MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee women's basketball team was outscored 19-5 in the fourth quarter as the Robert Morris Colonials erased an early deficit to earn with a 58-52 win on Thursday evening.
 
Kamy Peppler led all scorers with 20 points, including three makes from distance. Kacee Baumhower ended the game with 14 points for the Panthers.
 
Isys Grady had 12 of her team-best 17 points in the fourth quarter to help RMU late in the game. Grady had 10 of her fourth-quarter points during a 14-2 run to turn an eight-point Panther lead into a 53-49 advantage for the Colonials. Robert Morris held the lead through the duration of the contest.
 
The Panthers start came courtesy of shooting 48.5 percent from the field through the opening 30 minutes. However, Milwaukee struggled in the final 10 minutes making just 2-of-15 from the floor including 0-of-8 from deep.
 
"You win the first three quarters, and you expect to put yourself in a great position against a good team," commented head coach Kyle Rechlicz after the game. "They're a team that plays tough and we got their best effort in the fourth quarter … we were defending them well in the fourth, but we could not get a basket to fall.
 
"We were settling," Rechlicz added on the fourth quarter. "We talked about being the physically tougher team, getting downhill, getting to the free throw line and I felt like we were taking way too many threes during that stretch."
 
Milwaukee had a five-point lead at the halftime break, ahead by a 26-21 score after shooting 10-of-25 from the field including a pair from three. Baumhower had nine points with Peppler scoring five, and Kallie Peppler chipping in with four first-half points.
 
In the third, Kamy came alive to score 15 points including 4-of-5 from the field overall, 3-of-4 from three, and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the stripe.
 
The Panthers led by as many as 10 points in the third period at 40-30, but after a push by RMU sliced the deficit to one. MKE countered with the final seven points of the third period, including a three by Kamy to send the game to the fourth with the home team ahead, 47-39.
 
Grady kickstarted the 14-2 Colonial run with a putback layup and Robert Morris did not look back. A free throw by Baumhower got Milwaukee as close as three with under a minute to go before RMU iced the game by going 5-of-6 from the stripe in the final 30 seconds.
 
Mya Murray and Jada Lee each had 10 points for Robert Morris as Murray was a rebound short of a double-double. The Colonials ended the game with 11 offensive rebounds in comparison to six by the Panthers, as Robert Morris had 10 second-chance points, all in the second half.
 
Jada Donaldson led Milwaukee with six rebounds, Baumhower led with three assists and three steals.
 
Milwaukee will look to bounce back on Saturday afternoon, when the Panthers host the Youngstown State Penguins at 2:00 p.m. at the Klotsche Center.