Women's Basketball November 24, 2016

Women’s Basketball Starts TD Bank Classic Friday

Panthers look to carry momentum into Thanksgiving tournament

MILWAUKEE - Fresh off their big win over Wisconsin, the Milwaukee women's basketball team looks to carry that momentum into the TD Bank Classic in Burlington, Vermont starting Friday. The Panthers start the tournament Friday at 4 pm Central against LIU-Brooklyn, before a Saturday contest against either NJIT or host Vermont at either 4 or 6 pm Central. Fans can catch all the action, as each game will be streamed live online, as well broadcast by Matt Menzl, with all links provided at MKEPanthers.com.

PANTHER BITS
• Milwaukee is coming off one of its best seasons in program history, winning 19 games a year ago and earning a berth to the WNIT.

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

• The Panthers were picked third in the 2016-17 preseason coaches' poll after finishing in second place a year ago.

• Kyle Rechlicz enters her fifth season as head coach of Milwaukee with high hopes, having been named Horizon League Coach of the Year last season. She became just the second coach in school history to earn that honor.

• After earning First-Team All-Horizon League honors last season, Steph Kostowicz doubled down after being named preseason first-team all-league entering to the 2016-17 campaign.

WHAT'S NEW
Fresh off their big win over Wisconsin, the Milwaukee women's basketball team looks to carry that momentum into the TD Bank Classic in Burlington, Vermont starting Friday. The Panthers start the tournament Friday at 4 pm Central against LIU-Brooklyn, before a Saturday contest against either NJIT or host Vermont at either 4 or 6 pm Central. Fans can catch all the action, as each game will be streamed live online, as well broadcast by Matt Menzl, with all links provided at MKEPanthers.com.

LOOKING AT THE FIELD
LIU-Brooklyn enters the tournament looking for their first win on the year, sitting at 0-3 in the early going. The Blackbirds dropped a pair of low-scoring affairs to Army and George Mason before a 113-54 loss at Ohio State on Saturday. Senior guard Shanovia Dove leads the second-year head coach Stephanie Glover's team in scoring with 12.7 points/game, while a pair of freshmen posts are hauling in a team-high 6.3 rebounds/game each.

NJIT goes into its first game against Vermont with a 2-2 record, dropping their last two to Bucknell and Fairleigh Dickinson. The Highlanders have a pair of players averaging double digits in scoring thus far in Alana Dudley (14.3) and Leah Horton (11.8), with two other players averaging 9.8 per contest in the early going.

Host Vermont has started the season 1-3, with a win over Dartmouth highlighting their early going. Excluding a lopsided loss at Yale, the Catamounts have been in three very close games, with a win by five, a loss by six and a loss by two in double overtime. Three players average 10+ points/game, headlined by Candice Wright at 12.3.

SERIES HISTORY
Milwaukee has never played any of the other three teams in this year's tournament before in program history.

UP NEXT
The Panthers return home to start the month of December, hosting North Dakota State on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 2 pm from the Klotsche Center.

LAST GAME
Jenny Lindner led all players with 28 points and Sierra Ford-Washington added another 27 as the Milwaukee women's basketball team recorded a big home win, taking down in-state rival Wisconsin, 80-63, Tuesday night from the Klotsche Center.

The win is the first for Milwaukee (3-1) in the series since Dec. 15, 1992, ending a 17-game run by Wisconsin (1-4).

For Panther head coach Kyle Rechlicz, this marks her first win over the Badgers – the team she played for collegiately and was an assistant coach with prior to being named Milwaukee's head coach.

"I don't count this any bigger than any other win," Rechlicz said. "Wisconsin is still trying to find their identity, but they've got some really great pieces.

"I thought our team really played Milwaukee basketball today. We talked about it in the locker room that this wasn't a game about who we're playing – we don't ever want to focus on that, we want to focus on ourselves and our team did that. We played with heart, we played with energy and our upperclassmen and leadership really stepped up.

"Everybody stepped up to the challenge. It was just a really fun atmosphere."

Lindner was money all night long, going 9-19 from the floor and a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line for her 28 points, grabbing 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the young season.

Ford-Washington was also huge for the Panthers, coming up with countless clutch shots on the way for 27 points on 9-15 shooting – including 3-6 from behind the arc.

TURKEY TOURNEY
This year's TD Bank Classic will mark the 14th time Milwaukee will take part in an in-season tournament around the Thanksgiving holiday. UWM has won at least one game in those 13 tournaments, including going 2-0 to tournament titles two times (1997 and 2006). In all, Milwaukee sits at 15-10 all time in Thanksgiving tournaments and 25-25 in all in-season tournaments.

STREAK SNAPPERS
The Panthers have already put a pair of long losing streaks to bed this season. With its win at Loyola on Nov. 20, UWM ended a six-game win streak by the Ramblers in the series, with the last win coming back in 2011. Then, just two days later, Milwaukee emphatically took down Wisconsin for its first win in that series since Dec. 15, 1992 - a span of 17-straight wins by the Badgers over nearly 25 years.

A B1G WIN
Another notable feat in its win over in-state rival Wisconsin was that it marked just the seventh time the Panthers have taken down a Big Ten foe. That marked the first win over the Big Ten since an 81-73 victory over Northwestern on Jan. 18, 2006.

WINNING BIG
Milwaukee's 27-point win over Loyola (73-46) on Nov. 20 was the biggest win in Kyle Rechlicz's four-plus years as head coach of the Panthers. UWM has a pair of 26-point W's under Rechlicz (86-60 at Northern Kentucky, 1/23/16 and 84-68 at Detroit, 1/7/15). The Panthers' last win by at least 27 came back on Dec. 15, 2011 with a 79-48 victory over Chicago State.

DE-FENSE
The Panthers turned up the defensive pressure Nov. 20 at Loyola and held the Ramblers to just 15 first-half points and 46 total for the game. That tied the fewest allowed by Kyle Rechlicz-coached Milwaukee team, equal to a 62-46 win at Cleveland State Jan. 9, 2016. In fact, no UWM team has conceded fewer points since the 2011-12 squad posted a 50-31 win over Valparaiso on Feb. 25 at the Klotsche Center.

WHAT A TURNAROUND
After the 114-104, double-overtime thriller at Northern Illinois on Nov. 16, defense was a clear point of emphasis heading into the next game. The result: the Panthers held Loyola to just 46 points (just 15 in the first half) en route to a 27-point win over the Ramblers. The 68-point shift in points allowed is the largest - plus or minus - between two games since Milwaukee's 46 years of women's basketball.

DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK
After missing the entire 2015-16 season following a preseason injury, Jordyn Swan returned for her redshirt senior year and made her return to the court with three minutes of action at NIU Nov. 16. Four days later, Swan had a big impact - netting 13 points in just 13 minutes of action. That is significant, as it marks the first time Swan reached double figures in scoring since her junior season when she netted 11 against Youngstown State on Jan. 31, 2015.

LEAGUE LEADERS
While it is still early, UWM has started out much like they played all of last season with their preliminary statistics ranking quite high in the league standings. Milwaukee already leads the conference in rebounding margin (+13.6) and free throw percentage (.806) and also ranks second in scoring offense (84.3 points/game), second in field goal percentage (.444) and third in assists (15.7/game).

Individually, quite a few Panthers check in atop the league standings, headlined in numerous categories by do-it-all forward Steph Kostowicz. The junior is first in the Horizon League in scoring (22.3 points/game), field goal percentage (.727) and three point percentage (.714), second in minutes played (35.3/game), fourth in blocks (1.3/game), fifth in rebounding (9.0/game) and 12th in assists (3.3/game).

A LOT OF CHARITY WORK
Kyle Rechlicz's teams have increasingly improved on their free throw shooting, with last year being the third-best in program history, connecting on .737 percent of their freebies. This year's Panther squad is well above that mark, sinking 74-88 of their shots from the charity stripe heading into the game against Wisconsin. That is good for an .841 percentage - well above the school record of .790 set back in the 2010-11 season.

Not only that, the Panthers' free throw shooting ranks fifth in the entire nation after four games. Providence leads the NCAA at .906 (58-64), but Milwaukee has both attempted and made more free throws than the four schools ahead of them through four games.

COMING OUT SWINGING
Last year, Milwaukee made a habit of jumping out quickly on its opponents and building a very sizeable lead before they knew what hit them. That has been a trend once again in the early going this season. UWM is outscoring its first four opponents by 31 in the first quarter alone and boasts a 160-108 edge in first halves thus far.

BREAKING THE CENTURY MARK
Milwaukee's 104-point performance against Northern Illinois Nov. 16 tied the second-most points in a game in program history - second only to the memorable 116-point game Dec. 4, 2012 against Bradley. The Panthers also scoring 104 points in a big win over Northeastern Jan. of 1991. This year's performance marked the sixth time UWM has eclipsed the 100-point barrier in its D-I history and the 12th time since basketball began at the school in 1971. The Bradley game marked the most recent reaching the century mark, with the other triple-figure outings including totals of 104 (Northeastern, 1/22/91), 102 (Detroit, 1/19/02), 101 (CSU, 2/17/96) and 100 (YSU, 2/2/02). The 218 combined points in the NIU this season also marked the second-most total points in a game in program history, shy of only the 228 in the 2012 win over Bradley. It also marked just the second time both teams were 100-plus in the same contest.

THAT'S KIND OF A BIG DEAL
Milwaukee did something it has never done before in the Nov. 16 game at Northern Illinois - have three players with a double-double in the same contest. Steph Kostowicz (30 pts, 11 reb), Sierra Ford-Washington (18 pts, 11 reb) and Jenny Lindner (16 pts, 12 reb) all recorded double-doubles in Milwaukee's 114-104 loss, marking the first time three players have done that all in the same game.

6 x 10 = TEAM EFFORT
Another notable from Milwaukee's Nov. 16 contest at Northern Illinois - six Panthers reached double figures in scoring. The Panthers entire starting five of Bailey Farley, Alexis Lindstrom, Jenny Lindner, Sierra Ford-Washington and Steph Kostowicz all scored 11 or more points, while freshman Lizzie Odegard came off the bench to also chip in 12. That marked the first time six players scored since Mar. 9, 2007 in an 83-79 win over Wright State in the Horizon League Tournament quarterfinals - a total of 280 games earlier.

FOR OPENERS
The Panthers improved to 10-17 all-time in season openers at the NCAA Division I level (dating back to 1990-91) after their 76-68 win over Western Illinois to start the 2016-17 season. The win over WIU was an exciting one, with Jenny Lindner pouring in 23 points to go with eight rebounds, while Steph Kostowicz notched her first double-double of the young season with 20 points and 11 boards. Head coach Kyle Rechlicz is now 4-1 in openers, as UWM ran away with an 82-58 win over Chicago State in Rechlicz's debut contest four years ago.

EARLY LEAGUE HONORS
Freshman Lizzie Odegard made her collegiate debut in Sunday's win over Western Illinois, collecting five points, five rebounds and one assist in just 14 minutes of action. Lost in the stat sheet is that most of Odegard's efforts came at a crucial time, with WIU closing in on Milwaukee's big lead midway through the third quarter. For her efforts, Odegard was named Horizon League Freshman of the Week, becoming the first Panther to earn a league award after her collegiate debut in program history.

JENNY BEING JENNY
Jenny Lindner has been a big part of Milwaukee's success in the early going this year. In the season-opening win over Western Illinois, the junior netted a game-high 23 points. Impressively, Linder was able to score anywhere she wanted on the court, going 6-12 from inside the arc, 1-2 from outside and 8-8 from the charity stripe. She then followed that up with 16 points and 12 rebounds at Northern Illinois Nov. 16. Lindner saved her best for last against in-state rival Wisconsin. The junior recorded her eight career double-double with 28 points and 11 rebounds in taking down the Badgers, now giving her 20 or more points in five of her last nine games dating back to last season.

DOUBLING DOWN
Steph Kostowicz has picked up right where she left off last year, recording three double-doubles in her first four games of the year. The preseason first-team all-league honoree opened with 20 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Western Illinois and followed that up with 30 points and 11 boards against Northern Illinois. She also went for 12 and 13 in the big win over Wisconsin. That gives her 13 double-doubles now in her career at the early part of her junior season. In fact, the back-to-back double-doubles to start the season marked the first time any Panther has achieved that feat in program history.

THREE-HEADED MONSTER
Sierra Ford-Washington, Steph Kostowicz and Jenny Lindner have helped make Milwaukee a force to be reckoned with. The trio attributed for .612 percent of the Panthers' scoring last season and have gotten off to a blazing start to the 2016-17 season. So far, that number is up to .637 percent, with the big three combining for 10 double-digit scoring performances and six double-doubles in just four games.

AWFULLY EFFICIENT
Not only is Steph Kostowicz lighting up the scoreboard in the early going of her junior season, she's doing so in an awfully efficient manner. Kostowicz started the season going 8-10 in the season opener and is now shooting a league best .692 (27-39) from the floor on the year, including .750 (6-8) from behind the arc - also tops in the Horizon League. Not to be overshadowed, her free-throw shooting of .864 (19-22), also in the top-15 in the league in the early going.

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.

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 425 games in a row heading into the game against the Blackbirds. 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.

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.

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.

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 over the radio waves due to broadcast conflicts, but can still be found online at MKEPanthers.com

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Players Mentioned

#4 Bailey Farley: G; 5' 10"; Junior

#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

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

#45 Lizzie Odegard: F; 6' 0"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#4 Bailey Farley
: 5' 10"; Junior
: G

#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

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

#45 Lizzie Odegard
: 6' 0"; Freshman
: F