota State to start the 2014-15 season, marking the most points by a Panther to start the season in program history. That eclipsed Traci Edwards' previous mark of 30 set back in 2007-08.

IN THE BOOKS
Last season was truly a memorable one for Milwaukee, recording its best regular season in a decade with quite a few remarkable accomplishments achieved by last year's squad.

• The 19 wins are the most in a season since the 2005-06 team that finished 22-9 on their way to the NCAA Tournament.

• The 12 conference wins are the most also since the 05-06 season.

• Milwaukee also posted 10 wins away from home, just one shy of the record 11 non-home wins set by the 2001-02 team.

• The Panthers finished their home season with a 9-5 mark - the first home winning season since 2010-11 (7-6). In fact, last season's home winning percentage of .643 is the highest since the 05-06 team went 13-3 for an .813 mark.

• Last year's second-place finish marked the first time Milwaukee has finished in the top half of the league standings since the 2010-11 team placed fourth and it is the first top-two finish for UWM since taking second in the 07-08 season.

WORKING THE GLASS
Milwaukee made a clear emphasis on the rebounding front last season. The Panthers out-rebounded their opponents by nearly 4.0 per game, including out-rebounding league foe Wright State - a team that came into all three contests ranked second in the nation in rebounding - a remarkable three times. In fact, UWM averaged six more boards than its opponents in wins (40.4-34.8), and still has the edge in losses, though the margin is much closer (38.8-37.9).

Here's a look at some of the largest rebounding margins for Milwaukee last season:

1. +24 vs. IPFW (50-26)
2. +21 at Youngstown State (46-25)
3. +20 at Chicago State (42-22)
4. +17 vs. La Salle (53-36)
5. +14 vs. Valparaiso (42-28)

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. 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 421 games in a row heading into the game against the Leathernecks. 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 five 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.

PRESEASON RANKS
The Horizon League released its preseason rankings as voted on by coaches, media members and SIDs with the Panthers picked to be right back at the top this season. Milwaukee was tabbed third overall with 246 points, behind only Green Bay (299) and Detroit (256). Steph Kostowicz also was recognized when the votes were announced, earning first-team all-league honors after earning the same distinction at the end of last year's outstanding run.

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM...
UWM is coming off an incredible season that saw them finish second in both the regular season and conference tournament to earn a postseason berth with a trip to the WNIT. Even more impressive, the Panthers were picked ninth overall in last year's preseason league poll following an eighth-place finish (of nine) in 2014-15. That made them just the third team in Horizon League history to finish in the bottom two one season and follow that up with a top-two finish the very next year. The other two?

-Youngstown State finished last (4-14) in the 2011-12 season before jumping up to second (11-5) in 12-13, making it to the WNIT.

-Butler placed seventh of eight (3-11) in 1988-89 before leaping up to second (12-4) the next year, losing to Notre Dame by just one point in the conference tournament championship.

MAKING A NAME FOR HERSELF
Head coach Kyle Rechlicz was named the seventh coach in program history in May of 2012. After three years of hard work, the Panthers broke through in her fourth season at the helm with an incredible campaign last year. Milwaukee racked up 19 wins, finished season in the Horizon League and earned a trip to the WNIT. All that work did not go unnoticed, as Rechlicz was named Horizon League Coach of the Year at the end of last season, making her just the second coach in program history to earn that honor.

STEPPING UP
After solid freshman campaigns, Jenny Lindner and Steph Kostowicz stepped up in a big way last year during their sophomore seasons. The duo averaged a combined 27.2 points and 14.8 rebounds per game last year despite still being some of the younger members of the squad. Now, heading into their junior year, the future looks bright for could be in store for them this season.

THE W'S AND THE L'S
A look back at last year, there were some stark statistical differences in Milwaukee's 19 wins compared to its 13 losses:

                                  W's       L's
FG%                           .440      .330
Def FG%                     .348      .449
3FG%                         .369      .244
3FG's Made/GM           6.8        5.5
PPG                            72.0      56.9
PPG Against                 59.9      73.2

WATCH 'EM ANYWHERE
Fans will have the opportunity to watch the Panthers all season long. The team will play four games on local broadcast television, once again returning to Time Warner Cable SportsChannel. Another 21 games will be carried live online on ESPN3 as well as one other road game via an opponent platform. 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. Matt Menzl will don the headset for the first time this season. Fans might remember Menzl after years of calling Milwaukee soccer and volleyball games, as well spending the past five seasons as the voice of Green Bay men's basketball. Fans can also catch Menzl's call with the majority of the team's ESPN3 webcasts. A select few games will not be aired due to broadcast conflicts.

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Players Mentioned

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

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

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

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

Players Mentioned

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

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

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

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