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Feb. 26, 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 132-87 career mark, good for a .606 winning percentage. The second-winningest coach in school history and the all-time leader in Division I victories, Botham is 110-83 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 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Player of the Year Jen Greger serving as Director of Basketball Operations.

Scouting The Raiders Owners of the league's leading scorer, 5-10 sophomore Tiffany Webb, Wright State University will come to Milwaukee sporting an 11-14 overall record and 8-6 mark in Horizon League play. The Raiders currently sit alone in fourth place in the league thanks to three consecutive league wins, including a 69-52 triumph over Youngstown State on Monday. The Raiders are paced by the aforementioned Webb, who is the team's only double-digit scorer thanks to her league-best 24.1 points per game. Forwards Iesha Gray and Angie Ott average 8.9 and 8.6 points per contest, respectively, while Katie Bussan leads the team with 5.3 boards per game. Wright State shoots 40.7% from the floor on the season but have increased that to 42.7% in league play. The Raiders struggle rebounding the ball however, as evidenced by their -12.8 rebound margin in Horizon League games. WSU is coached by former Chicago State mentor Bridgett Williams, who is in her second season at the Dayton, Ohio-based school.

Phoenix Roll In Sold Out Sports Center The fans were there. The noise was there. And the the nation's 21st ranked team was there. All three things worked against UWM as the Panthers dropped a 75-50 decision to UW-Green Bay at the sold out Phoenix Sports Center last Saturday. Milwaukee committed 24 turnovers versus UWGB, as the veteran-laden Phoenix and 1,850 screaming fans proved too much. Despite the final score, UWM kept the game competitive throughout, cutting the lead to eight points around the 13 minute mark of the contest. However, UWGB's crisp offense and stingy man-to-man defense proved too much as the hosts cruised to the 25-point win. Jessica Wilhite led UWM with 16 points while Maria Viall added 14.

More Than Breaking Even While it may not look like a lot on the surface, a win here tonight (or Saturday versus Butler) would guarantee that UWM would finish the 2002-03 at least .500 for the fourth consecutive season and sixth time in seven seasons under head coach Sandy Botham. Furthermore, a win this weekend would mean Milwaukee would finish no worse than third-place in the Horizon League, making it four straight seasons the program has finished no worse than thirdin the league race. Up to this point, UWM is 43-13 in Horizon League play over the last four years and 68-43 overall during that time frame.

Defending The Horizon League If defense wins championships, UWM head coach Sandy Botham certainly has to like the direction her women's basketball team is heading. After struggling through the non-conference portion of the season with a 4-7 record in which the Panthers major turnaround in conference play can be directly attributed to an increased focus on the defensive end. In non-league games, UWM gave up an average of 70.8 ppg while allowing the opposition to shoot 45.2% from the floor and 39.4% from three-point land. However, during the 9-5 run through the Horizon League, Milwaukee's defensive numbers stand at 65.1 ppg allowed to go with 38.9% shooting and just 30.8% marksmanship from downtown.

Inching Towards Postseason Play With a week left in the Horizon League regular season, the 2002-03 standings, and subsequent seeding for the league tournament, is starting to take shape. At 13-1 in the league, UW-Green Bay has assured itself of a league championship and the No. 1 seed in the postseason tourney. UWM and UIC, currently tied for second place at 9-5, need just one win apiece in the last week of the season to finish as the No. 2 and 3 seeds, depending on the tiebreaker scenario. At 8-6, Wright State could finish either fourth, or in a fifth place tie with Loyola, who stands at 8-7 with a midweek game at UIC on the schedule. At 6-9 and 5-9, Cleveland State and Detroit will battle for sixth and seventh while Butler and Youngstown State, 3-11 each, will automatically play in the eight-nine league "play-in" game.

Panther Offense Clicks In League Play When your defense improves by 6.4 points per game and your offense improves by nearly 10 points a game, you have to like your chances. Such is the case for the UWM women's hoops squad since conference play began. The Panthers struggled to the tone of 42.5% shooting and 61.7 ppg in the non-conference season only to see those totals jump to 43.8% and 69.9 ppg in league play. On the year, UWM is 9-2 when shooting at least 45.0% from the floor and 13-1 when connecting on more shots than the opposition.

Three-Point Line Becomes A Friend For much of the season, the three-point shot was not much of a weapon for the UWM women's basketball team. However, over the last few games the three-ball has become a major weapon for the Panthers and the numbers seem to prove it. Over the last five games, UWM has connected on 29-of-75 from beyond the arc, good for 38.6%. The 29 made tri-lighters equals out to 5.7 per game, up from the normal 3.7 per game before the stretch while the percentage bumps the Panther marksmanship over the 30% clip for the first time all year.

Youngsters Provide Long-Range Marksmenship Looking for a major reason for the Panthers' increased production from three-land? Look no further than the two freshmen currently in the UWM lineup. Over the last five games point guard Anne Witte and small forward Nichole Drummond have combined to hit 14 treys in just 30 attempts, good for 46.7%. In the five games Witte has connected on nine-of-18, good for 50.0% while Drummond hit five-of-12 from downtown, for 40.0%.

On The Horizon -- Rookie Accolades A relative unknown when Horizon League play began back in December, UWM's Nichole Drummond has made a strong push for not only Horizon League All-Newcomer team honors, but for the league Newcomer of the Year award as well. The 5-10 forward currently is among the leaders of Horizon League newcomers in both points (9.1) and rebounds (5.2) in league only contests. Furthermore, the Kenosha native has added 32 assists, good for third on the squad and a team-high 18 steals in 14 league games. Drummond currently has the best assist-to-turnover ratio on the team in league play with her 32 assists and just 23 turnovers.

Good Golly Miss Molly While Anne Witte and Nichole Drummond have certainly made noise as newcomers on the Horizon League scene, its the recent play of UWM's third freshman, Molly O'Brien, that has been receiving the most attention. The 5-10 forward from Columbus has exploded on the scene of late and become a major factor in the Panther plans. Over the last four games, No. 25 has averaged 8.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game while shooting 58.6% (17-29) from the floor. Furthermore, the versatile O'Brien has added seven assists and seven steals in the four games.

No Campaign Needed Is a campaign really necessary to promote UWM junior Maria Viall for 2002-03 Horizon League Player of the Year? Here are the facts. Viall won the award as a sophomore last year for a second place team. Now a junior, Viall still plays for a second place team. Her current numbers of 17.8 points, 10.1 boards, 56.5% field goal shooting and 1.8 blocks not only lead the team but are good for fourth, second, second and first respectively on the current Horizon League charts while all bettering her marks of a year ago. And the 6-3 center does all of this while facing continual double and triple teams every game out. No one player in the league gets game-planned for more than VIall. Even with the constant attention, No. 24 still has posted 10 "double-double's" on the year, including two 20-point, 20-rebound games In Horizon League play. If Viall repeats as Horizon League POY she will join Notre Dame's Karen Robinson (1989-92) as the only players to repeat as league Most Valuable Player and would enter her senior season looking for an unprecedented third straight award.

Panther Record Chasers Jessica Wilhite's 61 three-pointers are good for 4th best on UWM's single season chart ... Maria Viall's current 10.1 rebound average is tied for the best mark in school history while her 253 boards are good for second highest in a season ... Viall set a single season school-record with her 48th block shot of the season at UW-Green Bay on Saturday.

Wilhite's Trophy Case Grows Larger With a free throw in the last minute at Cleveland State on Feb. 8, senior guard Jessica Wilhite became UWM's all-time leading scorer on the Division I level. Wilhite, who now has 1,431 points, surpassing 1997 MCC Player of the Year and current Director of Operations Jen Greger as the school's all-time Division I scoring leader. Wilhite currently sits in fourth place on the school's all-time scoring list, just 96 points away from third place all-time. Wilhite, who alreadys owns the UWM career mark for three-pointers made with 268 (and counting), needs just six more trifectas to break the Horizon League career record of 273 career three's made, set by Wright State's Chanda Hollingsworth.

Botham Inks Four In The Fall While losing just two seniors in Jessica Wilhite and Antoinette Gregory, next season should be bright for the UWM women's hoops program. And in November head coach Sandy Botham bolstered the future of the program with the signing of four players to National Letters of Intent. UWM added two players from Wisconsin in 6-4 Nicole Almberg of Oshkosh, Wis. and Oshkosh West High School and 5-9 Beth Reckelberg of Luxemburg-Casco High School. Botham's last two recruits, 5-9 Jessica Altieri and 5-6 Aubrey Hampton, both come from the Land of Lincoln. Altieri preps at Stevenson High School in suburban Lincolnshire while Hampton plays for Oak Park-River Forest High School in Oak Park.