MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Milwaukee women's basketball team pushed late and shot 53.3 percent in the fourth quarter outscoring Marquette 24-20 but came up just short, falling 59-51 on Wednesday night.
 
"I was really proud of our defense the whole game," head coach Kyle Rechlicz commented. "We had to pick our battles. We went heavy on the guard protection, really trying to protect that three-point line. We did a great job of that, but it forced us to have to guard one of the best posts in the country one-on-one. She's an excellent player. Our posts had to battle all night and unfortunately, it didn't go in our favor."
 
Marquette built its lead to 16 points with 6:21 to play, but Milwaukee continued to fight as three straight baskets from Emma Wittmershaus, Megan Walstad, and Sydney Staver cut it to 47-37 with just over four minutes to play.
 
The Golden Eagles (7-2) again stretched it to 12 before three-pointers from Staver and Miquela Santoro surrounded a Marquette field goal and had MKE within eight.
 
Staver led the charge from there, scoring the next six Milwaukee points, but Marquette fended off the comeback and hung on to top the Panthers.
 
Offense struggled for the Panthers early on as Milwaukee (4-6) had field goal droughts of over three minutes in the first quarter and over six minutes in the second quarter which allowed Marquette to build the double-digit advantage at the half.
 
The MU lead grew to as much as 17 in the third quarter before Staver scored five points in a short burst to pull MKE within 12 heading into the final frame.
 
Staver finished with a team-high 16 points, all in the second half. The graduate student poured in 11 in the fourth quarter alone.
 
Walstad led the team with nine rebounds but was held to six points on 3-for-7 shooting inside.
 
As team, Marquette owned a 38-29 advantage on the glass including 10 on the offensive end.
 
The Milwaukee defense did its part, holding Marquette to 37 percent shooting in the second half, but the Golden Eagles took advantage of good looks early, hitting 51.9 percent of their field goals in the first.
 
MKE tallied 12 steals, a season-high, and forced 20 Marquette turnovers.
 
The Panthers will wrap up the non-conference next with a trip to Evanston, Illinois to take on Northwestern. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm on December 14.
 
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