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recap nku
52
Winner Milwaukee UWM 10-3 (1-0 HL)
49
Northern Kentucky NKU 2-10 (0-1 HL)
Winner
Milwaukee UWM
10-3 (1-0 HL)
52
Final
49
Northern Kentucky NKU
2-10 (0-1 HL)
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Milwaukee UWM 10 12 13 17 52
Northern Kentucky NKU 14 18 12 5 49

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Comeback Panthers Open League Play With Road Win

Schmelzer’s late three’s help spark comeback victory

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Milwaukee women's basketball team erased a 15-point deficit to pull out a 52-49 win on the road over Northern Kentucky in the Horizon League opener Thursday afternoon from BB&T Arena.
 
Milwaukee (10-3, 1-0 Horizon) – playing without a pair of senior starters out with injury – saved its best for last with an impressive fourth-quarter performance, scoring the first nine points of the final frame and holding NKU (2-10, 0-1 Horizon) to just five points over the final 10 minutes.
 
"I'm really proud of our resiliency," Panther head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "It's really tough to go on the road, especially right after break. But having two of our senior starters out is a tremendous feat for some of our young kids to step in and play as tough and as hard as they did. I was really proud of how hard we fought.
 
"We've been in situations like this before. We just kept trying to remind them of that throughout the game."
 
Steph Kostowicz led all players with 17 points – eight of which came in the fourth quarter – to go with a team-high five rebounds.
 
Jamie Reit had the hot hand early and finished with 11 points and a pair of steals, while McKaela Schmelzer was big down the stretch, finishing with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists.
 
"I thought McKaela played excellent," Rechlicz said. "She was trapped most of the game, but she stayed composed down the stretch and hit two huge threes that we really needed at that time."
 
Down nine entering the fourth, the Panthers quickly erased that by scoring the first nine points of the final frame. It started on a fast-break layup by Schmelzer after an outlet pass from Bailey Farley – who finished with a career-high six assists. Four straight free throws by Kostowicz whittled things down to three before Farley again found Schmelzer, this time behind the arc to tie things up at 44-all with 5:13 to play.
 
After the Norse answered with two points on their next possession, Schmelzer drilled another triple with 3:24 left and Milwaukee would never trail again.
 
Kostowicz would add a pair of free throws and a nifty layup with 52 seconds left before Farley closed out the scoring from the charity stripe.
 
All of that erased a slow start by the Panthers that saw them down by as many as 15 at 28-13 with 2:57 left in the second quarter. UWM was able to close that gap to 10 at the break after Reit got hot with eight quick points late in the half.
 
The comeback from 15 down is Milwaukee's largest of the season – surpassing the 13-point come-from-behind win at Western Illinois on Nov. 26 – and is tied for seventh in the program's Division-I history.
 
UWM lost the rebounding battle for the first time all season Thursday, 35-27, but outshot NKU, 43.6 percent to 33.9.
 
The Panthers have less than two days to prepare for a Wright State in a battle between two Mid-Major Top-25 teams. Tip off from the Nutter Center is scheduled for 12:30 pm Central.
 
 
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