MILWAUKEE – Visiting Purdue Fort Wayne outscored Milwaukee 23-9 in the third quarter to build a lead that proved too much for the Panthers on Wednesday evening, as the Mastodons recorded a 71-52 victory.
 
Alana Nelson scored a team-best 17 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds for Purdue Fort Wayne, which also got 10 points from Jordan Reid. Ella Riggs finished with 11 points, all in the second half, including eight in the fourth quarter.
 
Cece McNair narrowly missed a double-double, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds to lead the Panthers. Sophia Rampulla scored eight points and Kendall Barnes added seven in the effort.
 
It was a sluggish first half for both teams, as each both shot below 29 percent from the field. After the first quarter, the Mastodons held an 11-10 advantage before taking a 30-26 lead into halftime.
 
"In the first half, it's a little easier defensively because they're down on your end," said head coach Kyle Rechlicz. "As a coach, you can help the team defensively with the mistakes that we were making."
 
"When they're in the second-half end, our communication needed to pick up, and I think we have some players that are still not communicating well enough on the defensive side," Rechlicz added. "We had some mistakes, and they made us pay for them."
 
PFW scored the first two buckets of the second half to extend its lead to eight before consecutive makes by the Panthers trimmed the margin to 34-30. A seven-point burst by the Mastodons pushed the lead to 12, and Purdue Fort Wayne closed the quarter on a 10-0 run to take a 53-35 advantage.
 
Rampulla stopped the run with an early three-pointer in the fourth quarter, but the Mastodons answered with a three from Rylee Bess. Purdue Fort Wayne led by as many as 24 after a three-pointer by Riggs made it 69-45, before Rita Gomes drained a three to halt an eight-point Mastodon run.
 
"You can't play two halves like that; you have to have to have a lot of consistency from one half to the next," Rechlicz said. "That's something we're still trying to build, and unfortunately it's the end of February, so we don't have much more time to do it."
 
The Panthers got late baskets from Grace Lomen and McNair to trim the deficit to 19 but were unable to mount a comeback.
 
Turnovers were again costly for the Panthers, as 22 giveaways led to 15 Mastodon points. Purdue Fort Wayne also outscored Milwaukee 26-18 in points in the paint, despite Milwaukee holding a 40-33 advantage on the glass.
 
The loss, coupled with losses by both Wright State and Detroit Mercy, officially locks the Panthers into the 10 seed in the upcoming Barbasol Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship. The Panthers will host the Titans on Monday, Mar. 2 at the Klotsche Center in the Play-In round.
 
Milwaukee will wrap up the 2025-26 Horizon League regular season on Saturday afternoon when the Panthers welcome IU Indy for a 2:00 p.m. start. The Panthers will celebrate Senior Day following the contest.