Panthers Score Big Win Over Valparaiso

The UW-Milwaukee Women Panthers basketball team owns a 22-9 advantage over Valparaiso in an all-time series in which the two programs shared a conference and 10 seasons in the Horizon League. The two programs have not met since Valparaiso departed the Horizon League following the 2016-17 season.

The Panthers have won the last five meetings between the two teams, most recently an 80-64 win in Milwaukee Feb. 20, 2017.  Before this game, the Panthers won 19 games and lost 9 against Valparaiso over the years when they played each other.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women’s basketball took home a win against the Valparaiso Beacons on Thu, Nov.14 by a blowout game with a 79-90 win in the non-conference game. Milwaukee had a big lead at the end of the first half, with a career-high 28 points from Kacee Baumhower at the Klotsche Center.

Baumhower finished the game with eight field goals from beyond the arc, 7-7 from the free throws, 8-15 from the line. Jorey Buwalda had a season-best 17 points coming off the bench, while Jada Donaldson went 3-4 from the free throw.

“Honestly, I would like to get our bench in more. I think we have incredibly quality guards that are sitting on our bench that aren’t getting any time right now. It’s hard to do when you have such complete players like Kamy Peppler who has eight assists and only two turnovers,” said Head Coach Kyle Rechlicz.

The UW Panthers have stopped Valparaiso 11 times when it comes to second chances at the basket. The Panthers have 28 points off the bench with Valparaiso at 23 points off the bench. The Panthers as a team have 30 defensive rebounds to Valparaiso’s 21 defensive rebounds. The Panthers were playing good defense.

“Just making sure we’re finding a body, we’re helping each other, We’re scrambling, so making sure at the end of plays, like everyone’s marking somebody,” said Panthers guard Jada Donaldson.

The Panthers finished the game with 17 assists to 14 turnovers, including the team- best eight assists from Kamy Peppier. Milwaukee held the rebounding advantage with 39 boards to the 28 by Valparaiso. Valparaiso was best in the paint, however, with 40 points to the 26 by Milwaukee points in the paint.

“We kind of knew from the scout at the beginning of this week that they play more of like a packed in matchup zone, so we knew that our skips cross boarded before that we’re going to be open and about knocking it down,” said Donaldson.

Valparaiso pressed the Panthers throughout the game, but the Panthers were able to answer on each occasion and didn’t look back after trailing 2-0, leading from the 7:39 mark of the first quarter of the game.

The Panthers cut down on their turnovers in the first half, Milwaukee had 5 turnovers to Valparaiso’s 7. In the three period Valparaiso had 9 and Milwaukee has 5 turnovers. At the end of the game, Valparaiso had 18 turnovers to Milwaukee 14 turnovers. Milwaukee was playing good defense against Valparaiso.

“Having only 14 turnovers for us against the team that’s pressuring and pressing was really good for us, you know, so it was nice to see that. I thought that we didn’t have any turnover stretches. You know, some games we’ve had like back-to-back turnovers,” said Rechlicz

Jada Donaldson finished the game with 9-points and 3-rebounds, while Peppier had 8-points to go along with her 8-assists. Payton Rechlicz finished the game with 6-points, Kallie Peppler had 5-point, Jada Willams had 4-point and lzzy Pugh score with 2-points.