Panthers, Phoenix Square Off Friday Night

Milwaukee looks to keep winning streak going

MILWAUKEE - With just two weeks left in the regular season, the Milwaukee women's basketball team opens its final weekend at home Friday by hosting in-state rival Green Bay at 7 pm from the Klotsche Center. The match up is a pairing of two of the top teams in the Horizon League, as the Phoenix sit half a game out of first place, while the Panthers are currently in fourth place and have plenty of time to move up in the rankings before the conference tournament.

THE FIRST TIME AROUND
Green Bay shot an impressive 54 percent from the field and hit 11 three pointers in an 89-47 win over Milwaukee in Green Bay Jan. 21.

LOOKING AT THE PHOENIX
Green Bay finds itself in a unique position this week. The Phoenix - who have won at least a share of the Horizon League each of the last 18 years - currently sit in second place in the league standings with a 12-2 conference record and 21-4 mark overall. Guard Mehryn Kraker leads GB with 18.8 points/game, with Jessica Lindstrom and Allie LeClaire also averaging double-digit scoring through 25 games.

SERIES HISTORY
Green Bay holds a 46-11 lead in the all time series with Milwaukee and has won eight-straight. The Panthers last win came back on Jan. 11, 2014 in Green Bay. UWM's last home win over the Phoenix happened during the 2005-06 season - a 65-55 victory.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee celebrates its four seniors with its final home game of the year Monday against Valparaiso at 7 pm from the Klotsche Center.

LAST GAME
Bailey Farley poured in a career-high 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting to help lead the Milwaukee women's basketball team to a 76-72 victory of Cleveland State Saturday afternoon in front of 895 inside the Klotsche Center.

Milwaukee (17-8, 9-5 Horizon) used a 17-5 run early in the third quarter to turn an 11-point deficit into a one-point lead and then made some clutch shots down the stretch for the big win.

"This was a team victory through and through," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "Our team just fought with so much heart. To start the second half we were down by 10 and we have no quit. We just have a mentality that we can play with anybody and that we're never going to give up. I'm really proud of the effort that we gave and there were so many great individual performances that we can really build on as we move into the Green Bay game on Friday."

As a team, UWM had a season-high 21 assists and tied its season best with 14 made three pointers.

Farley had a career game, netting 22 points – five better than her previous best – on 8-of-12 shooting, including going 5-of-8 from behind the arc. The junior also hauled in six rebounds and had three assists and one steal in 32 minutes.

Jenny Lindner led all scorers with 25 points, also going 8-for-12 from the floor, while adding six free throws, four assists and one block.

Alexis Lindstrom also hit some big shots, finishing with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting from deep to go with four assists of her own.

Steph Kostowicz had an uncharacteristically cold day from the floor but still finished with eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds, while also dishing out four assists. Sierra Ford-Washington also chipped in with seven rebounds and four more assists.

Cleveland State's guard duo of Ashanti Abshaw and Khayla Livingston combined for 45 points for the Vikings (12-13, 7-7 Horizon) in the tight game.

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 446 games in a row heading into the game against the Phoenix.

In fact, a made three on Friday would break the league record of 446 set by Loyola, halted five years ago when they went 0-11 against Butler. Cleveland State held the record prior to that - which was also the NCAA mark at the time - at 408 (1992-2007). It's still a ways to go for the NCAA record, however, which is held by Canisius at 510 in a row (1994-2011). For comparison, the NBA's longest streak is the Dallas Mavericks at 1,108 in a row.

BIG SHOT BAILEY
Bailey Farley has a career day the last time out, going off for a career-high 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 5-of-8 from behind the arc. Not only did she pour in the points, but she did so at the game's biggest moment. Up by just one with just over 60 seconds left, Farley connected on a three-pointer from the top of the key to give UWM a four-point cushion in what proved to be the game's winning basket.

WORKING THE GLASS
Milwaukee has prided itself in its ability to control the boards over the past few years, with that standing out in a number of games this season. Last week was a prime example, with Milwaukee outrebounding its two opponents by a combined 84-45. In fact, against Youngstown State, the Panthers had 38 rebounds to YSU's 17 - a difference of +21, with UWM limiting the Penguins to just one offensive rebound for the whole game - the Panthers best showing of the year.

Here's a look at some of the largest rebounding margins for Milwaukee thus far this season:

1. +25 vs. Detroit Mercy (47-22)
2. +23 at Vermont (45-22)
3. +21 vs. Youngstown State (38-17)
4. + 19 vs. Chicago State (48-29)
5. + 17 vs. Northern Kentucky (41-24)
6. + 16 - two times (Loyola/LIU-Brooklyn)

PILING UP THE WINS
For the past two seasons, Milwaukee has been racking up the total in the win column. Last year's 19 wins is tied for third-most in program history and this year's total of 17 is already tied for fifth-most all time. In fact, it marks the first time UWM has had back-to-back 16+ win seasons since doing so in three-straight years from 99-2000 through 00-02.

LOOKING AT THE LEAGUE
With just a two weeks remaining in the regular season, Milwaukee sits in the top-half of the standings. UWM boasts a 9-5 league record and currently sits in sole possession of fourth place - one and a half games ahead of Oakland and two games ahead of Cleveland State. While the Panthers have had some hurdles of late, they still have plenty of time and can finish in a variety of spots before the year is out.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST
Milwaukee shot lights out in its 86-82 win over Youngstown State last Thursday, connecting on 55.2 percent (32-58) of its attempts from the floor. It had been nearly a full year since the Panthers shot the ball that well for a full game, last doing so at the end of last season at Oakland with a 56.1 mark (37-66) in a 98-95 win. In fact, UWM shot better than 55 percent twice last year, also doing so at Northern Kentucky. That ended a span of 112 games without reaching that shooting percentage - last doing so back on Feb. 16, 2012 (56.0/28-50) at Youngstown State.

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 seven 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 soon. Heading into Friday's game, Kostowicz sits with 993 points (seven away). Entering 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, with neither doing so during the same season:

-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.

THE BIG 5-0...0
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 also cracked the 500-rebound list this season, as well. 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. Since then, she has upped that total to 595. Lindner then joined the club just last Thursday with her final rebound in the first half in the 86-82 win over Youngstown State. Lindner becomes the 25th player in program history to reach 500 rebounds and is one of just 13 to do so while also breaking the 1,000 point barrier.

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.

DOUBLING DOWN
The Panthers have had quite a number of big performances this season. In fact, UWM has turned out an impressive 14 double-doubles on the season. Steph Kostowicz leads the way with nine - two shy of the league lead entering Friday's game. Jenny Lindner also has four such performances on the season, while Sierra Ford-Washington had 18 points and 11 rebounds at Northern Illinois earlier this year.

BLOCK PARTY
It's no wonder Youngstown State shot so many threes against Milwaukee Jan. 28, as Steph Kostowicz was a force down low defensively. Kostowicz tied her career-high with six blocks in the game. The junior also achieved that feat at the end of her freshman season to mark the second time she finished one shy of Traci Edwards' program record of seven blocks in one game. Not only that, Kostowicz now has 101 blocks for her career, making her the fifth player in program history to reach that milestone. She now ranks 67 shy of the school record and just 11 away from third place all time.

OH SO CLOSE
While the Panthers' 17-8 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 the first time around.

LEAGUE LEADERS
It has been a busy season but UWM has quietly once again established themselves as on the best in the league with their statistics ranking quite high in the conference standings. Milwaukee leads the league in free throw percentage (.777) and ranks second in the league in scoring offense (74.8 points/game), rebound margin (+7.5) and field goal percentage (.435).

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 352-453 of their shots from the charity stripe heading into the game against Green Bay. That is good for a .777 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 12th in the entire nation after 25 games. Iowa State leads the NCAA at .809 (372-460).

Individually, Jenny Lindner stands fifth in the nation with a rate of 91.7 percent from the line, missing just nine (100-109) from the line all season.

AWARD-WINNING PLAY
People have taken plenty of notice of the Panthers' play on the court thus far this season.

Most recently, Jenny Lindner was named Horizon League Player of the Week after helping lead Milwaukee to a pair of home wins last week. The junior combined for 42 points on 14-of-20 shooting from the floor - including going 4-8 from behind the arc and a perfect 10-10 from the free-throw line.

That marks the second time this season Lindner has been recognized as the league's top player for the week. Steph Kostowicz also earned the honor earlier this year on Dec. 5.

Meanwhile, Lizzie Odegard has been named Horizon League Freshman of the Week three times (Nov. 14, Nov. 28, Jan. 9) already in her young career.

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.

BEATING THE BUZZER
Steph Kostowicz's layup with 0.9 left on the clock Jan. 26 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.

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 17 wins compared to its eight losses:

W's       L's
FG% .458      .390
Def FG% .414 .481
Rebound Margin +11.2 -0.4
PPG 78.4      67.2
PPG Against                   62.8      81.4

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.

CRACKING THE POLLS
Earlier this season, 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 .566 percent, with the big three combining for 55 double-digit scoring performances and 14 double-doubles in just 25 games.

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. Finally, with its win at Youngstown Sate Jan. 28, the Panthers stopped an eight-game skid against the Penguins, notching their first win in the series under head coach Kyle Rechlicz.

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 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

#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

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