ROCHESTER, Mich. – The Milwaukee women's basketball team settled for a season split against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Friday evening, dropping a Horizon League tilt to its host by a 74-71 score.
 
Kendall Nead had a career night for the Panthers scoring a career-best 24 points, including 17 in the second half. Nead also went 11-of-19 from the field, a career-best in field goals. Her previous career highs were 19 points (twice this season), and eight field goals made earlier this season at home against Robert Morris.
 
With Nead's 24 points tonight following the 25-point performance by Emma Wittmershaus on Saturday vs. IUPUI, it's the first time since December of the 2019 that Milwaukee has had back-to-back 20-plus point performances.
 
As a team, the Panthers (7-14, 5-8 Horizon League) held a four-point lead after the opening quarter but went ice cold in the second stanza and were outscored 14-6 to trail 36-32 at the break. Milwaukee went into the fourth quarter down by a 57-50 margin, but a furious fourth-quarter comeback attempt fell just shy as the Golden Grizzlies (11-11, 6-7 Horizon League) held on for a 74-71 win.
 
A 13-4 run to open the fourth quarter helped the Panthers even the score at 63 with 4:23 left in the game. Oakland responded by taking a six-point lead on a three-pointer with 1:54 to go, but Nead answered with a layup and then a three-pointer of her own to pull the Panthers within one with 48 seconds left.
 
"Proud is the only word that I have", said head coach Kyle Rechlicz on the comeback attempt. "You win some and you lose some when you leave it all on the court."
 
Nead had another look with 12 seconds to go but it wouldn't fall, before Oakland took a two-point lead on a free throw. With just seconds to go, Milwaukee had another chance, but an offensive foul was called. The Golden Grizzlies connected on one last free throw to take a three-point lead, but Milwaukee was unable to get off a final three-point look to send the game to overtime as time had expired.
 
Milwaukee shot better than 64 percent in three of the four quarters but were only able to muster up two made field goals on nine attempts in the second quarter. Defensively the Panthers yielded 24 makes from the field and allowed 16 offensive rebounds and 16 second-chance points to the Golden Grizzlies. Overall, Oakland was 13-of-32 from the second half for 40.1 percent from the field, the Golden Grizzlies also cashed in for nine total three-pointers with five coming in the second half.
 
"In the second quarter we went scoreless for a very long stretch", added Rechlicz. "We started with a five-turnover run, and we need to fix some of that where we can be consistent for an entire game. It was a complete game for us, we just didn't defend as well as we needed to."
 
Nead ended the game with her 24 points but also added eight rebounds to her ledger. Two other Panthers were in double figures as Kamy Peppler netted 11 points and had a team-high six assists, while Angie Cera had 10 points with three assists and a team-best two steals.
 
Megan Walstad played nearly the entirety of the game, credited with 39 minutes played, and had eight points and nine rebounds. Anna Lutz had eight points while Jada Donaldson had four points and four assists.
 
Grace Crowley had six points in the second half and added a pair of assists and three rebounds.
 
Milwaukee concludes its two-game trip to Michigan with a Sunday matinee matchup at Detroit Mercy with tip-off slated for 12:00 p.m. CST on February 5.