DEKALB, Ill. – Kendall Barnes and Madison Fitzgibbon contributed with 32 points off the bench as the Milwaukee women's basketball team earned its first win of the season in a 76-65 victory over Northern Illinois on Friday evening.
 
Barnes ended the game 7-for-8 from the field, while Fitzgibbon knocked down 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. As a team, the Panthers shot 48.9 percent from the field and 52.9 percent from three-point range.
 
Jorey Buwalda and Micayla Silas also reached double figures with 11 points apiece. Buwalda came just one rebound shy of recording her second straight double-double to open the season.
 
"I'm proud of how our team responded from our previous game," said head coach Kyle Rechlicz after the win. "We had some players who did not play well in that first game, but they were hungry, and it was nice to see them step up for us tonight."
 
Defensively, the Panthers were just as effective as they were on offense, holding the Huskies to 25.0 percent shooting from deep, including six players who went 0-for from beyond the arc.
 
"That was what we were focused on," added Rechlicz on the team's defensive effort. "We were making them find different ways to score, and our team really bought into our game plan."
 
Milwaukee trailed 9-3 with just over three minutes gone by in the game, but back-to-back threes by Fitzgibbon and Payton Rechlicz tied the score at nine. NIU briefly regained the lead at 17-15, but a Fitzgibbon three sparked a 16-0 run that stretched into the second quarter.
 
The Panthers led by as many as 14 in the second quarter and eventually took a 36-25 advantage into halftime.
 
Milwaukee maintained a double-digit lead through most of the third quarter, extending the margin to 16 at 55-39 following a layup by Barnes. After a late free throw by the Huskies, the Panthers entered the final period ahead by 15.
 
The lead ballooned to 18 on a layup by Silas and then to 19 on another Fitzgibbon three-pointer. Northern Illinois used a 9-2 run to cut the deficit back to single digs, but free throws late from Silas and Izzy Pugh sealed the win for Milwaukee.
 
Rechlicz finished the game with eight points, including a pair of threes, while Sophia Rampulla and Pugh each added five.
 
Barnes and Fitzgibbon shared the team lead with four assists apiece, while Pugh tallied a team-best two blocks. Buwalda, Rampulla, and Grace Lomen each collected two steals in the victory.
 
Milwaukee's quick two-game road trip concludes on Monday evening when the Panthers visit the Wisconsin Badgers for a 6:30 p.m. tipoff at the Kohl Center in Madison.