Making their final appearances of the season at the Klotsche Center, the Milwaukee Panthers earned a win and honored their seniors this week. With an eye towards a date with Green Bay looming, they also avenged a loss from earlier in the season.
On Thursday, the Panthers knocked off Detroit Mercy to even the score against their Horizon League foes. Towards the end of January, the Titans had defeated Milwaukee 54-52 in a tightly-contested tilt which ended what had been a 4-game winning streak for the Panthers. With the conference race intensifying down the stretch, the team has been grinding out good days – and that late-February toughness helped Milwaukee earn a big win.
“Everyone is bunched together in the standings,” Panthers head coach Kyle Rechlicz analyzed following MKE’s win over the Titans. “This win was so critical for us…we came out with a ton of energy after a great week of practice.” A rookie led the way initially, as Jorey Buwalda yet again brought tremendous energy to the post. Buwalda scored all ten of her points in the first half, many coming directly around the rim and setting a tone for Milwaukee as they finished with 30 points in the paint.
“Jorey was a monster in the first half,” Rechlicz added, “It was tough to take her out of the game.” Buwalda added seven rebounds on the day, and in the second half, her veteran counterparts took charge in order to wrap up the win.
“I loved how we battled,” Rechlicz added. “I knew it would be a tough scoring game just because of how Detroit defends us. We couldn’t get the three-point shot going early, but our effort, intensity, and adjustments helped us turn it around in the second half.”
With 35 points combined – many in the second half as the Panthers held to their lead – Angie Cera and Kendall Nead stepped up. Nead also reached a major career milestone along the way. At the 6:31 mark of the second quarter, Nead splashed a three-point shot which brought her over the 1,000-point threshold for her career. In doing so, Nead penned her name in the Milwaukee record book as the 23rd Panther all-time to score so many points. By the time everything was done on Thursday, Nead had tallied 16 points, six boards, and three steals. Cera led Milwaukee with a pair of important hits from the land of trey, and was even more clutch at the foul stripe. With a perfect 7/7 mark on freebies, Cera finished the game with a team-high 19 points.
“Give a lot of credit to Angie and Kendall,” Rechlicz praised her experienced duo. “They put us on their back at the end of the game when we needed makes and free throws.” Nead ranks fifth in the Horizon League in scoring this season overall, and with 415 points and counting, she’s had one of the most impressive individual seasons of any Panther this decade.
Prior to the team’s contest against Oakland on Saturday, Rechlicz, her staff, and fans in Cream City honored the Panthers’ seniors in a pre-game ceremony. Nead, Cera, Grace Crowley and fellow fourth-year players Kalvina Eubanks and Lior Halevi celebrated with family and friends before the game tipped, and both Eubanks and Halevi appeared in Rechlicz’s starting lineup. Eubanks finished 2/2 from the floor including a triple for five points, while Halevi added in a pair of assists.
“I thought the seniors came out and did a good job from an offensive perspective against their man defense,” Rechlicz commented, yet in the end, she was less pleased with her team’s performance overall. Though the game was tied at 17 after one quarter and Milwaukee led 35-33 at the half, the Panthers fell 66-58 at the final buzzer.
“We struggled against their zone defense,” Rechlicz lamented postgame. “We couldn’t find holes or keep cuts moving…we kept trying to drive against their zone and that’s where we got off-balance, which put us in bad positions.”
Nead led Milwaukee with 21 points on 7/15 shooting, including 5/8 from the land of trey. Unfortunately, she was the only Panther to hit double figures in scoring, and Milwaukee’s offense sputtered down the stretch. The lead changed hands 11 times over the course of 40 minutes, but Oakland used a 17-9 margin during the fourth quarter to pull away. Though MKE shot 6/11 from on triples in the first half, they made just three of 13 deep heaves in the second stanza while making 33% of their overall shot attempts in the fourth quarter. A bigger problem was holding onto the ball. At times, Milwaukee has really struggled with turnovers this season, and Saturday, the Panthers gave away a crippling 25 possessions.
“We were not disciplined,” Rechlicz declared following the loss, referencing the team’s turnovers. “We talked all week about being disciplined and making pass fakes…you can’t win games playing like that.” Oakland scored 30 points directly off of Panther mistakes, key in a game which was closely contested through three quarters. In addition to the miscues, Milwaukee allowed the Golden Grizzlies to snag 15 offensive boards, which they translated into 17 second-chance points. Buwalda tossed in nine points to pair with five boards, while Kamy Peppler added nine points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Though Grace Crowley scored just two points, she led the Panthers with both nine rebounds and seven assists for the day.
As the regular season comes to an end, Milwaukee has just one game on the schedule this week. It’s a doozy, though: the Panthers travel north to face their in-state rival Green Bay Phoenix. The two teams faced off at the Klotsche Center on November 30th in a game which was competitive early but ended in a 76-53 Phoenix victory. That evening, Green Bay used a dominant 16-5 third quarter to put things out of reach, and the Panthers would love to give a better account of themselves this time – especially on the heels of a close loss to Oakland. Milwaukee is tied with Youngstown State for fifth in the conference this year, while Green Bay is a half-game back of Cleveland State for the Horizon lead. The Phoenix and Panthers tip off at 1pm on Saturday in Titletown.
