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Jan. 28, 2003

The Sandy Botham File A 1988 Notre Dame graduate, Sandy Botham is in her seventh season at the helm of the UWM women's hoops program. The two-time MCC/Horizon League Coach of the Year owns a 127-85 career mark, good for a .601 winning percentage. The second- winningest coach in school history and the all-time leader in Division I victories, Botham is 105-81 in her six-plus seasons in Milwaukee. Last season, Botham led UWM to its first 20-win season in the school's ten-year Division I history. Botham's teams have posted a 60-28 record in Horizon League play over the years, including regular season and tournament titles in 2000-01. Assisting Botham on the sidelines are first year assistants Joe Conroy, Lea Robinson, and Nicole Luchsinger with 1997 Horizon League Player of the Year Jen Greger serving as Director of Basketball Operations.

Scouting The Cougars Chicago State University, coached by former Tennessee standout Cheryl Littlejohn, comes to Milwaukee 6-10 on the season and 3-2 in its league, the Mid-Continent Conference. The Cougars, who went 11-18 last season, boast a balanced offensive attack that features four players averaging more than eight points per game. Kafayat Davies leads CSU in scoring at 11.1 points per game while do-everything guard Krisey Sanders averages 10.8 points, 5.9 assists, and 5.8 rebounds per contest. The Cougars have been playing well of late and will enter tonight's contest winners of five of their last eight games. Milwaukee leads the all-time series between the two school's 13-1, including a 70-51 win on New Year's Eve of 2001.

Panthers Go Back-To-Back For First Time Finally, a winning streak. Thanks to Saturday's, 70-62, victory at Butler, coupled with a victory over Wright State on Thursday, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team can claim a "winning streak" for the first time all season. The Panthers have now won back-to-back games for the first time in 2002-03 and improved their overall record to 8-10. More importantly, UWM reached the .500 mark in league play (4-4), with the win in Indianapolis.

Comeback Kids Not only did this weekend's games mark the first back-to-back wins for UWM this season, they also marked the first "come-from-behind" wins on the year as well. Milwaukee, who entered play at Wright State 0-9 when trailing at the half, recovered from halftime deficits to post wins versus WSU and Butler. The Panthers, who trailed WSU and BU 34-26 and 33-28 respectively, outscored the two teams a combined 92-60 in the second half in the two victories. On the year, Milwaukee is now 6-1 when leading at the half, 1-0 when tied, and 2-9 when trailing at the break.

Key To The Comebacks: Protecting The Ball While the 58.1% shooting in the second half versus Wright State certainly helped, the major key to the two UWM comebacks: turnovers. Or, more importantly, a lack there of. The Panthers, who have struggled with carelessness all season, turned the ball over a combined 11 times in the second half of the wins over WSU and Butler this weekend. On contrast, the Panthers dug themselves a hole in the first half of both games, committing 16 and 13 turnovers, respectively. The 11 turnovers for a combined game are more than 10 less than the 21.8 season average.

Panthers Get Offensive After a slow start on the offensive end of the court, the 2002-03 Milwaukee Panthers have turned things around of late as an increased scoring output has led to a 4-2 record over the last six games. UWM, which reached the 70-point plateau just once in the first 12 games, has scored 70 or more points in five of its last six games. Starting with a season-high 89 points in a win over Cleveland State, the Panthers have scored 73, 79, 61, 76, and 70 points in the next five games. Milwaukee has averaged 74.6 ppg over the six-game stretch while giving up just 67.3.

Crashing The Boards It comes as no surprise that the UWM offensive turnaround has come in large part to the Panthers total domination on the backboards. Milwaukee has outrebounded the opposition in 14 of 18 games this season, including all eight Horizon League games. The Panthers, who set a school-record with a +33 rebound margin at Youngstown State, outrebounded Cleveland State by 28 and Wright State by 26 on Thursday. UWM currently leads the legue with a +7.2 rebound margin, which has increased to +13.6 in Horizon League action.

Getting To The Line Free throws. There isn't an easier way to score points and the UWM Panthers have made a living of going to the charity stripe this season. In the 18 games thus far, the opposition has made more free throws than UWM in just four games. The Panthers, who made 13 more free throws than Butler on Saturday, have connected on 254 free throws this year. The free throws made total is 56 more than the opposition has made and just 33 less than the opponents have shot on the season. Milwaukee is shooting 71.3% from the line in 2002-03, led by Anne Witte's 86.2% and Jessica Wilhite's 84.6% showing from the stripe.

Balanced Scoring Keys Turnaround This just in. The 2002-03 UWM Panthers offensive attack is much more than the Maria Viall and Jessica Wilhite show. While the attack is certainly centered around the two all-league players, the emergence of three underclassmen has taken the UWM offense to another level. Over the last six games, sophomore forward Kimberly Becker is averaging 12.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while shooting 62.8% from the floor and 72.4% from the line. Freshman Nichole Drummond has emerged as an All-Newcomer Team candidate, thanks to her 10.0 ppg and 4.7 rpg numbers over the last six. The last cog in the wheel, freshman Anne Witte, is scoring 7.8 ppg during the stretch to go with a team-best 20 assists.

Maria Viall---Player Of The Week How good was Maria Viall last week? Try 28 points per game. 17 rebounds per game. A 69.7% field goal percentage. And most importantly, back-to-back wins for her team. For her efforts the 6-3 junior center was named the Horizon League Player of the Week on Monday (Jan. 27). Viall led UWM to a 76-65 victory on Wright State on Thursday thanks to 28 points, 12-18 shooting, two blocks, and a school-record tying 21 rebounds. The Waukesha-native followed that up with a 28-point, 13-rebound, 73.3% shooting performance in a 70-62 win at Butler on Saturday. The POY honor was the first this season for Viall.

A Quick Glance--The Horizon League Race Halfway through the 2002-03 Horizon League season and this much we know. UW- Green Bay is solid at No.1 with a 7-1 record. Youngstown State and Butler are clearly at the bottom at 1-6 each. However, slots 2-7 get tricky as all six teams in those spots are either .500 or two games above or below the break even point. UIC and Detroit are tied for second place at 5-3, Wright State sits fourth at 4-3, Milwaukee and Loyola stand at 4-4, while Cleveland State sits at 3-4. With so many teams so close together, head-to-head games will loom large in determing seeding for the Horizon League Tournament in Green Bay, March 6-9, 2003.

Panther News And Notes Maria Viall leads the league in field goal percentage (.572) and blocks (1.94) ... Jessica Wilhite has made 13 straight free throws ... UWM is 4-4 in games decided by 10 points or less ... Antoinette Gregory leads the team in assists (47) and is the only player with a positive assist-to-turnover ratio.