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wnit, scoreboard
80
Milwaukee UWM 19-13
87
Winner Minnesota MINN 20-11
Milwaukee UWM
19-13
80
Final
87
Minnesota MINN
20-11
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Milwaukee UWM 15 24 25 16 80
Minnesota MINN 15 23 28 21 87

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Gophers Outlast Milwaukee In WNIT

Kostowicz scores 30 in narrow loss

MINNEAPOLIS – 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.
 
Milwaukee committed just 13 turnovers in this one and had 18 assists to Minnesota's 10. The Gophers claimed a slight 46-39 edge in rebounding and were whistled for 10 fouls to the Panthers' 14.
 
It was all Kostowicz in the early going for Milwaukee. The All-Horizon League First Teamer scored the first nine points of the game for the Panthers. UWM continued to pound the post in the opening quarter as Kostowicz finished the first with 11, while Minnesota native Christina Wakeman added four more to tie the score at 15-15 after one.
 
The Panthers kept it rolling in the second quarter and started to get more comfortable against their Big Ten opponents. A three from Ford-Washington made it 26-22 early in the second and another triple, this time from Emma Roenneburg, gave Milwaukee a five-point lead five minutes to play in the first half.
 
Milwaukee led 39-38 at the break after a three-point play the hard by Kostowicz - who was a perfect 6-6 from the floor in the opening half - with one second left in the opening frame.
 
After holding Banham to just 13 points in the first two quarter, the Wooden Award finalist showed why she is one of the best players in the nation, exploding for 23 points in the third quarter alone.
 
Milwaukee did not back down though, matching the Gophers shot for shot. Lindstrom hit back-to-back threes for the Panthers and UWM shot 71.4 percent (10-14) in the third quarter and trailed by just two at 66-64 after 30 minutes.
 
The Gophers started hot in the fourth quarter, jumping out to a 78-66 lead and forcing a UWM timeout. Just like they have all season, Milwaukee refused to quit and went on a 12-4 run to draw the game to 82-80 after another three-pointer from Lindner.
 
On the ensuing Gopher possession, Lindner drew a charge to give the ball back to Milwaukee with a chance to tie the game with less than 90 seconds remaining. But, Kostowicz's shot rimmed out and Minnesota was able to ice the game with free throws in the final seconds of the game.
 
Banham's 48 points are the most allowed by Milwaukee since Charmonique Stallworth (Northern Illinois) scored 40 in 1996. It also marks the most points in WNIT history as she moved into sixth place all time in NCAA Division I scoring, now with 3,056 points.
 
This closes an incredible season by UWM, finishing with a 19-13 overall record. They finished second in the Horizon League in both the regular season and the league tournament despite being picked ninth in the 10-team league. Milwaukee nearly doubled its win total from last year (10) and made a postseason tournament for the first time in 10 years.
 
"It was an emotional locker room after the game," Rechlicz said, "Saying goodbye to such an impactful senior in Sydney Howard – you don't see everything she does for our team on a stat sheet. But she was so much of a leader and she really brought this team together.
 
"She has set the bar high and we've talked about that we can't take a step back. We've got to use this as a stepping stone for our program to continue to build and move forward, and challenge ourselves even more in the postseason and the summer to be better than what we were this year. We need to fight harder for a conference championship and we'll hopefully be playing in the NCAA Tournament.
 
"This season was a great building step for our program and I think next year we'll strive for even better."
 
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