Women's Basketball January 03, 2017

Women’s Basketball Hits The Road To Start New Year

Team travels to UIC Thursday night

MILWAUKEE - Fresh off a 28-point win at home on Saturday, the Milwaukee women's basketball team will look to make it two in a row when they head to UIC Pavilion Thursday night to take on the Flames in a Horizon League matchup. The Panthers will look to make it two in a row at UIC for the first time in a decade after claiming a hard-fought 62-56 victory in Chicago last season. Thursday's game marks the first of two meetings between the Panthers and Flames in a span of just 12 days.

LOOKING AT THE FLAMES
The Flames started the conference season with a pair of road losses at Oakland and Detroit Mercy and enter Thursday's game 3-10 overall. Sophomore forward Brittany Boyd leads UIC with 14.3 points/game despite missing the first seven contests of the season. The Flames have struggled defending the three so far this season, conceding nearly twice as many from behind the arc as they have made (82-48) on the year.

SERIES HISTORY
With the season sweep a year ago, the Panthers improved to 29-21 all-time against the Flames. Looking back, the series has been quite back-and-forth, with the longest winning streak by either team being just six games, achieved twice by UWM.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee continues the short road swing Saturday with an afternoon contest at Valparaiso scheduled for 1:30 pm.

LAST GAME
The Milwaukee women's basketball team used a 32-8 run that spanned over 15 minutes to build an insurmountable lead on its way to a 72-44 win over Northern Kentucky Saturday afternoon from the Klotsche Center.

A total of five players scored in double figures for Milwaukee (9-4, 1-1 Horizon) as UWM shot over 50 percent from the floor nearly the whole game and tied its season high with 12 made three pointers.

Meanwhile, the Panther defense held NKU (4-10, 0-2 Horizon) to just three points in the entire second quarter before cruising to the win.

"It was great to bounce back after how we played on Thursday," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "I was really impressed with our players. Our team just came out and we were really resilient and just moved the basketball from one side of the court to the other. Our offense was really clicking.

"But, I really believe the reason we won by so much was our defense. It was back to what we want in the Milwaukee style."

Steph Kostowicz led all players with 19 points and 10 rebounds in just 20 minutes for her league-leading eighth double-double of the season.

Jenny Lindner and Alexis Lindstrom each scored 12 for the Panthers, with both going 4-5 from the field. Bailey Farley added another 10, while Jordyn Swan came off the bench for 10 points and five rebounds.

400 AND COUNTING!
Milwaukee was on fire from behind the arc against Northern Kentucky. UWM connected on 12 threes against the Norse - the second time they have done that already this season.

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 434 games in a row heading into the game against the Flames.

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.

DROPPING THE BALL WITH A WIN
With its win over Northern Kentucky on Saturday, Milwaukee improved to 4-3 all-time in games on the final day of the year. Surprisingly, Saturday's win was the first against a conference foe on New Years Eve.

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.

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 13 opponents by 64 in the first quarter alone and boasts a 470-372 edge in first halves thus far.

THE COUNTDOWN TO 1,000
Jenny Lindner and Steph Kostowicz have been on a mission since day one in the Black & Gold and it seems only a matter of time until both individuals crack the 1,000-point milestone during this their junior seasons. Milwaukee entered the season with 19 players in program history reaching the historic scoring mark, with Lindner and Kostowicz well on pace to eclipse the barrier shortly. Heading into Thursday's game, Lindner sits with 939 points (61 away), while Kostowicz is at 821 points (178 away). Of Milwaukee's 19 players with 1,000+ points in their careers, there have been only two other tandems to achieve 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 closing in on 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 Saturday's 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 Thursday's game, she now has 509 boards to her name. Meanwhile, Lindner isn't far away at 433 (67 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.

DE-FENSE
The Panthers have been turning up the defensive pressure this season, with Saturday's 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 nine wins compared to its four losses:

                                    W's       L's
FG%                             .443      .383
Def FG%                       .388      .458
Rebound Margin            +11.9    +1.3
PPG                              75.0      73.0
PPG Against                   55.3      83.2

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 192-245 of their shots from the charity stripe heading into the game against UIC. That is good for a .784 percentage - just behind the school record mark of .790 set back in the 2010-11 season.

Not only that, the Panthers' free throw shooting ranks 12th in the entire nation after 13 games. Stetson leads the NCAA at .819 (227-277).

Individually, Jenny Lindner stands fifth in the entire nation with a rate of 93.1 percent from the line, missing just four (54-58) from the line all season.

DOUBLING DOWN
Steph Kostowicz has picked up right where she left off last year, recording eight double-doubles in her first 13 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 16.8 points and 8.9 rebounds. Kostowicz's eight double-doubles not only leads the Horizon League, but also ranks tied for eighth in the entire nation. Washington's Chantel Osahor leads the with 12 in 16 games.

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. This week, Milwaukee sits at No. 24 in the rankings.

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 right around the same at .587 percent, with the big three combining for 31 double-digit scoring performances and 11 double-doubles in just 13 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, it was Steph Kostowicz's turn. The junior was named Horizon League Player of the week after a strong showing down the stretch in Milwaukee's come-from-behind win over North Dakota State Dec. 3.

That came just one week after 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.

On top of that, junior Jenny Lindner was named the Horizon League Player of the Week after three outstanding games. First, Lindner poured in a game-high 28 points to lead the way in the convincing 17-point win over Wisconsin. She also finished as the top scorer of the TD Bank Classic, with a combined 29 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists as Milwaukee swept through the tournament.

As if that weren't enough, Lizzie Odegard also was recognized, being named the league's freshman of the week after capping her strong week with a 14-point, seven-rebound performance in the tournament championship game. That already is the second time Odegard has earned the league's weekly freshman honor, also doing so following her first collegiate game. With that, Odegard became the first Panther to earn a league award after her collegiate debut in program history.

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 just Dec. 14 by 22 with a 71-49 win 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.

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. Milwaukee nearly made it 2-for-2 against the Big Ten with its game against Northwestern this season, falling 65-63 in a nail biter of a game that came down to the final shot.

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.

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.

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 10+ since Mar. 1, 2007 in an 83-79 win over UIC - a total of 278 games earlier.

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.

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.

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

#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

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

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

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