MILWAUKEE, Wis. - With a three-game home winning streak on the line, Milwaukee welcomes cross-town rival Marquette to the Klotsche Center for a 7:00 pm tipoff on Wednesday, December 8. Live audio will be available for the contest with Matt Menzl on the call along with a link for live stats can be found on MKEPanthers.com.
 
The Milwaukee Athletic Department recently announced that fans will be allowed at all home events this year. In accordance with current Milwaukee Public Health and CDC recommendations, fans will be required to wear a face covering indoors, regardless of vaccination status.
 
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES
Marquette heads into Wednesday's matchup with back-to-back convincing wins over Xavier and Butler and sit 6-2 overall this season.
 
The Golden Eagles, led by third-year head coach Megan Duffy, reached the NCAA Tournament a season ago and finished the year 19-7 overall and 14-4 in Big East play.
 
Karissa McLaughlin has provided a major spark for Marquette, leading the team with an average of 13.8 points per game. The transfer from Purdue is shooting 43.8 percent from long range and has also dished out 28 assists.
 
Lauren Van Kleunen and Jordan King lead the returners for Duffy's squad. Van Kleunen is averaging 13.0 points and a team-best 7.8 rebounds while King is averaging 11.9 points and a team-high 4.3 assists.
 
Marquette has been strong on the glass this year and ranks sixth in the entire country with a rebounding margin of 14.2. The Golden Eagles are 19th in Division I with an average of 44.6 boards per game.
 
LAST TIME THEY MET
A hot start and composure down the stretch helped Milwaukee take down cross-town rival Marquette 64-55 on December 2. The Panthers finished 12-for-12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to fend off a Golden Eagles comeback and moved to 3-0 for the first time since the 1988-89 season.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Marquette has dominated the all-time matchup, winning 24 of 28 possible contests against Milwaukee. The Panthers own bragging rights as of now, however, as MKE went into Marquette's house and took a 64-55 win a season ago.
 
WHATS ON TAP?
Milwaukee wraps up non-conference action with a trip to Northwestern on Tuesday, December 14. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm in Evanston, Illinois.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Defense was swarming for Milwaukee as the Panthers held Robert Morris to just 33.3 percent shooting in a 66-47 victory on Saturday. Milwaukee matched a season-high with eight made three-pointers and got 35 points from the bench.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
Milwaukee returns home to the Klotsche Center on Wednesday where it has won three consecutive contests including a win over Wisconsin.
 
The Panthers have been an impressive team on their home floor, shooting 45.8 percent from the floor and averaging 64 points per game.
 
SHUT DOWN THE STATE
Milwaukee has taken care of business against in-state opponents, winning five straight contests.
 
The Panthers have beaten Green Bay in three straight games, topped Marquette last season, and took down Wisconsin last Wednesday.
 
Milwaukee has never beaten Marquette and Wisconsin in the same season. The Panthers came close in the 2008-09 season, beating Marquette by a point but falling to Wisconsin by two in double-overtime.
 
SIZZLIN' SANTORO
For the second time this season, Miquela Santoro opened the game 5-for-5 from the floor as she finished with a team-high 15 points in Saturday's win over Robert Morris.
 
The graduate student also opened the game against Wisconsin 5-for-5 and finished with a collegiate-high 19 points in a win.
 
Santoro misfired on her sixth attempt but finished 5-for-7 from the floor and 2-for-2 from three-point range. She now has three double digit scoring games this season, surpassing last year's total of two through 28 contests.
 
BENCH SPARK
Yet again, Kendall Nead came off the bench and made a major impact for the Panthers.
 
On Saturday, Nead hit her first five attempts from the floor as she finished 5-for-7 including 2-for-3 from three-point range. Nead totaled 12 points and added two assists in the win.
 
Nead is developing into one of the best three-point options for Milwaukee as she is tied for the team lead with nine triples and leads with a 36.0 three-point percentage.
 
In six games off of the bench, Nead is averaging 7.5 points and 2.8 rebounds while shooting 40.4 percent from the floor and 43.8 percent from long range.  
 
As a team, the Panthers racked up 35 points off of the bench in Saturday's win over Robert Morris.
 
RACKING UP THE REBOUNDS
On Sunday, Megan Walstad was held to under 10 points for the first time this season, but she impacted the game in other ways. The redshirt sophomore pulled in a career-high 15 rebounds, her third game this year with at least 10 boards. Walstad added three assists and a steal in the win over Robert Morris.
 
Walstad currently ranks seventh in the Horizon League in scoring (14.4 points per game) and is third with 8.8 rebounds per game.
 
CLEANING UP THE OFFENSIVE GLASS
Milwaukee added 12 offensive rebounds in Saturday's win, its eighth time in nine games with at least 10 boards on that end of the court.
 
The Panthers rank third in the league with 110 total offensive rebounds. Milwaukee has turned those rebounds into 102 second-chance points.
 
CONTINUING THE TREND
Last year, Milwaukee was phenomenal from the line and set a new NCAA Division I record in free throw percentage with a mark of 83.8 percent. That number knocked off Idaho State's 83.2 percent clip in 2008 and also topped the men's record of 82.2 percent which was set by Harvard in 1984.
 
This year has been a similar story as the Panthers are currently 100-for-118 (84.7 percent) from the charity stripe through nine games.
 
The Panthers' free throws percentage currently leads the league and ranks third in NCAA Division I as of December 6.
 
MAKE IT FOUR STRAIGHT
With Megan Walstad's 18-point, 11-rebound double-double against Northern Illinois, the Panthers had at least one double-double in four consecutive games.
 
McKaela Schmelzer began the streak with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds against Wright State. Walstad followed with a 13-point, 12-rebound performance in a win over Northern Kentucky on November 20.
 
Emma Wittmershaus then totaled 15 points and 10 rebounds in a win over Wisconsin before Walstad's second double-double of the season at NIU.
 
The last time Milwaukee had four straight games with a double-double was last season when Walstad and Brandi Bisping combined for six double-doubles in a four-game stretch from January 8 to January 16.
 
BALANCED SCORING
In the win over Wisconsin, Milwaukee had four players reach double figures for the fourth time this season with Megan Walstad (21 points), Miquela Santoro (19), Emma Wittmershaus (15), and McKaela Schmelzer (13) all scoring at least 10 points.
 
The four games with four in double digits already surpass last season's output just six games into the schedule.
 
MILESTONE WATCH
With the additional year of eligibility granted to winter athletes in NCAA, the Panthers will be on milestone watch this season.
 
McKaela Schmelzer and Sydney Staver are within reach of the games played record, which is held by Alyssa Fischer from 2015-20 (134). Schmelzer has played in 127 career games while Staver has 116 under her belt.
 
Schemlzer is also nine games started away from the program record as well as 66 assists away from first place on the all-time list. The Loves Park, Ill. native has reached at least 95 assists in three of the past four seasons.
 
HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Following a 20-win season which led to a trip to the postseason WNIT, the Milwaukee women's basketball team was selected to finish second in the Horizon League Preseason Poll, announced by the league office. MKE totaled 125 poll points, trailing only IUPUI, who was tabbed as the preseason favorite with 11 of 12 first place votes and 139 total poll points.
 
PRESEASON HONORS FOR WALSTAD
Megan Walstad was named to the Preseason All-Horizon League First Team following an impressive campaign in 2020-21. After being sidelined the year prior, Walstad returned to the floor and dominated down low as she collected a First Team All-League award last season. The redshirt sophomore led the team in scoring (12.0 points per game) field goal percentage (50.0) and blocks (50) while ranking second in rebounds (8.7 per game).
 
Additionally, Walstad was one of 25 players to be named to the 2022 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Watch List.
 
REWRITING RECORDS
Milwaukee saw its 2020-21 season into the program record book's top five on multiple occasions after the impressive 20-8 finish.

• 20 wins (4th)
• 12 consecutive wins (t-1st)
• .714 winning pct. (t-1st)
• .769 road winning pct. (2nd)
• +8.4 scoring margin (2nd)
• 83.8 free throw pct. (1st)
• +7.5 rebounding margin (3rd)
• 3.5 blocks per game (t-3rd)
• 494 turnovers (6th fewest)

MAGIC NUMBER
In college basketball, there is no perfect recipe for a win but for Milwaukee, field goal percentage has been a pretty good baseline. In the last five years, when the Panthers hit at least 40 percent of their shots from the floor, MKE is 74-20 (.785). Bump that field goal percentage to 43 percent and MKE is 56-9 (.859) over the last five seasons.

POSTSEASON PANTHERS
Milwaukee reached the postseason WNIT for the third time in program history last season and added another postseason win to the resume. The Panthers reached the second round of the tournament for the first time since the 2017-18 season. Overall, Milwaukee is 2-3 at the postseason WNIT.
 
CATCH ALL THE ACTION
Thanks to ESPN+, Milwaukee basketball fans will have the opportunity to watch the Panthers all season long. All of Milwaukee's home games will be carried live online at ESPN+. The Horizon League and ESPN have an agreement that includes ESPN hosting the league's digital network on the ESPN+ platform.
 
ESPN+ offers fans thousands of live events, on-demand content, and original programming not available on ESPN's linear TV or digital networks. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $6.99 a month (or $69.99 per year) and cancel at any time.
 
For road games, visit MKEPanthers.com for live coverage links.
 
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.