Panthers Host Penguins For Pink Out Game Saturday

Milwaukee looking for second-straight win

MILWAUKEE - It's a busy day for the Milwaukee women's basketball team Saturday as they play host to Youngstown State at 2 p.m. inside the Klotsche Center. The Panthers will be donning special pink jerseys for the annual Pink Out. As part of the festivities, fans wearing pink will be admitted for just $1. There will also be a 50/50 raffle and the team's pink jerseys will be auctioned off following the game - with proceeds from both going to the Norris Health Center.

LOOKING AT YOUNGSTOWN STATE
The Penguins started league play with three-straight wins but have dropped six of their last nine and sit at 6-6 heading into Saturday's game. Many of those games have been incredibly close, including a one-point loss to Detroit and two and three-point wins over Milwaukee and Wright State.

YSU has a versatile attack, with Sarah Cash one of the better post presences in the league and Nikki Arbanas one of the best sharp shooters. Cash leads the team with 15.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, while Arbanas chips in 11.4 ppg. Indiya Benjamin has also been big for the Penguins this season, averaging 9.4 ppg, but has been battling some injury troubles of late.

As a team, Youngstown has one of the stingier defenses in the league, allowing just 63.3 ppg against - the third best margin in the league. However, that number has climbed to 70.3 in league-only games.

THE FIRST MEETING...
Kelsea Newman hit a fade away shot from just inside the arc as time expired to give YSU a 69-67 win at the Beeghly Center.

The two teams traded the lead four times in the final three minutes, with Newman's buzzer beater giving the Penguins the final edge.

Steph Kostowicz led the way for UWM with 14 points and nine rebounds - the lone Panther in double digits for the game.

Nikki Arbanas did the majority of the damage for YSU, netting 25 points on 7-10 shooting from three.

SERIES HISTORY
Youngstown's buzzer beater closed the overall series to a 24-12 edge in favor of Milwaukee. YSU has now won the last seven after UWM rattled off 15 straight.

UP NEXT
It's back to the road for Milwaukee as they head to Valparaiso next Thursday for a 7 pm game.

LAST GAME
Sierra Ford-Washington picked a good time for her only basket of the game.

The junior hit a tough jumper in the lane with 6.7 seconds left on the clock to give the Milwaukee women's basketball team a thrilling 59-58 overtime victory over Cleveland State University Thursday afternoon in front of over 2,000 fans inside the Klotsche Center.

UWM (13-9, 7-4 Horizon) led by as many as 16 in the third quarter before going cold offensively and see CSU (5-17, 2-10 Horizon) storm back to take a two point lead with 27 seconds left in regulation.

But Emma Roenneburg calmly sank a pair of free throws with four seconds left on the clock to force overtime, setting up Ford-Washington's big game winner in the OT.

"Sierra is one of those players that it doesn't matter how she's been playing throughout the game, I want the ball in her hands when it's crunch time," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "She is such a leader. She has come from an experienced program where she has been in those situations a lot, and I knew if we put the ball in her hands something good would come out of it.

"She hit a tough shot. That's that leadership from an upperclassman that you need on the floor toward the end of the game."

While Ford-Washington hit the winner, Jenny Lindner helped set things up with a huge game for Milwaukee, leading the way in scoring with 17 points and rebounding with 14 boards for her third double-double of the season.

THAT'S WHAT I CALL CLUTCH
Sierra Ford-Washington has come up with some big shots for Milwaukee this season, including a pair of game winners in the final seconds. The junior hit a tough jumper in the lane with 6.7 left in overtime to take down Cleveland State Feb. 11. Before that, her layup with 6.4 on the clock was the difference in UWM's 54-53 win over UIC Jan. 14.

A GOOD TIME TO GET GOING
While Sierra Ford-Washington stole the headlines in the 59-58 overtime win over Cleveland State Feb. 11 with her game-winning shot with just 6.7 seconds left on the clock, ironically it was one of the worst games she has played as a Panther. Entering that game averaging a team-leading 13.4 ppg, Ford-Washington nearly went scoreless, scoring her lone basket of the contest as the game's final points.

A LOT OF NAIL BITERS
Milwaukee's one-point, last second win has been just part of the norm for the Horizon League this season. Heading into Saturday's action, 20 league-only games have been decided by five points or less, with five of those being decided by just one point.

FOURTH TIME'S A CHARM
Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz is enjoying quite a bit of success in her fourth season at the helm. Rechlicz has led the Panthers to 13 wins with at least eight more games left on the schedule. That is more than each of her first three seasons, finishing last season with 10 victories. UWM hasn't won more than 13 games in a season since the 2008-09 team won 15.

AN OLD, OLD WOODEN SHIP
Milwaukee's offense has been very diverse this season. One year after Ashley Green led the team in scoring in 20 of UWM's 30 games, the Panthers have already had four different players lead the team in scoring through 22 games this season. Jenny Lindner has led the way in eight games thus far, while Steph Kostowicz and Sierra Ford-Washington each have done so seven times on the year.

In fact, UWM currently has four players that average 10+ points per game, making them one of just two league schools (Oakland) with that much wide-spread scoring options.

DOUBLING DOWN
Jenny Lindner had a monster of a game in the win over Cleveland State Feb. 11. The sophomore led the way with 17 points and 14 rebounds for her third double-double of the year.

That marked the ninth double-double by a Panther this season. Impressively, those nine different outings have come by four different players (Lindner, Steph Kostowicz, Emma Roenneburg, Sierra Ford-Washington).

BLOCK PARTY
Sophomore Steph Kostowicz has made quite an impact down in the post defensively for Milwaukee this season. The second-year player is averaging 1.5 blocks per game. That number ranks fourth in the conference and 98th in the nation.

Not only that, her 34 blocks this season are already closing in on the all-time record list. While Maria Viall's school record of 53 in 2003-04 might be hard to reach, Kostowicz has already tied Viall's 34-block performance from 2003-04 and needs just two more to move into sole possession of eighth place all time.

A PEEK AT THE LEAGUE STANDING
While there is still a lot of basketball yet to be played, UWM currently finds itself sitting alone at third in the league standings. That is significant as the Panthers haven't finished in the top half of the table since the 2010-11 team placed fourth and hasn't finished runner-up since the 07-08 season.

LIKING LEAGUE PLAY
Since the conference season started, the Panthers have seen some significant improvements in quite a few categories, especially the team's shooting. Before league play started up, Milwaukee was shooting .367 from the floor and just .302 from behind the arc. Now that conference play has started? UWM is shooting a whopping .410 from the floor and an impressive .351 from three.

WINNING BIG
The win at Northern Kentucky on Jan. 23 was Milwaukee's third-straight and fourth overall this season by at least 20 points. That is the most 20-point wins in a single season since the 2008-09 team also had four 20-point wins.

The last time Milwaukee has had more than four 20-point wins in a single season? The 2001-02 team posted nine victories by at least 20 points. That team went 20-8 with an average winning margin of 18.1 and has the largest win in school history - a 100-46 win over Youngstown State.

LOTS OF 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 72.9 percent clip after sinking 272-of-373 thus far. That's a better ratio than the past few seasons. Milwaukee shot 69.8 percent last year and has not finished over 70 percent since a program-record 79.1 percent showing back in 2010-11.

Individually, Milwaukee has two of the best free throw shooters in the league this season. Jenny Lindner - who went 10-for-10 once this season and has missed just three free throws in 2016 - is third in the conference and is 10th in the nation at 86.4 percent this year. Meanwhile, Sierra Ford-Washington - who twice has gone 8-for-8 in a game this year and was 11-for-11 against Oakland - ranks fifth in the league and 59th in the country at 83.7.

ALL GOOD THINGS...
Milwaukee's five-game win streak was snapped on Jan. 28 at the hands of Detroit, 89-79. It took a total team effort from the Titans to finally end the Panthers big run, including a season-high shooting percentage of 56 percent by Detroit.

The five-game run marked the longest winning streak under head coach Kyle Rechlicz. Milwaukee's last string of five or more came in 2007-08 when it rattled off five in a row early in conference play. Prior to that, the longest win streak of at least five came during the 2005-06 season when UWM ended the season with 12 straight all the way to the NCAA Tournament.

AWARD-WINNING PLAY
The awards have started to pile up for Steph Kostowicz after her recent run of play. She was named Horizon League Player of the Week one week ago after stuffing the stat sheet in a pair of Panther road wins. Kostowicz was also honored by College Sports Madness for the second-straight week, this time being named the High Major Player of the Week to go with the league's weekly award. Finally, she was also named to the NCAA's "Starting 5" for the week as one of the top-five players in the nation.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE
It's no secret Milwaukee has had plenty of early success this season. UWM got its 13th win of the year on Feb. 11 against Cleveland State - the fastest calendar date Milwaukee has gotten to 13 wins since the 2005-06 season when they reached that mark on Feb. 9. That team finished the year with an impressive 22 wins, making it all the way to the NCAA Tournament.

MAKE IT RAIN
The Panthers hit a season-high 11 threes in its 82-60 win over Valparaiso Jan. 16. While making three-pointers is nothing new for Milwaukee, the rate at which UWM was clicking against the Crusaders was worth taking note. Milwaukee went 11-for-16 in that win for a .688 percentage, ranking third all-time in program history.

1-             .786 (11-14)     Central Michigan        12/17/00
2-             .722 (13-18)     Western Michigan      11/14/12
3-             .688 (11-16)     Valparaiso     1/16/16

THE KOST OF ADMISSION
Steph Kostowicz was nearly unstoppable in three-straight Panther wins against Valpo, WSU and NKU, posting career-highs in all three games. After tallying 20 points, six steals and five assists - all career highs - against Valpo, she again netted 20 against Wright State before pouring in a new career-best 23 points on 7-8 shooting at NKU.

DE-FENSE
Milwaukee has been posting some impressive defensive numbers over the last month. In its last 13 games, the Panthers are averaging giving up just over 60 points against per contest. There have been quite a few standout performances during that stretch, as well.

In it's 62-46 win over Cleveland State on Jan. 9, UWM held the Vikings to just 12 made field goals - just one shy of the school record. The 14 first-half points also marked the lowest total of the season and the third-lowest in school history. In fact, the Panthers held CSU without a field goal for over 10 minutes between the first and second half.

Then, one game later against UIC, the Panthers overcame a rough second quarter to limit the Flames to just 11 and 12 points in each of the final two periods to claim a 54-53 win.

Finally, in back-to-back 82-60 wins over Valparaiso and Wright State, Milwaukee held its opponents to single digits in scoring in three of the eight quarters in those two games. That's even more impressive considering WSU came into that game averaging 80.4 ppg - the 11th best total in the nation.

THE W'S AND THE L'S
As one might expect, there are certainly some stark statistical differences in Milwaukee's 13 wins compared to its nine losses:

                          W's    L's
FG%                   .432   .326
Def FG%              .338   .447
3FG%                 .381   .254
3FG's Made/GM    7.4     5.7
PPG                    71.1   57.0
PPG Against           56.8   73.8

FAST STARTS
One other notable stat from Milwaukee's 13 wins is how fast the team gets out of the starting blocks. The Panthers are outscoring their opponents 478-323 in the opening half when they win, including a 273-166 edge in the second quarter.

STARTING THE CONFERENCE SEASON
After its 59-58 win over Cleveland State on Feb. 11, Milwaukee started 7-4 in Horizon League play this season. Although there are still plenty of games left on the schedule, the 7-4 start marks the best start through 11 league games under head coach Kyle Rechlicz. In fact, UWM hasn't posted a winning record in league play since 2007-08 when it went 11-7.

CLOSING OUT THE NON-CONFERENCE
With Milwaukee's 55-48 win over Chicago State on Jan. 3, it finished out its non-conference schedule with a winning record of 6-5. While it has been close plenty of times, UWM has not finished with a winning out-of-conference mark since the 2001-02 season when it went 6-5. Ironically, the sixth win in that season also came on the road against Chicago State.
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 an impressive 5.7 per game, including a decisive 44-32 edge against Wright State - a team that came into that game ranked second in the nation in rebounding. In fact, UWM is averaging nearly nine more boards than its opponents in wins (42.1-33.2), and still has the edge in losses, though the margin is much closer (39.7-38.4).

Here's a look at some of the largest rebounding margins for Milwaukee thus far this 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 411 games in a row heading into the game against the Penguins. 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.

SHARP SHOOTER
Milwaukee's Alexis Lindstrom has hit some big shots this season; quite of few of which have come from behind the arc. Playing her first season in Milwaukee, the junior has connected on at least one three pointer in all 22 games this season, hitting three or more six different times and netting a season-high five twice (La Salle Nov. 28./Northern Kentucky Jan. 23). That marks the most games with a made three to start the season on record - topping Angela Rodriguez's mark of 19 games with a three to start the 2012-13 season.

In fact, Lindstrom hasn't gone a full game without a made three pointer since going 0-for-1 March 8, 2014 while she was playing at Northern Illinois. One game after that performance, Lindstrom drained a career-high nine triples in the first game of the MAC conference tournament.

THE PERFECT GAME
The Panthers have had quite a few notable shooting performances this season. Despite playing in a season-low 19 minutes, Steph Kostowicz still made quite the impact in Milwaukee's 73-60 win over IPFW Dec. 28. She 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.

A pair of Panthers have also been perfect from the charity stripe this season with at least 10 attempts.

Jenny Lindner drained all 10 of her attempts from the line against IPFW, the first Panther to do so since Angela Rodriquez also went 10-for-10 at New Mexico State Nov. 30, 2013. Sierra Ford-Washington than did one better, going 11-for-11 as part of her 24 points against Oakland Jan. 30.

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.

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.

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Players Mentioned

#4 Ashley Green: G/F; 5' 11"; Senior

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

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

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

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

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

Players Mentioned

#4 Ashley Green
: 5' 11"; Senior
: G/F

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

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

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

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

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