MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Four players reached double figures on Thursday night to help the Milwaukee women's basketball team top Loyola Chicago 76-66 for its first victory of the season.
"Tonight was a great win against a really tough opponent in Loyola," head coach
Kyle Rechlicz said. "We had a number of people step up. We pushed the pace really well and that's something we've been really priding ourselves in practice, so it was awesome to see it translate. We took pride in boxing out and getting rebounds. It was a full-on team win."
Megan Walstad finished 7-for-12 with a team-high 15 points while
Kendall Nead and
Grace Crowley added 13 points.
Emma Wittmershaus also reached double figures with 11.
After a back-and-forth first seven minutes of action, the Panthers rattled off a 9-0 run to close the first quarter and never relinquished the lead from there.
The Ramblers (1-1) pulled within two late in the second quarter, but
Angie Cera answered with a three-pointer and Walstad closed the half with an and-one to give MKE control 33-26 at the half.
Walstad fueled another big 9-0 run with six points in the paint to open the third quarter before Loyola got on the board. From there, MKE answered each Ramblers' basket and led 56-44 through 30 minutes.
Crowley helped the Panthers finish it, going 3-for-4 from the free throw line in the third quarter and a perfect 6-for-6 in the fourth. MKE staved off any real chance at a Loyola run, holding the Ramblers to 3-for-10 from long range in the final 10 minutes.
The 13 points for Crowley set a new career high. The redshirt sophomore added four rebounds in the win.
Wittmershaus led with seven boards while
Anna Lutz pulled in six to go with six points and two assists.
As a team, the Panthers finished near perfect at the line, going 20-for-21 in the win. MKE also held the rebounding edge 38-30 and had 18 assists to just 11 turnovers.
Milwaukee will head to Marquette on Sunday for a 2:00 pm tipoff. It marks the 10
th straight season that the two teams will meet.
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