MILWAUKEE – In a back-and-forth contest, it was the Milwaukee women's basketball team to pick up its third consecutive win on Saturday afternoon, grounding the Youngstown State Penguins by a 66-58 score.
 
Youngstown State opened the game well and led the Panthers by as many as nine points with 3:07 left in the first half, but the Panthers responded with an 18-0 run to take the lead and led by as many as 16 with 9:05 left in the fourth.
 
The Penguins refused to go down easily and nearly erased Milwaukee's lead and trailed by just two at 60-58 before Kamy Peppler hit a three-point shot with 24 seconds to go to seal the victory for the Panthers.
 
"Youngstown State is well-coached team and did a good job of countering what we were trying to do," noted head coach Kyle Rechlicz after the game. "I thought that when we got that lead, we got a little too loose, and that's something that I am hoping we can tighten up moving forward. When we have someone down, we have to put it on them and dominate to put the game away."
 
Peppler paced Milwaukee with her second 24-point effort in her last three games, while falling just one point short of tying her season, and career-best mark of 25 set back on November 12 versus UIC. Peppler finished the game shooting 6-of-16 overall and 5-of-8 from three, while tying her career-best with seven free throw makes.
 
Anna Lutz was also in double figures in scoring with 11 points while pulling down five rebounds to go along with two assists and two steals. Grace Crowley was one point and one rebound shy of a double-double, finishing the game with nine and nine. Jorey Buwalda also had nine points including a three pointer at the end of the third quarter.
 
Jada Williams scored five points with four rebounds, while Jada Donaldson had four points and was tied with Peppler for the team lead with four assists. Angie Cera scored four points with five rebounds and two assists in limited action.
 
The Penguins got off to a hot start as they took an early 8-2 lead before Peppler scored her first four points of the game from the free throw line to make it a two-point game. Youngstown State took its largest lead of the quarter at seven following a three-pointer and a layup that was answered by a Peppler three ball. YSU scored one at the line for the final point to take a 14-9 lead.
 
To open the second quarter Crowley connected on a layup to trim the deficit to three, before the Panthers sliced the lead to one on a fast break three-pointer by Peppler. After a turnover by the Penguins, Milwaukee took its first lead of the game at 20-19. Youngstown State scored the next 10 to take a nine-point lead with 3:07 left in the half, before Milwaukee closed out the stanza with the final eight points capped off on back-to-back threes by Peppler.
 
The Panthers trailed 32-31 at halftime and added onto its eight-point run to close out the first half with a 10-0 rally to open the second half. Lutz went back-to-back from beyond the arc, followed by makes from both Donaldson and Crowley to increase Milwaukee's lead to 41-32.
 
MKE continued to pour on in what proved to be a 24-2 swing for the Panthers, with Milwaukee opening a 13-point lead at 47-34. The Panthers took a 53-39 advantage into the fourth quarter with the third quarter ending on a Buwalda three-point basket.
 
Ahead by 14, the Panthers were given two free throws to start the fourth, which were converted by Buwalda to give MKE its largest lead of the game at 55-39. However, Youngstown State went on a 19-5 run through the fourth quarter to cut Milwaukee's lead back down to two at 60-58.
 
Milwaukee's defense stood tall despite being pushed to the brink, but a missed layup by the Penguins followed by a costly shot clock violation with less than a minute to go ultimately cost YSU a chance at completing the comeback.
 
With less than 30 seconds to go, Peppler connected on a three-ball from the right elbow after two YSU players collided in the paint allowing Peppler to take the open shot and make it a two-score game at 63-58. Williams and Lutz made free throws at the end to cap off the win for the Panthers at 66-58.
 
Milwaukee heads back on the road on Thursday evening at the Athletics Center O'Rena in Rochester, Michigan, as the Panthers pay a visit to the Oakland Golden Grizzlies for a 6:00 p.m. (CT) start.