MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee women's basketball team outscored Wright State in every quarter on Thursday evening, cruising to a 75-50 win over the Raiders at the Klotsche Center.
 
Kamy Peppler had a double-double with 11 points and a season-best 11 assists, while Kacee Baumhower connected on a team-leading 18 points in the winning effort. Jorey Buwalda scored in double figures with 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
 
The Panthers had 20 assists on 25 makes, while also knocking down a season-best 13 three-point baskets. Milwaukee finished the game shooting 45.5 percent from the floor and made 44.8 percent from three.
 
"We had been shooting pretty well this week in practice, and it was nice to see that carry over to the game tonight," commented head coach Kyle Rechlicz after the game.
 
"Something we talked about before the game was moving the ball against their defense," said Rechlicz on the team's assist total. "If we keep moving the ball, good things are going to happen. Kamy was huge against their zone defense and made the right passes and made some great decisions when we needed her to."
 
Defensively, Milwaukee had a strong effort at times, statistically finishing with nine blocks and added six steals against the Raiders.
 
"I'm really proud of our resilience, tonight we were getting back on track with putting both sides [offense and defense] together for the first time that we've seen in a while," added Rechlicz. "It wasn't a complete game; you can't give up over 30 points in the second half after allowing just 17 in the first half."
 
Wright State connected on just 26.0 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from beyond the arc. However, the rebounding battle was in favor of the Raiders at 44-41, including 21 offensive rebounds.
 
"The only thing I was disappointed in was not getting rebounds," Rechlicz noted. "Wright State did a great job on the boards tonight and they had a lot of second-chance points. We could have held them off the scoreboard even more if we were able to rebound better."
 
Wright State led with an early 7-2 advantage, but consecutive three-point makes by Jada Donaldson and Peppler swung the lead in favor of the Black & Gold. Later, Baumhower drilled a three from the left elbow off a pass from Peppler underneath to give Milwaukee a 14-11 lead.
 
Milwaukee did not give up the lead the rest of the game, using a 10-0 run at the end of the first quarter to send the game to the second with MKE up, 24-13.
 
Milwaukee stood tall defensively in the second, allowing just one make from the field as Wright State went 1-for-17 overall and 0-9 from three in the period. Milwaukee outscored Wright State by a 13-4 difference and led 37-17 at halftime.
 
In the third, the Panthers did just enough to outscore the Raiders as Donaldson knocked down a pair of threes in the third to lead the team. Milwaukee led by as many as 26 in the period on a Buwalda make from three and were ahead by 23 heading to the fourth.
 
Wright State was only able to get as close as 17 points with 3:24 to go in the game. Hallie Majoros drained a three to propel Milwaukee back ahead by 20 before Izzy Pugh scored the final five points of the game to give the Panthers the 25-point win.
 
The Milwaukee bench proved to be a crucial aspect as the Panthers showed off their depth with 28 bench points to just eight by Wright State.
 
Pugh and Donaldson each had nine points in the win. Payton Rechlicz added five points, Anna Lutz had four with Kallie Peppler and Sophia Rampulla rounding out the scoring with a field goal make apiece.
 
Amaya Staton was to note for Wright State with an 18-point, 11-rebound performance while leading the team with three blocks. Eight of Staton's 11 rebounds came off the offensive glass, while she finished the game 8-of-16 from the field. Macie Taylor had 11 and Lauren Scott scored nine for WSU.
 
Milwaukee returns home on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., when it hosts the Northern Kentucky Norse at the Klotsche Center.