MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee women's basketball team heads on the road for its first full weekend of Horizon League play away from the Klotsche Center, the Panthers will open up the weekend trip with Wright State on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. (CT) from the Nutter Center. The Panthers have not played a road conference game since December 3, when MKE upended the IUPUI Jaguars by a 70-59 score.

The game will be available on the Black & Gold Network, as Matt Menzl returns for his eighth season with the program, live video on ESPN+ and live stats will also be available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.

THE MATCHUP
Friday, January 5 | Milwaukee at Wright State | Nutter Center | Dayton, Ohio | 6:00 p.m. (CT)

QUICK LINKS
Black & Gold Network: mkepanthers.com/coverage
ESPN+: mkepanthers.com/coverage
Live Stats: mkepanthers.com/coverage
Follow Along (On X): @MKE_WBB

FAST FACTS
» Milwaukee is back on the road for the weekend beginning with a trip to Wright State on Friday, January 5 at 6:00 p.m. (CT). The Panthers are 32-34 in their 66 all-time meetings. Milwaukee has won its last two games at the Nutter Center over the past two seasons and are looking to improve to 4-1 over their most recent five meetings.
» The Panthers dropped its most recent game, falling to Cleveland State in a close five-point matchup against the Vikings. Milwaukee fell by a 64-59 score, holding CSU to its second-lowest point total of the season. In the game for MKE, Anna Lutz recorded the second double-double of her career with a career-best 23 points along with 10 rebounds.
» Wright State enters the weekend at 9-6 overall and are 3-1 in Horizon matchups after sweeping this past weekend on the road at Youngstown State and Robert Morris. The Raiders are riding a three-game winning streak into the matchup with Alexis Hutchison averaging 18.0 points per game over its current winning streak, Layne Ferrell is averaging 14.7 points and Kacee Baumhower is averaging 12.7 points per game over that span.
» All Panther games will feature live stats and live audio with Matt Menzl on the Black & Gold Network, while fans can also tune into ESPN+ for a majority of this season's contests, including all home contests. Game coverage and gameday programs for home games can all be found on MKEPanthers.com.

SCOUTING THE RAIDERS
Wright State heads into Friday's matchup on a three-game winning streak including an overtime win over Robert Morris on Sunday afternoon, 80-77. The Raiders are 3-1 in Horizon League games to start the conference season and are 9-6 overall on the year.

The Raiders are led by conference leader Alexis Hutchison, who is currently eighth in all of NCAA Division I in scoring with 289 points. Hutchison and Milwaukee counterpart Kendall Nead are the top two in the Horizon League in field goals made with Nead holding a slim lead at 112 to Hutchison's 105. Hutchison also leads the Raiders in three pointers with 32, free throws with 47, rebounds with 77, assists with 41, and is second on the team with 22 steals.

She leads an offense that scores 71.9 points per game and outscores opponents by a 2.3-point margin per contest. The Raiders are 38th in the nation in three-pointers per game, averaging 8.3 per contest, which is second in the league to Purdue Fort Wayne, who leads the way at 9.2 per game this season. Nationally ranked Utah leads the nation by knocking down 12.7 three-pointers per game. While the Raiders knock down their share of buckets, they are only in the middle of the pack in terms of assists with 14.1 assists per game, fourth-best in the Horizon.

Wright State has struggled in the rebounding department this year and are 10th best in the Horizon League with 33.6 rebounds per game. The Raiders are being outrebounded by a 4.8 difference with only Northern Kentucky outrebounded by a margin of six per game. Rachel Loobie is the team's top rebounder at 6.2 per game and is second on the team with 15 blocks this season. Layne Ferrell is tops on the team with 24 blocks this year and is in the top-10 in scoring at 12.5 points per game.

SERIES HISTORY / LAST MEETING
Another common opponent for Milwaukee is the Raiders of Wright State as the two sides have met a total of 66 times entering play on Friday. The Raiders hold a slim 34-32 advantage in meetings, including their most recent meeting on February 10 at the Klotsche Center that saw the Raiders come out on top with a 74-65 victory. WSU connected on nine three-pointers compared to just three by the Panthers en route to the win, as both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field overall.

Milwaukee is 14-20 in all-time meetings at Wright State, winning its two most recent visits to the Nutter Center. In the team's most recent visit to Dayton, the Panthers won 72-61 on January 7, 2023, with four players scoring in double figures including 18 from Megan Walstad, 17 from Kamy Peppler, 16 from Kendall Nead and 11 from Emma Wittmershaus.

LUTZ TURNING IT UP
With three consecutive games with double-digit rebounding, Anna Lutz now has 86 rebounds this season, al-ready eclipsing her mark of 85 set a season ago from her redshirt freshman season. Over the past three games, Lutz has pulled down 10 rebounds against Viterbo, a career-best 11 versus Perdue Fort Wayne, and another 10 against Cleveland State.

Lutz also registered her second double-double of the season against Cleveland State and now has a team-best two this season and is one shy of tying Kendall Nead for career double-doubles. This season, she has also been the team's leading rebounder on six occasions this season, and a team-best nine times in her career.

Offensively, Lutz has scored a career-best nine field goals twice this season as she has scored a career-high 23 points against both Central Michigan on November 25, and Cleveland State on January 1.

DOUBLE-FIGURE STREAK
Reaching double figures in scoring for the first 14 games of the season, Kendall Nead put together the longest run of double-digit scoring performances since former teammate Megan Walstad had a stretch of 14 games during the 2021-22 season from January 8 to February 24.

Nead scored at least 10 points through the team's first 14 games, which had not been done to open a season since 2017-18 when Steph Kostowicz also opened the year with 14 consecutive games in double-figure scoring. Nead had her streak snapped against Cleveland State on January 1.

HISTORIC NIGHT VERSUS THE V-HAWKS
Milwaukee blitzed the Viterbo V-Hawks on December 20, recording a 100-37 victory in its non-conference finale at the Klotsche Center. The 63-point scoring margin was the largest margin of victory for the team in Division I program history, with the previous mark coming on February 2, 2002, against Youngstown State, when the Panthers won by a 100-46 score.

The 100-point mark for Milwaukee was the first time the Panthers had reached the century mark in a regulation contest since the dual with Youngstown State at home in 2002. In the showing against the Penguins, Milwaukee connected on a then program record of 14 three-pointers, while this time around against the V-Hawks the Panthers only had six three-pointers, while making 39-of-69 from the field overall.

The 39 field goals tied the program record of makes in a regulation contest, set back in the team's inaugural Division I season, when the team also made 39 against Northeastern Illinois on January 22, 1991. The overall program record is 46, during a double-overtime matchup against Bradley on December 4, 2012.

The defense stood up against the Viterbo offense, yielding just 37 points the fewest since the February 23, 2023, matchup at home against Purdue Fort Wayne that saw Milwaukee win by a 64-34 score. In that game, Milwaukee held the Mastodons to just 11 points in the first half to set a new program record, the Panthers nearly tied that mark as MKE allowed just 12 first-half points to Viterbo on December 20.

NEAD'S SECOND-HALF SUCCESSES
With two points in the second half of the team's matchup vs. Cleveland State, Kendall Nead has now scored 147 of her 270 points in the second half of games this season. Nead has upped her performance with more second half than first half points in nine of the team's first 15 games this year, including a 10-point improvement (eight in the first half, 18 in the second) against St. Thomas on December 7.

During the first half of games this year Nead has shot 42.7 percent (53-of-124) and has upped that mark in crunch time to 44.3 percent (59-of-133) in the second halves.

WEEKLY HONORS
Kendall Nead earned her first career Horizon League Player of the Week honor this past Monday, as she recorded a double-double in the team's win over Eastern Illinois. Nead finished the game with 19 points and 13 rebounds, while also adding two steals, a block, and an assist in the team's seven-point win over the Panthers of EIU.

On November 27, the Horizon League recognized its student-athletes of the week honorees with Milwaukee represented for the first time in the three weeks of reporting. Earning Freshman of the Week honors was newcomer Jorey Buwalda, who shot 72.7 percent from the field with eight makes in 11 attempts. She averaged 21 minutes per game and pulled down 12 rebounds on the week while also picking up one assist and two steals. From the free throw line, Buwalda went unblemished in two attempts.

SWEET 17
For the first time in a regulation game, the Milwaukee Panthers connected on 17 three-pointers in a single game during the team's win over Central Michigan on November 25. It was the first time the Panthers had 17 in a single contest since December 4, 2012, when the team also had 17 in a double-overtime matchup against Bradley.

Milwaukee's previous mark for three-pointers in a regulation game was 16 on November 18, 2014, at North Dakota, while it was Milwaukee's most three-pointers in a home game in regulation since December 31, 2010, against Wright State with 15. Under Kyle Rechlicz, the team's most three-pointers in a home regulation game was 14 against Cleveland State on February 11, 2017.

AT THE LINE FOR MILWAUKEE
Milwaukee is third in the Horizon League and 21st in NCAA Division I this season in free throw percentage, connecting on 78.1 percent from the charity stripe.

The Panthers are led by Horizon League leader Angie Cera, who is 28-for-28 on the season. Jorey Buwalda is 29-for-34 on the year from the line. Grace Crowley is 13-for-15, while Anna Lutz is 11-for-13, and Jada Donaldson is 10-for-12 and all above the team average.

DONALDSON'S ATR
With two assists and no turnovers against Cleveland State, Jada Donaldson now has a 3.12 assist/turnover ratio this season and is second in the Horizon League. That number is well above her career average of 2.08 assists to turnovers, with 150 assists and 72 turnovers in 86 career games.

Donaldson is 15th in all of Division I with her 3.12 assist/turnover ratio, as the national leader is Rori Harmon at Texas with a 6.64 (93 assists/14 turnovers).

Milwaukee as a team has a 0.98 assist/turnover ratio (253 assists/258 turnovers), which is third-best in the Horizon League and 93rd in the nation. Green Bay leads the conference with a 1.68 assist/turnover ratio.

TOPS IN MINUTES
Milwaukee has been able to rely heavily on its veteran leaders to help lead the way with four players averaging 30 minutes or more per game. Kamy Peppler and Jada Donaldson lead the team at 32.1 minutes per. Kendall Nead is third on the team at 31.1 minutes per contest, while Angie Cera also averages 30.7 minutes per game. All four Panthers are in the top-15 in the Horizon League in minutes per game.

KAMY FOR THREE
Thus far through team's first 15 games, Kamy Peppler leads the Horizon League with an average of 2.2 three-point field goals per game. Peppler has had two performances with six three-pointers including the team's home opener against UIC, where she also set a new career high in points with 25, while she also had six three-point baskets against McNeese for 22 points. Peppler is 18th in the Horizon League in scoring as she is averaging 11.3 points per game this year.

20/20 VISION
Milwaukee had its leading scorer score at least 20 points during the team's six-game stretch from November 12-25, including Kamy Peppler against UIC (25), Kendall Nead against Louisiana Monroe (21), and McNeese (38), Jorey Buwalda against Mississippi Valley (20), Nead again against Edgewood (20), and Anna Lutz versus Central Michigan (23).

It's the first time Milwaukee has had a leading scorer reach at least 20 points over a six-game stretch since the 2015-16 season, when Milwaukee had it happen in eight consecutive games. From mid-February to early March, Jenny Lindner had 23 points for Milwaukee versus Youngstown State, followed by Steph Kostowicz against Valparaiso (27), and UIC (24), Sierra Ford-Washington led Milwaukee against Northern Kentucky (24), and Wright State (26), followed by Lindner and Kostowicz with 32 each against Oakland, Lindner against Detroit Mercy (20), in postseason play against Wright State (31).

NEAD'S NIGHT IN LOUISIANA
During the team's win against host McNeese at the Multi-Team Event in Lake Charles, Louisiana, junior Kendall Nead scored 38 points for a career-best, while also becoming just the third difference Panther to score at least 38 points in a game. All-Time leading scorer Traci Edwards reached 38 twice in her career, including the program record of 45 in February 2008, Edwards also scored 42 points in January 2007. Andrea Filipek in January 1999 was the only other Panther to reach 38+ points in a game.

Nead connected on 17 field goals against McNeese as she tied the single-game record for field goals made in a game. She finished the game 17-for-23 from the field with three of those coming from three-point range including her final two makes with 7:32 and 7:03 left in the fourth quarter. Traci Edwards held the top spot alone since January of 2007 as the only player to score 17 field goals in a game prior to Nead.

Nead's 23 attempts were also the third-most in a game, while her shooting percentage was also third-best among the now five players all time to score at least 14 field goals in a game. Avyanna Young shot 15-for-19 (78.9%), while Maria Viall was 14-for-18 (77.7%), Nead slots into third at 73.9%, followed by Jenny Lindner at 14-for-24 (58.3%), and Traci Edwards at 17-for-33 (53.5%). No player in Milwaukee history has ever ended a game with 16 field goals made.

A HELPING HAND
With 27 assists during the team's win over McNeese, Milwaukee had the most assists in a single game since the team recorded its program record of 31 set back in December 2012 against Bradley in double overtime.

The last time Milwaukee had at least 27 assists in a regulation game came back in 2000, when the Panthers had 28 against Central Michigan in December of that year. The team also had 28 assists against Chicago State in January of 2000, while the only other time Milwaukee had 27 assists in a game came back in January of 1991, during its inaugural Division I season against Northeastern Illinois.

SEASON-OPENING MARK
With 18 points in the team's season opener at Wisconsin, Milwaukee's junior guard scored the most points for a Panther in a season opener since Jamie Reit scored 31 points in the team's overtime win over Parkside to begin the 2019-20 season. A year prior, Reit connected on 21 points in the team's two-point loss to Indiana for the last time a Panther had at least 18 points in a regulation season opener.

OFFENSIVE BOARDS TURNING INTO POINTS
The Panthers recorded double-digit offensive rebounds in nine of their last 18 contests in 2022-23 and made the most of their chances. In that span during 2022-23 Milwaukee totaled 161 second-chance points.

The Panthers got off to a start just as well this season, with double-digit offensive boards in eight of their first 15 games including a season-best 20 against Viterbo on December 20. Milwaukee has scored 170 second chance points this year, including a season-high 22 second-chance points against Viterbo.

This season Milwaukee has earned more second-chance points than their opponents in nine of their 15 matchups during the 2023-24 season.

MAGIC NUMBER
In college basketball, there is no perfect recipe for a win but for Milwaukee, field goal percentage has been a pretty good baseline.

In the last eight seasons, Milwaukee is 99-35 (.739) when hitting at least 40 percent from the field. Bump that field goal percentage to 43 percent and the Panthers are 85-18 (.825).

When shooting under 40 percent since 2016-17, Milwaukee is just 26-72 (.265). The Panthers are 1-4 in contests this season, when shooting under 40 percent.

KEEPING THE FOULS DOWN
Over the past two seasons, when Milwaukee has committed 11 fouls or fewer, the Panthers are 7-1. On the contrary, the Panthers are 4-14 when they have committed 18 or more fouls in a contest.

CROWLEY'S JUNIOR RECORD
Last season, then-junior Grace Crowley connected on 57.4 percent from the field. With that mark, Crowley set a new program record for shooting percentage as a junior in Milwaukee history. The previous mark was held by Bud K. Haidet Hall of Famer, Maria Viall, who recorded a 57.3 field goal percent as a junior.

SPANNING THE REGION…AND THE GLOBE
This season Milwaukee has eight student-athletes from the state of Wisconsin, while the team has two players from both Illinois and Iowa, with one student-athlete hailing from Ohio.

In addition to the 13 Panthers from the United States, Milwaukee will be represented by three international students as returner Lior Halevi (Israel) is joined by Vanessa Jurewicz (Sweden), and Izzy Pugh (New Zealand).

This will be the first time in Milwaukee Division I history, that the Panthers have more than one international student-athletes on its roster for any season.

PRESEASON POLL
Milwaukee was selected to finish sixth in the 2023-24 preseason poll as announced by the Horizon League in mid-October. The Panthers received 59 points and were just four points out of the top-five.

In addition to the team being selected in sixth, Kendall Nead was named to the Preseason All-League Second Team. Nead finished last year as Milwaukee's returning scorer as she averaged 11.1 points per game with a team-best 334 points in 2022-23. Nead also connected on 41.4 percent from the floor, while adding 26 three-pointers of her team-best 138 field goals made.

Nead added 133 rebounds, 46 assists, 17 steals, and seven blocks as she was one of just two Panthers to start in all 30 games of the season for MKE.

WHAT'S ON TAP?
After the visit to Wright State, Milwaukee continues its trip to the southern stretch of the Horizon League with Northern Kentucky on Sunday, January 7. The game against the Norse at Truist Arena takes place at 1:00 p.m. (CT). The team returns home to take on Robert Morris on January 11 followed by Youngstown State on January 13.

CATCH ALL THE ACTION
Matt Menzl returns for his eighth year as the play-by-play voice of the Panthers on the Black and Gold Network. Links for audio along with any TV coverage can be found on MKEPanthers.com. The Milwaukee women's basketball X account (@MKE_WBB) will also have live updates throughout the game.

Thanks to ESPN+, Milwaukee basketball fans will have the opportunity to watch the Panthers all season long. All of Milwaukee's home games will be carried live online at ESPN+. The Horizon League and ESPN have an agreement that includes ESPN hosting the league's digital network on the ESPN+ platform.

ESPN+ offers fans thousands of live events, on-demand content, and original programming not available on ESPN's linear TV or digital networks. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $9.99 a month (or $99.99 per year) and cancel at any time.