Milwaukee Athletics

ST. LOUIS – A pair of career bests by Madison Fitzgibbon wasn't enough as the Milwaukee women's basketball team fell to host Saint Louis by an 81-62 score on Thursday evening.
 
Fitzgibbon led the Panthers with 22 points, eclipsing her previous career best of 19, while also adding a career-high with six rebounds. She was one of three scorers in double figures for Milwaukee as Tierney Madigan scored 16 and Izzy Pugh scored 14 to tie her career high.
 
All five of the Billikens' starters reached double figures, accounting for 77 of Saint Louis' 81 points. Tyonna Bailey scored 25, while Jahda Denis and Mia Bergstrom both scored 15. D'Myjah Bolds added 12 points, while Alyssa Koerkenmeier had 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
 
Saint Louis stormed out of the gates as Bailey opened the scoring with a three-pointer, kickstarting a 12-2 run to begin the game. The Billikens built a 14-point lead before Payton Rechlicz converted a layup to get the Panthers within a dozen at 24-14 after the opening quarter.
 
Milwaukee outscored Saint Louis 20-14 in the second quarter, shooting a game-high 60 percent from the field on 9-of-15 shooting. Fitzgibbon scored seven points and Madigan added six, while Rita Gomes also knocked down a three-pointer to get the Panthers within six at the break.
 
The Panthers got as close as four points, with Madigan sinking a layup to open the scoring in the half, but Milwaukee was unable to get any closer through the rest of the way. Saint Louis scored the next eight points and led by as many as 12 in the third before extending its lead to 20 late in the fourth.
 
A key factor for the Billikens was points off turnovers, as the home team scored 36 points off 22 Panther giveaways. Saint Louis had 12 steals as a team, including five by Denis.
 
Milwaukee shot 46.6 percent from the field including a 27.8 percent mark from three-point range, Saint Louis converted 52.3 percent of its attempts from the floor and 39.1 percent from beyond the arc.
 
The team's three-game road trip to begin the season concludes on Sunday, when the Panthers take on SIUE at First Community Arena in Edwardsville, Ill. at 1:00 p.m. Coverage of the game will be available on ESPN+.