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Feb. 4, 2004

MILWAUKEE -

Panthers Look For Third Straight Win

Playing its third straight home game and third game in seven days, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball will host Wright State University on Thursday (Feb. 5). The Panthers, 9-10 overall and 6-3 in the Horizon League, will look to win their third straight game while WSU will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak. The game is set to tipoff at 7:00 p.m. at the Klotsche Center. The game can be heard live on WMCS 1290-AM or on www.uwmpanthers.com. Dan Pfeifer will call the play-by-play with Assistant Sports Information Director Bret Seymour adding color commentary.

Big Cushion Leads To Six-Point Win

While the final score may not have indicated it, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had little trouble handling Youngstown State University in Saturday's (Jan. 31) Horizon League women's basketball tilt. The Panthers, who won 62-56, owned as much as a 24-point second half lead before head coach Sandy Botham cleared her bench in the final five-plus minutes of the game. Sophomore Nichole Drummond led all players with 17 points while Maria Viall added 14 points in just 18 minutes of playing time. Cathy Hanek led Youngstown State with 13 points while Tara Fleming added 10 markers of her own. UWM took a 32-21 lead into the halftime break before grabbing a 48-24 lead with 12:14 to play en route to the six-point win.

Scouting the Raiders

After a promising start to the 2003-04 Horizon League season, the Raiders of Wright State University have fallen on tougher times in recent weeks. WSU will come into Thursday's game with a 6-13 record overall and 3-6 mark in the league, which includes three consecutive losses. The Raiders' three-game losing streak started with a UWM win in Dayton on Jan. 22. Wright State is young, however, and boasts a quick, athletic, and uptempo squad. Freshman guard Brittney Whiteside leads WSU offensively with a 10.4 ppg scoring average on 44.1% shooting. Whiteside also leads the team in steals with 38 and ranks third with 44 assists. Versatile senior forward Iesha Gray averages 9.4 points and a team-high 2.6 assists while Chippewa Falls-native Angie Ott owns per game norms of 9.1 points and 3.7 boards. The Raiders are just 1-8 on the road for the season with the lone road win coming at Youngstown State on Jan. 10. WSU is coached by third-year mentor Bridgett Williams who comes into Thursday's tilt with a 23-52 record at the Dayton, Ohio-based school.

Home Court Dominance

Controlling your turf. Defending your palace. Taking care of business. Whatever you want to call it, obtaining success in any conference race begins with one major concept: winning at home. Fortunately for UWM, domination at home has been a staple of Sandy Botham's programs. In the seven-year Botham tenure, Milwaukee boasts a 48-9 home record in conference play, good for an 84.2% winning percentage. That number has even increased recently as UWM has won 91.4% of its home Horizon League games, 32 of 35, in the last four-plus seasons. During those four years UWM went two consecutive seasons, 1999-00 and 2000-01, without dropping a single home conference game, going 14-0 during that time frame.

Panthers Enjoy Friendly Confines

The UWM women's hoops team sure was glad to get back to the Klotsche Center on Thursday. The Panthers, who have played just six home games out of 18 this season, are in the midst of a three-game home stretch and a stretch where they will play five-of-six in the friendly confines. Following Saturday's 62-56 win over Youngstown State, UWM is 6-1 at home this season with the only blemish a three-point loss to Marquette on Jan. 6. Milwaukee averages 64.9 points per game at home to just 57.9 on the road. Shooting has been better at home as well, as evidenced by 41.7% marksmanship from the floor and 77.1% shooting from the free throw line. Conversely, UWM has hit just 38.3% of its shots from the field on the road and 66.0% from the free throw line. While the Panthers turn the ball over 24.8 times away from home they commit just 18.0 miscues at the Klotsche Center.

Super Soph Continues To Surge

When the 2003-04 season started, the main question everyone asked was "can anyone else besides Maria Viall score on a consistent basis?" Well, if the last eight games are any indication, that answer is, yes. And that player's name: Nichole Drummond. The 5-10 sophomore from Kenosha has turned into one of the tougher players to guard in the Horizon League. Versus YSU on Saturday, Drummond tied her career-high of 17 points set just four games earlier versus Wright State. Those two games are part of an eight-game stretch that has seen Drummond score 91 points for an average of 11.4 per contest. Furthermore, during that time No. 22 has averaged 4.0 rebounds per game while shooting 41.3% from the floor and 73.5% from the charity stripe. Drummond is currently second on the squad in scoring at 8.9 ppg with that average jumping to 10.7 ppg in league-only games.

Winning The Battle of The Boards

Eight games into the 2003-04 season the UWM women's hoops team was losing the rebounding battle about as many times as it was winning it. But then, something clicked. Beginning with the Wisconsin game on Dec. 22, the Panthers have outrebounded the opposition in 10 of the last 11 games, including the last eight in succession. In those eight games, UWM has posted an amazing +15 rebound margin, which includes a +31 versus UW-Green Bay and a +23 versus Butler. On the season, Milwaukee leads the Horizon League and is ranked 29th nationally with a +6.2 rebounding margin. In league only games the discrepancy is even larger as the Panthers own a +14.3 cushion in the battle on the boards. However, winning the rebounding battle hasn't been particularly beneficial for the Panthers as they are just 7-7 on the year when outrebounding their opponent.

Second Soph Not To Be Outdone

This just in, Nichole Drummond is not the only UWM sophomore to pick up the scoring slack of late. Sophomore guard Anne Witte, has joined Drummond, her fellow 2002-03 Horizon League All-Newcomer team pick, as one of the more offensive minded players of late. Witte, who has averaged 26.0 minutes over the last seven games, has averaged 7.7 points per game during that time, capped off by a season-high 12 point showing versus YSU on Saturday. During the stretch, the Mukwonago-native has averaged 2.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game while connecting on 44.6% of her shots from the field. No. 23 has turned into a bigtime long range threat of late, as evidenced by 11-of-22 shooting from three-point line in those seven games. Witte's long range marskmanship of 42.5% is good for third best in the Horizon League.

Panthers Haven't Gone Streaking

The only thing consistent about the 2003-04 UWM women's hoops season has been it's inconsistency. In a season of ups-and-downs, the Panthers can win their third straight game with a victory over Wright State on Thursday, marking the longest winning streak of the season. UWM has won back-to-back games on two previous occasions, only to drop the next game on the schedule. Conversely, Milwaukee has not endured any prolonged losing slumps, with a three-game stretch from Dec. 6 to Dec. 22 marking the longest winless streak of the year. In addition, since that stretch UWM has not lost in back-to-back games.

Looking To Break Even

The road to .500 basketball has been a long one but the goal is within reach for UWM. With a victory on Thursday the Panthers can get back to the .500 mark on the season for the first time since the sixth game of the season on Dec. 2. The Panthers, who have never been over .500 all year, have been there twice, 1-1 on Nov. 22 before falling at Purdue and 3-3 on Dec. 2 before dropping a two-point game at Northern Illinois on Dec. 6. In her previous seven seasons as mentor, head coach Sandy Botham has endured just one losing season, an 11-16 campaign in 1998-99.

Shooting The Rock

If you really want to simplify it, success for the Milwaukee women's basketball squad through the first 19 games of the season can be attributed to one thing: shooting the basketball. As can be expected, when UWM shoots the ball at a decent clip, it wins and if not, it doesn't. Milwaukee is 7-3 on the season when posting a higher field goal percentage than its opponents and just 2-6 when getting outshot. Furthermore, 42.0% appears to be the magic number as Milwaukee is 7-2 when shooting at least 42.0% in the game. However, in an ironic twist, UWM's best shooting performance of the season, a 51.9% showing, came in a loss at Florida State in the Seminole Classic in November.

League Leading Numbers

Before the 2003-04 season started, UWM senior Maria Viall was picked as the preseason Horizon League Player of the Year. And, with the league season nearly two-thirds of the way completed, it appears as if the prognosticators made a pretty wise choice. Through 19 games, the 6-3 center is the currently ranked in the top ten in five of the eight major statistical categories. The Waukesha-native is currently second in scoring (17.8), second in rebounding (10.2), second in field goal percentage (.524), third in blocked shots (1.21), and ninth in free throw percentage (.755). Viall joins UWGB's Abby Scharlow as the only two players to be ranked in at least five different categories. Viall, who is currently second on UWM's all-time scoring list with 1,678 points, is just nine points away from the fourth spot on the Horizon League's all time scoring chart.

Freshman Floor General Out For The Year

Reality sure can bite. Just ask UWM point guard Aubrey Hampton. The freshman floor general had been playing some of the best basketball of her young career before a knee injury more than likely ended her rookie season in the Horizon League. Hampton, who leads the Panthers in assists (3.5 per game) and free throw shooting (80.8), was averaging 10.0 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in Horizon League play before being hurt. The fearless Hampton injured her right knee on a drive to the basket versus Cleveland State and will miss the rest of the year with a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in the knee.

League Tourney Comes To Milwaukee

On the heels of the hugely successful 2003 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament, the 2004 Horizon League Women's Tournament will look for similar excitement when it comes to Milwaukee in March. The tourney, which is scheduled for March 2-8 at the Klotsche Center, has changed formats from the previous years. The four quarterfinal games on March 4 will be held at the campuses of the top four seeds. If UWM is a top four seed and it wins it's quarterfinal game then the two semifinal battles and championship match will move to Milwaukee on Sunday, March 7 and Monday, March 8.

Dear Diary

For those that really want to get to know UWM All-America Candidate Maria Viall, nows your chance. The Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year has been selected by ESPN.com to keep a diary throughout the 2003-04 season. Viall will share her thoughts on the team, classes, life on the road, and what its like as a Division I women's basketball player. The Waukesha-native will report twice a month to the women's basketball section of the national sports website. Viall's fifth diary entry, which will highlight UWM's recent road trips and recent success, will be online soon. Fans can read each diary by clicking on the Women's College Basketball Link from the ESPN.com homepage.