MILWAUKEE – Anna Lutz tied her career-best with 23 points, while recording her second career double-double, but it was not enough to help the Milwaukee women's basketball team past the Cleveland State Vikings on Monday afternoon, as the visitors won by a 64-59 score.
 
Lutz scored eight of her 23 points in the fourth quarter including a bucket with 36 seconds left to make it a two-point game after Milwaukee trailed by 10 with under four minutes to go in the game. However, a late three-pointer by Cleveland State iced the game in favor of the visitors as the Vikings held on for the five-point win.
 
"I love how we competed today," said head coach Kyle Rechlicz. "We gave a full effort and put everything that we could into this game, and I couldn't be prouder of our team. We came out with ambition and heart and believed we could win this game."
 
Milwaukee held Cleveland State to just 64 points, which is the second-lowest point total for the Vikings this season, with their season low of 62 coming back against Austin Peay on November 22. It was the ninth time this season that Milwaukee has held a team under 65 points.
 
"I was proud we kept them to 64 points, especially with putting them on the line 25 times," Rechlicz added. "We did a great job on defense, but we need to start getting our offense going … and we're just not in a position offensively right now to beat these top teams."
 
The Panther offense was held to under 60 points for the fourth time in the last five games, as MKE ended the game just 34.9 percent from the field, while connecting on 22 field goals with seven coming from three.
 
With 23 points and 10 rebounds, Lutz led the way in both categories for the Panthers while also picking up one assist and one block on the game. Kamy Peppler was second on the team with nine points and a team-best five assists and three steals. Kendall Nead had seven points on the game.
 
Angie Cera had a pair from beyond the arc for six points and had three assists. Jada Donaldson and Grace Crowley both had four-point efforts, with Crowley corralling five rebounds. Jada Williams added six rebounds and had a pair of blocks on the afternoon.
 
Milwaukee and Cleveland State were tied at four before the Vikings scored the next eight points to open a 12-4 advantage. Lutz stopped the run with a layup before Crowley scored the next four points to get MKE back within a bucket in the final minute. The Vikings connected on one free throw in the final seconds and took a 13-10 lead into the second quarter.
 
The Panthers continued to climb back in and made a layup to open the second period followed by a three-pointer by Peppler as Milwaukee took its first lead of the game at 15-13. CSU rebuilt an eight-point lead before back-to-back threes from Cera and Lutz sliced the deficit back down to 26-24. The Vikings responded with the next seven to open a nine-point lead again, before Justina Hernandez connected on a buzzer-beating jumper in the lane to send Milwaukee into the locker room down by seven.
 
After the break, Milwaukee scored seven of the first nine points to get back within two once again, but Cleveland State pulled away again with another seven consecutive points. The Vikings built up a 12-point lead and took a 49-37 lead into the final 10 minutes of play.
 
Jorey Buwalda got on the scoresheet with a layup to open scoring in the fourth, followed by a three pointer from Cera at the top of the key to get the Panthers back within seven. Midway through the fourth, Peppler connected on another three to make it a two-possession game at 55-49 before Cleveland State regained a double-digit lead at 59-49.
 
Donaldson connected on a jump shot before Lutz scored back-to-back buckets to make it a four-point game with 1:48 left. Cleveland State got another bucket, which was answered quickly by a jump shot by Donaldson to keep it a four-point game. After a miss by Cleveland State, Lutz made another shot to tie her career-best with 23 points while making it a two-point game at 61-59.
 
With time running down on the shot clock, Cleveland State connected on a key three-point shot with just seconds to go in the game to take a 64-59 lead. Milwaukee called timeout to draw up a play but were only able to get a contested attempt that did not fall as the Vikings held on for the five-point win.
 
Milwaukee will be on the road for their next two games beginning with Wright State at 6:00 p.m. (CT) on Friday, January 5 at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio.