EVANSTON, Ill. – The Milwaukee women's basketball team held Northwestern to just 26.2 percent shooting, but the Wildcats took advantage of second-chance points after the break and the Panthers fell 55-46 at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Tuesday.
 
"I thought that we battled," head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "We played their best player, [Veronica] Burton very well. I was really proud of how Megan Walstad played tonight. She stepped up really big for us, but we just have to kind of find ways to start scoring if we want to make a run for a championship."
 
It was a fight for both teams in the first as the defenses came out strong. Walstad got to work down low as she posted six points and three rebounds to help knot it at 11-11 after 10 minutes of action.
 
Walstad continued to find a way in the second and gave the Panthers (4-7) a 15-13 lead with a pull-up jumper in the paint at 8:32 before the MKE defense again stepped up. Milwaukee held Northwestern without a field goal for nearly six minutes and despite a Wildcasts' three, the Panthers entered the half up 23-18.
 
Walstad added four more points early on in the second half to keep MKE in front, but Northwestern (8-3) would not be held down for another quarter as a 10-0 run put the Wildcats in front 37-29 with 2:58 to play in the third.
 
Miquela Santoro ended the MKE drought with a triple to cut it to five and later, free throws from Sydney Staver and Santoro had the Panthers within striking distance 40-37 with one quarter to play.
 
Milwaukee cut the deficit to one point on two occasions in the fourth, but five straight second-chance points off of offensive rebounds pushed the Northwestern lead back to six with under a minute to play.
 
The Panthers were forced to foul after empty offensive possessions and Northwestern spoiled MKE's chance at victory.
 
MKE held Northwestern to 26.2 percent shooting from the floor, a season low, but couldn't get it going on the offensive end its own end, hitting just 28.8 percent of its field goal tries. The Panthers finished just 2-for-20 from long range.
 
Walstad led all players with 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting and added 13 rebounds for her third double-double of the season.
 
Santoro also reached double figures as she finished with 12 points to go with four rebounds and five assists.
 
Next up, the Panthers return to the Klotsche Center to face Oakland (December 30) and Detroit Mercy (January 1).
 
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