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Feb. 6, 2004

MILWAUKEE - UWM Heads To League Leading Detroit

While first place isn't "officially" on the line, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team plays one of its most important games of the season on Saturday (Feb. 7). The Panthers, 10-10 on the season and 7-3 in the Horizon League, head to Detroit to face league-leading University of Detroit Mercy at Calihan Hall. While the game may not officially be for first place for UWM, a win would go a long way in getting back into the league championship race. The game is set to begin at 12:30 p.m. CST and can be heard live on WMCS AM-1290 and at the official UWM Athletic Site, www.uwmpanthers.com. Dan Pfeifer will call the play-by-play with Assistant Sports Information Director Bret Seymour adding color commentary.

Solid Defense Leads To Third Straight Win

Anytime you hold a team to 33.3% shooting you have to like your chances of winning. Well, the UWM women's hoops team did just that in a 61-47 win over Wright State on Thursday (Feb. 5). The Panthers got a three-pointer from Anne Witte at the buzzer for a 13-point halftime lead before cruising most of the second half. Maria Viall dominated the lane, scoring 22 points on the night despite sitting out the last eight plus minutes. Kiley Johnson added 11 points off the bench thanks to three, three-point baskets. UWM forced 20 Wright State turnovers on the game and outrebounded the visitors, 46-31. Angie Ott led the Raiders with 14 points while Brittney Whiteside added 12, all in the second half.

Scouting the Titans

Two words describe the 2003-04 University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team: defense and balance. In their first season under longtime UDM men's assistant coach Mickey Barrett, the Titan women have turned into easily the best defensive team in the Horizon League. Detroit leads the league in both scoring defense (54.8 ppg) and field goal percentage defense (.349) which has helped it to an 11-9 overall record and a first-place tying 8-2 mark in the loop. On offense, UDM features a balanced attack with reserve guard Lindsay Pasquinzo leading the way with 10.4 ppg followed by senior post player Nicole Anaejionu's 10.2 points per game. As a team the Titans are shooting just 37.6% from the floor but a respectable 70.6% from the free throw line. Detroit also does well on the glass as it joins UWM and Cleveland State as the only three teams in the league with a positive rebound margin. The Titans enter Saturday's game on a two-game winning streak.

So We Meet Again

When UWM and Detroit square off for the opening tip on Saturday the faces they see on the other team certainly will look familiar. Saturday's game will mark the second of the Horizon League home-and-home schedule with the first contest coming just nine days prior in Milwaukee. Detroit controlled most of the game and led throughout before a Molly O'Brien three-pointer cut the lead to one, and a Nichole Drummond three-ball with 32 seconds left gave UWM a 49-47 lead before holding on for the victory. Maria Viall scored 17 second half points en route to a game-high 19 markers while Katie Solner led UDM with 13. Despite the win, Milwaukee trails the all-time series 11-13. However, UWM has won two straight and is 9-6 all-time versus the Titans in the Sandy Botham era.

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 49-9 home record in conference play, good for an 84.4% winning percentage. That number has even increased recently as UWM has won 91.6% of its home Horizon League games, 33 of 36, 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.

Road of Horrors for UWM

Playing on the road is never easy. Throw in a young lineup and an extremely tough non-conference schedule and winning on the road got even tougher for the UWM women's basketball squad. And, despite its first road win of the season versus Wright State, the Panthers have still been a Jekyll and Hyde team on the road. In ten road games this season, UWM is 1-9 while being outscored an average of 68.1 to 57.9. The Panthers are shooting just 38.3% from the field away from Milwaukee and just 27.8% from three-point land. Furthermore, Milwaukee has allowed opponents to shoot 43.9% from the floor on the road and 36.6% from downtown.

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 nine 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 nine-game stretch that has seen Drummond score 98 points for an average of 10.9 per contest. Furthermore, during that time No. 22 has averaged 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 40.2% from the floor and 71.1% from the charity stripe. Drummond is currently second on the squad in scoring at 8.9 ppg with that average jumping to 10.3 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 11 of the last 12 games, including the last nine in succession. In those nine 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 +6.7 rebounding margin. In league only games the discrepancy is even larger as the Panthers own a +14.4 cushion in the battle on the boards. However, winning the rebounding battle hasn't been particularly beneficial for the Panthers as they are just 8-7 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 7.5 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 2.5 assists per game while connecting on 45.6% of her shots from the field. No. 23 has turned into a bigtime long range threat of late, as evidenced by 13-of-26 shooting from three-point line in those seven games. Witte's long range marskmanship of 44.0% is good for second best in the Horizon League.

Panthers Go Streaking

In a season of one-up, one-down, the UWM women's basketball team is currently in the midst of its first real winning streak of the 2003-04 campaign. With a 14-point victory over Wright State on Thursday, the Panthers have now won three consecutive games, the longest streak of the year and the longest since last year's team won four in a row from Feb. 1 through Feb. 15. The three straight wins all came against Horizon League opponents, marking the second time this year the Panthers have won three straight league games. UWM opened league play with consecutive victories over UIC, Butler, and Loyola. Furthermore, with the WSU victory the Panthers moved back to the .500 mark on the season, the first time they reached that plateau since the sixth game of the season on Dec. 2.

D...D...D....Defense

One major key to the recent Milwaukee winning streak: defense. The Panthers have really turned up the pressure of late and have held the opposition to a mere 50.0 points per game in the last three contests. Head Coach Sandy Botham has done a nice job of mixing solid man-to-man defense and an aggresive zone to frustrate opponents. In the three games the opposition has hit just 38.6% of its shots and just 60.7% from the free throw line. Furthermore, UWM has made 35 free throws during the stretch while the opponents have attempted just 28 charities. And, as can be expected, rebounding has been key as Milwaukee owns a +13.7 rebound margin during the stretch.

Shooting The Rock

If you really want to simplify it, success for the Milwaukee women's basketball squad through the first 20 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 8-3 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 20 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 first in scoring and rebounding with 18.0 ppg and 9.9 rpg, respectively, while sitting second in field goal percentage (.525), third in blocked shots (1.21), and eighth in free throw percentage (.761). 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 1,700 points, recently moved into fourth place all-time on the Horizon League scoring list.

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.