DAYTON, Ohio – Milwaukee women's basketball dropped a 69-61 decision to the Wright State Raiders on Saturday afternoon.
 
Four players had at least nine points in the effort for Milwaukee, led by Kacee Baumhower with 13. Payton Rechlicz scored 11 points with Jorey Buwalda and Kamy Peppler each scoring nine.
 
Wright State connected on 39.3 percent from the field on 24-of-61, while the Raider defense held the Panthers to just 32.7 percent on 18-of-55 overall.
 
"Credit Wright State, they play very well at home versus on the road," said Panther head coach Kyle Rechlicz after the game. "I thought that Wright State was physical, which took us out of rhythm offensively"
 
The Raiders took advantage of 17 Panther turnovers and 14 offensive rebounds, turning those numbers into 19 points off Milwaukee giveaways and 17 second-chance points.
 
"The two areas that we talked about coming into the game today was not giving up offensive rebounds and cutting down on our turnovers," Rechlicz added. "You can't have 17 turnovers and give up 69 points and expect to win many games."
 
Beyond the offensive output from Baumhower, Rechlicz, Buwalda, and Peppler, Milwaukee also had a seven-point game from Kallie Peppler and another six points from Anna Lutz as the offense moved the ball with 12 assists on its 18 makes.
 
"This is how our offense should be," added Rechlicz on the offensive balance. "We have a lot of scorers on the court, and if the opponent's defense is taking something away then we can find someone else."
 
Wright State was led by Amaya Staton with a 13-point, 12-rebounds double-double, while Makiya Miller had 11 and both Claire Henson and Lauren Scott recorded nine points apiece.
 
The Raiders held a two-point lead after the opening quarter and used a 12-3 run in the second quarter to help extend their lead to 37-30 at the halftime break.
 
Wright State scored the first five points of the second half to take its largest lead of the game at 42-30.
 
Milwaukee trimmed the lead to five on a three-point make by Baumhower and got as close as four with a last-second free throw by Buwalda to make it a 51-47 deficit heading into the fourth.
 
"We kept chopping into Wright State's lead, but we just couldn't get much closer than five or six points," finished Rechlicz. "We needed one more basket to make it a single-possession game, which could have made them tight, but that's tough to do on the road."
 
Through the final nine minutes of play the Panthers were only able to get the score as close as 61-56 with 2:17 to go before the Raiders capped off the eight-point win with free throws.
 
Lutz had a team-best four assists, while she and Baumhower had two steals to lead the Panthers. Buwalda led MKE with nine rebounds.
 
Milwaukee will conclude its three-game road trip on Wednesday evening at IU Indy. The Panthers and Jaguars will clash at the Jungle beginning at 5:30 p.m. (CT).