Panthers Look For Weekend Sweep Saturday

Milwaukee takes on Youngstown State at 3:30 pm Central

MILWAUKEE – Fresh off a thrilling buzzer-beater win at Cleveland State Thursday morning, the Milwaukee women's basketball team looks to make it two in a row Saturday with a 3:30 pm Central Time contest at Youngstown State. The game is part of a double-header with the YSU men, who take on Cleveland State immediately following. Fans can stream the game live through ESPN3 or listen to Matt Menzl's call on 920am or at TheBig920.com.

LOOKING AT THE PENGUINS
Youngstown State sits at 7-13 overall and 3-6 in league play heading into Saturday's game. A preseason pick to battle for the top of the league standings, a rash of injuries have hampered the Penguins' season thus far. YSU still has plenty of talent when healthy, with four players averaging double figures in scoring. Freshman forward Mary Dunn leads Youngstown State with 11.9 points/game while making 17 starts and playing in all 20 games on the year.

SERIES HISTORY
The Milwaukee-Youngstown State match up has been an incredibly streaky one over the years. While the Panthers still hold a 24-13 lead in the all time ledger, YSU has claimed the last eight. That comes after a run of 15-straight wins for the Black & Gold. Milwaukee also had a nine-game win streak from 1992-2004, as well. A win on Saturday would be the first for head coach Kyle Rechlicz against the Penguins.

UP NEXT
The Panthers remain on the road next week, traveling to the east side of Michigan for a pair of league games, starting Thursday at Detroit Mercy.

LAST GAME
Steph Kostowicz's reverse layup just before the buzzer sent the Milwaukee women's basketball team home with a thrilling 80-78 victory over Cleveland State Thursday morning in front of a school day crowd of 1,329 from the Wolstein Center.

Milwaukee (14-6, 6-3 Horizon) started the game slowly and faced a barrage right out of the gates from the host Vikings (10-10, 5-4 Horizon), only to erase an early 13-point deficit in the first half alone.

The game featured eight ties and 13 lead changes. It was also awfully reminiscent of the last time the two teams met – a 59-58 Panther win at home over the Vikings after Sierra Ford-Washington hit a game winner with just seconds left on the clock last February.

"This was quite a game," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "We didn't start off very strong. They (CSU) were hitting threes. I thought they did a great job of understanding our defense to start. We made a few adjustments and were able to take the lead at half, but we knew this was going to be a battle. They have two of the best scorers in the league in Abshaw and Livingston.

"I'm just really proud of our teams' resilience on the road. We continued to feed who was hot in Alexis Lindstrom. We got her the ball and that was awesome. Steph was finishing around the basket, Jenny hit some big shots – we really are in this position right now because we have so many different scorers, combined with a more than capable bench."

Alexis Lindstrom led all scorers in this one with a season-high 21 points, going 5-of-8 from behind the arc.

Kostowicz finished the game with 17 points and nine rebounds. Jenny Lindner and Lizzie Odegard each added 14 points, while Sierra Ford-Washington once again stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, seven assists and six rebounds.

Khayla Livingston led Cleveland State with 20 points as one of four Vikings in double figures.

BEATING THE BUZZER
Steph Kostowicz's layup with 0.9 left on the clock Thursday at Cleveland State brought back memories from last season. Sierra Ford-Washington twice sent Milwaukee home with a win in the closing seconds last year. The point guard's layup with seven seconds left sealed the win over UIC last January before hitting a jumper in the paint one month later for the Panthers first buzzer-beater against Cleveland State.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
With its trip to northeast Ohio this week, the Panthers will be making their first extended road trip in nearly two full months. After a big trip out east to Vermont over the Thanksgiving holiday, UWM played five of its next seven at home, with another game just across town at Marquette. The longest trek Milwaukee has had to make since the start of December came back on Dec. 7 with the 3 and 1/2 hour drive to Normal, Ill. for a 68-60 road win.

The Panthers now play seven of their final 11 games away from home, including a pair of trips to Ohio and another to the Detroit area.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB
With her three-pointer with 2:06 remaining in the first half in the Jan. 13 against Detroit Mercy, Jenny Lindner became just the 20th player in program history to score 1,000 points for her career. Lindner was able to reach the milestone in just her 79th game, making her the seventh-fastest to 1,000 points in Panther history. The junior should move her way up the charts plenty still this year with at least 10 games still left on the schedule.

THE COUNTDOWN TO 1,000
While Jenny Lindner reached the 1,000-point club earlier this year, she likely won't be the only addition this season as classmate Steph Kostowicz is right behind and is well on pace to eclipse the barrier later soon. Heading into Saturday's game, Kostowicz sits with 913 points (87 away). Heading into this year, Milwaukee had 19 players with 1,000+ points in their careers. Of those 19, only two other tandems achieved the feat as part of the same class:

-Umenia White (1,597 points) and Cammie Nonhoff (1,087 points) from 1985-89

-Jaci Clark (1,830 points) and Marsha Housley (1,491 points) from 1979-83.

...AND THE COUNTDOWN TO 500
The same duo that has been lighting up the scoreboard for Milwaukee the past two-plus seasons has also been getting things done on the glass. Not only are Steph Kostowicz and Jenny Linder both right around 1,000 career points, but both seem likely to crack the 500-rebound list this season, as well. In fact, Kostowicz achieved that milestone feat in the Dec. 31 win over Northern Kentucky with her first rebound of the game, making her just the 24th player in program history to notch 500 rebounds for her career. Heading into Saturday's game, she now has 551 boards to her name. Meanwhile, Lindner isn't far away at 482 (18 away). To date, UWM has 24 players with 500 rebounds all time in program history. Of those 24, only 12 also reached the 1,000-point mark in their careers.

A NEAR TRIPLE DOUBLE
Sierra Ford-Washington had quite the remarkable stat line Jan. 13 against Detroit Mercy. The senior point guard finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists - awfully close to a triple double. Not only would that have been her first triple-double, but it would have been just the second in program history. The first and only in Milwaukee history came on March 9, 2007 when Jody Crumble finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a Horizon League Semifinal contest at No. 22 Green Bay.

SCHOOL DAY SUCCESS
Milwaukee has had a pair of thrillers in front of big crowds in "school day" game this season. Things started against Detroit Mercy Han. 13 in front of 2,400 fans with a big fourth-quarter push for an 81-69 win. Then, less than two weeks later, Steph Kostowicz beat the buzzer at Cleveland State for their school day game for an 80-78 victory.

Those two wins moved UWM to 4-1 in four years games in front of the youngsters, including a 3-1 mark when hosting area schools inside the Klotsche Center, with plenty of other memorable finishes in its short history. Milwaukee finished this year's game on a 26-10 run for the big comeback W over Detroit Mercy. That came one year after Sierra Ford-Washington hit a jumper in the lane with 6.7 seconds left, giving UWM a 59-58 win over Cleveland State. In 2015, Ashley Green went off for 31 points and 10 rebounds on her birthday and helped spark a late 14-3 run for a 66-60 win over Oakland.

400 AND COUNTING!
The Panthers have been on fire from behind the arc of late, headlined by hitting 14 threes against Valparaiso Jan. 7. That's nothing new for Milwaukee, though, as they have been lighting it up from three-point range for a while now. In fact, the Panthers have made at least one three-point in every game dating back to an 0-for-4 showing against Marquette back on Nov. 26, 2002. That makes 441 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 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.

HEATING UP
While Milwaukee has been hitting threes for quite some time, that has especially been the case of late. After a cold spell early in the season, UWM has connected on eight or more three-pointers in nine of its last 11 contests. Not only that, but the Panthers flirted with their school record of made threes (17) Jan. 7 at Valparaiso by hitting seven in the first quarter alone before finishing with 14 for the game.

Not coincidentally, Milwaukee's top marksman - Alexis Lindstrom - has led the charge in hitting 28 shots from deep in the last nine games alone, including going 5-for-8 Thursday against Cleveland State.

OUTSIDE-INSIDE
In the Jan. 7 game at Valparaiso, Milwaukee couldn't quite get things going inside in the early going and were forced into firing quite a few shots from outside the arc. The results were awfully impressive, as the Panthers finished the opening quarter going 7-for-13 from three. That accounted for all 21 points for UWM in the first 10 minutes.

Not only that, the seven made threes in one quarter are the most for Milwaukee since the NCAA switched to the new format at the start of last season.

HELPING HAND
Part of the reason Milwaukee has had such hot shooting of late is the ball movement and the play from its two primary point guards. On Jan. 5 at UIC, Alexis Lindstrom dished out a career-high eight assists as UWM had a season-best 20 assists as a team in the win. Then, two days later at Valpo, it was Sierra Ford-Washington's turn. The senior recorded a season-best seven of the team's 17 assists in the comeback win. Ford-Washington followed that up with another seven-assist performance against Oakland, before setting her teammates up eight times against Detroit Mercy Jan.13.

LEAGUE LEADERS
While it is still early, UWM has started out much like they played all of last season with their statistics ranking quite high in the league standings in the early going. Milwaukee already ranks second in the conference in free throw percentage (.788), three point percentage (.352), rebound margin (+7.4) scoring offense (75.2 points/game) and field goal percentage (.429).

OH SO CLOSE
While the Panthers' 14-6 record is certainly impressive, Milwaukee is just a few shots away from one of the best marks in the entire nation. Milwaukee had buzzer-beater attempts against both Northern Illinois and Northwestern fall just short for a pair of extremely close non-conference losses, and had three attempts in the final 10 seconds just miss against Oakland.

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 274-345 of their shots from the charity stripe heading into the game against Cleveland State. That is good for a .788 percentage - just below the school-record mark of .790 set back in the 2010-11 season.

Not only that, the Panthers' free throw shooting ranks seventh in the entire nation after 20 games. South Dakota leads the NCAA at .816 (289-354).

Individually, Jenny Lindner stands eighth in the nation with a rate of 91.0 percent from the line, missing just six (81-89) from the line all season.

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.

DE-FENSE
The Panthers have been turning up the defensive pressure this season, with the Dec. 31 game against Northern Kentucky just the latest example.

It started early with the Nov. 20 game at Loyola when UWM 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.

Then, just six days later, Milwaukee one-upped themselves yet again. Going up against tournament host Vermont as part of the TD Bank Classic, the Panthers again cranked things up defensively and limited the Catamounts to just five first-quarter points and just 44 for the game. That trumps both 46-point games as the new standard under Rechlicz.

Milwaukee then duplicated that performance by holding Northern Kentucky to just three points in the second quarter and 44 for the game to equal the benchmark set against Vermont.

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.

Additionally, Milwaukee has now held five opponents to 50-or-less points this season (LIU-Brooklyn - 50 points; Chicago State - 49 points). That is two better than last year's squad and hasn't been done since the 2001-02 team limited opponents to 50 points or less an impressive seven times while going 20-8.

THE W's AND THE L's
As one might expect, there are certainly some statistical categories that stand out as the difference between Milwaukee's 13 wins compared to its six losses:

                                    W's       L's
FG%                             .452      .381
Def FG%                       .401      .479
Rebound Margin            +10.9    -0.7
PPG                              78.0      68.7
PPG Against                   59.9      82.8

DOUBLING DOWN
Steph Kostowicz has picked up right where she left off last year, recording eight double-doubles in her first 19 games of the season. The preseason first-team all-league honoree has been a monster all year, nearly averaging a double-double thus far with 15.5 points and 7.8 rebounds. Kostowicz's eight double-doubles is tied for the lead in the Horizon League.

CRACKING THE POLLS
A few weeks ago, Milwaukee achieved yet another new feat when they cracked the top-25 in the College Insider Mid-Major poll at No. 20. That marked the first ever ranking of any kind in Milwaukee women's basketball Division-I 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 has gotten off to a blazing start to the 2016-17 season. So far, that number is considerably lower at .561 percent, with the big three combining for 43 double-digit scoring performances and 13 double-doubles in just 19 games.

AWARD-WINNING PLAY
While Milwaukee is just getting into the conference portion of its season, people have already taken plenty of notice of the Panthers' play on the court thus far.

Most recently, Lizzie Odegard was named Horizon League Freshman of the Week - already the third time (Nov. 14, Nov. 28, Jan. 9) she has earned that honor in her young career.

Steph Kostowicz (Dec. 5) and Jenny Lindner (Nov. 28) were both named Horizon League Player of the Week earlier this season.

On top of that, six different players earned various awards after posting three wins in a five-day span. Bailey Farley, Alexis Lindstrom, Sierra Ford-Washington and Steph Kostowicz were all named to the TD Bank Classic All-Tournament Team, with Kostowicz also earning MVP honors.

TURKEY TOURNEY
With its sweep at the TD Bank Classic hosted by Vermont over the Thanksgiving weekend, the Panthers claimed their first in-season tournament title since the 2006 team went 2-0 at the SMU Hoops for the Cure Classic in Dallas, Texas. Milwaukee no only won both games this season in Vermont, but did so dominating fashion - taking the title by an average winning margin of 31. UWM improved its record to 17-10 all time in tournaments over the Thanksgiving holiday and broke the tie to jump up to 27-25 in all in-season tournaments.

YOU'RE IN GOOD HANDS WITH WAKEMAN
Christina Wakeman has been chosen as a nominee of the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team. The award - in its fifth year of existence - honors college basketball players for their community service work - something Wakeman has been no stranger to in her time with the Panthers.

Wakeman is one of 97 student-athletes nominated. A total of 10 will be named to the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team in February, and selected student-athletes will be honored at the 2017 WBCA Convention and at the 2017 NCAA Women's Final Four in Dallas, Texas.

WINNING BIG
The Panthers have made a habit this season with some rather lopsided wins. First, Milwaukee claimed a 27-point win over Loyola (73-46) on Nov. 20 - the biggest win in Kyle Rechlicz's four-plus years as head coach of the Panthers at that time. UWM then took down in-state rival Wisconsin by an impressive 17 points before a 38-point smothering (88-50) of LIU-Brooklyn to start the TD Bank Classic Nov. 25. Milwaukee then closed out that tournament with a 24-point win (68-44) over host Vermont Nov. 26. Most recently, Milwaukee took down Chicago State by 22 on Dec. 14 with a 71-49 win and UIC by 28 on Jan. 17 with an 83-55 W - both at home.

Not only is the 38-point win the new bench mark for margin of victory under Rechlicz, it's also the fourth-largest win for UWM since they moved to Division I heading into the 1990-91 season. It also marks the biggest win since the school-record 54-point victory (100-46) over Youngstown State back on Feb. 2, 2002.

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.

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.

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.

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 second 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 Spectrum Sports (formerly 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' Spectrum Sports 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

#43 Christina Wakeman: C; 6' 3"; 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

#43 Christina Wakeman
: 6' 3"; Senior
: C

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