MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Milwaukee women's basketball team welcomes Bowling Green to the Klotsche Center on Saturday, marking its third consecutive home game. The Panthers have won three of four games home their home court this season. The two teams are meeting for the first time since the 2014-15 season with tipoff scheduled for 1:00 pm. A live video stream will be carried on ESPN+ while live stats can be found on MKEPanthers.com.
 
SCOUTING THE FALCONS
Bowling Green opened the year with three consecutive victories and after dropping two at the Victoria Invitational, the Falcons are back in business with wins over California Baptist and Marshall. 
 
Second year head coach Robyn Fralick returns eight letterwinners from last year's campaign and brings in five newcomers for the 2019-20 season.
 
A trio of juniors lead Bowling Green including Angela Perry, who was named MAC Player of the Week on Tuesday. Perry poured in 25 points on nearly 85 percent shooting and is averaging a team-best 15.6 points per game while knocking down 72.6 percent of her shots.
 
Sophomore Kadie Hempfling has been solid all-around for the Falcons, averaging 8.9 points and leading the team with 8.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game.
 
LAST TIME THEY MET
Bowling Green captured a 60-50 defensive battle on November 22, 2014 at the Klotsche Center. Both teams shot less than 35 percent from the floor and combined for a 19.1 (9-for-47) percent performance from long range. Ashley Green led Milwaukee with 23 points.
 
SERIES HISTORY
The two teams have not met since the 2014-15 season with Bowling Green coming away with the win. The Falcons have won four of the six total matchups dating back to 1992. Milwaukee's last win over Bowling Green was in 2001-02 when the Panthers triumphed 77-52.
 
WHATS ON TAP?
Following Saturday's tip, Milwaukee will wrap up its non-conference schedule with a 2:00 pm tipoff against North Dakota. The Panthers then open the Horizon League schedule at home on Saturday, December 28.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Milwaukee turned up the pressure and rallied in the second half, but fell short, dropping a 78-56 decision against Marquette on Sunday afternoon. The Panthers shot 53.8 percent in the final frame and cut their deficit in half, but the Golden Eagles responded with a run to halt the MKE rally.
 
LIGHT IT UP, LEVY!
Sydney Levy added two more three-pointers against Marquette and now has at least one triple in eight of nine games this season. The sophomore shot 58.8 percent from long range last week and is converting three-pointers at a 44.2 percent clip this season. Levy is fourth in the Horizon League with 2.1 three-pointers made per game and would lead the league in percentage but needs one more triple to reach the leaderboard requirement.
 
HAVE YOU HEARD?
Freshman Tadri Heard provided a nice scoring spark off the bench, leading the team with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting. Heard came in and drilled four of her five three-point attempts in just 18 minutes. This marks the second time Heard has hit at least four three-pointers, the first coming at Purdue when she came off the bench to score 19 points. In her first year, Heard ranks second on the team with 12 made three-pointers. Heard added four assists and a pair of steals against Marquette on Saturday.
 
TURNING UP THE DEFENSE
The Panthers recorded 16 steals against Marquette, the most in a single game since tallying 17 on November 18, 2011. The Milwaukee record for most steals in a game is 22, set against Furman on November 28, 1998.
 
SUCCESS AT THE STRIPE
Milwaukee knocked down 10 of 12 attempts from the free throw line against Marquette, its third game over 80 percent and seventh game over 70 percent this season. After shooting just 66.8 percent from the charity stripe in 2018-19, the Panthers are converting 73 percent of their foul shots this season.
 
Brandi Bisping has been a major factor for Milwaukee at the line. The junior is now 29-for-31 from the line, a 93.5 percent clip which leads the Horizon League and ranks 7th in the nation. Of the six players in NCAA Division I ahead of Bisping, only three players have converted more attempts. 
 
EVERYONE CHIPPING IN
Tadri Heard was the latest Panthers player to lead the team in scoring, her second time doing so. In nine games this season, only Heard and Sydney Staver have led Milwaukee in scoring more than once. The Panthers have had seven different leading scorers in nine contests this year.
 
CHANGE IT UP
Head Coach Kyle Rechlicz has used five different lineups this year, proving the depth of the Panthers. All 12 Milwaukee players have contributed in the points column and 10 different players are averaging at least 12 minutes per game. Additionally, the Panthers have totaled 263 points off the bench, an average of 29.2 per game.
 
ODEGARD OWNS THE PAINT
Lizzie Odegard had a career game against Northern Illinois, pulling in 17 rebounds. After totaling 11 rebounds in the first half, Odegard grabbed six more after the break, recording the most rebounds for a Panthers player since Jenny Linder totaled 15 in the 2017-18 season. The senior added nine points and three assists in the win. Odegard is now averaging a team-best 6.9 rebounds per game which ranks eighth in the Horizon League.
 
NON-CONFERENCE RECAP
The Panthers have two remaining non-conference games on their schedule. Milwaukee needs to win both of those games to extend its streak to five straight seasons with at least five non-conference wins. After taking on Bowling Green, Milwaukee hosts North Dakota to wrap up the non-conference schedule.
 
SOMETHING TO PROVE
Milwaukee was predicted to finish fifth in this year's Horizon League preseason poll. The Panthers earned 57 total poll points and were picked to come in behind Green Bay, Wright State, IUPUI, and Youngstown State. In the 2018-19 preseason poll, Milwaukee was also chosen to finish fifth in the Horizon League.
 
FOR STARTERS
With the victory over Parkside, Milwaukee improved its record to 11-19 in NCAA Division I season-openers (dating back to 1990-91).
 
Head Coach Kyle Rechlicz is now 5-3 in season openers. In her Milwaukee debut, the Panthers dominated Chicago State 82-58 in 2012-13.
 
Milwaukee has now won three consecutive season-openers at home, the previous two coming in 2016-17 (76-68 over Western Illinois) and 2015-16 (70-48 over UMKC).
 
EXPERIENCE IS KEY
The Panthers needed just two freshmen to fill their roster, returning 13 players from a season ago. Rechlicz has nine upperclassmen on her roster this season as Milwaukee brings back four of its top five scorers from 2018-19. Four players on the roster started in at least 20 games a season ago including McKaela Schmelzer (28), Megan Walstad (27), Jamie Reit (27), and Bre Cera (23). 
 
With the 13 returners, the Panthers have 81 percent of their scoring and 73 percent of their rebounding back for this year's campaign.
 
This year's group of seniors each have at least 55 appearances for the black and gold.
 
PANTHERS IN THE PROS
The Panthers have had a number of former players go on to play professionally after their time in the Black & Gold. Currently, Angela Rodriguez (Spain) and Steph Kostowicz (Greece) have taken their talents to the next level. Kostowicz is averaging 13.3 points and 9.4 rebounds for Sporting. Additionally, this summer, both Rodriguez and Kostowicz were members of the Wisconsin GLO, helping the team capture the 2019 Global Women's Basketball Association Championship after an undefeated season.
 
CATCH ALL THE ACTION
Fans will have the opportunity to watch the Panthers all season long. All 15 of Milwaukee's home games will be carried live online at ESPN3/ESPN+. The three road Big Ten games can be found on the BIG10 Network while other road games will also stream live through ESPN.
 
Panther fans will also be able to listen to this year's games everywhere they go, as Matt Menzl calls all the action on the Black & Gold Network. Menzl will be courtside for all 29 regular season contests, as well as all postseason action. The Black & Gold Network is streaming live online and can be accessed at MKEPanthers.com.
 
BLACK & GOLD ON DEMAND
Panther fans can also re-live all of the action by listening to archived games on the Black & Gold Radio Network. All games are chronicled at mixlr.com/milwaukee-panthers/showreel where fans can re-live Matt Menzl's broadcast in its entirety.