Wright State University
10-14, 6-7HL
Milwaukee
11-13, 6-7HL
Women Fall to Milwaukee
2/14/2009 12:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Wright State cut a 13-point second-half deficit to two with 8:43 remaining, but could not get over the hump as the Milwaukee Panthers held on for a 70-64 decision in Horizon League women's basketball action at the Nutter Center Saturday afternoon.
The Raiders were in control in the early going, taking a 14-5 lead following a LaShawna Thomas layup with 12:50 remaining, but Milwaukee followed with a 16-6 run to take its first lead of the game at 21-20 at the 3:29 mark.
Wright State went back up 26-25 on two foul shots by Kanisha Ward with 1:41 left, only to see the Panthers score the final five points of the period, including three foul shots from Turquoise McCain, to take a 30-26 halftime lead.
Milwaukee shot 48 percent from the field over the opening 20 minutes compared to 41 percent for WSU and the Panthers were six of 10 from the foul line while the Raiders were two of six.
Shey Peddy's layup with 16:18 to play cut the deficit to 36-34, but the Panthers responded with a 13-2 burst to take their biggest lead of the game at 49-36 with 11:59 remaining.
Wright State came right back with 11 unanswered points before Ashley Imperiale ended the run with a three in the left corner. The Milwaukee lead then seesawed between four and eight the rest of the way as two Imperiale foul shots with 24 seconds left made it 68-62.
Milwaukee finished at 56 percent from the field overall, including 67 percent in the second half, while the Raiders were at 42 percent for the contest. The Panthers also hit 21 of 34 foul shots compared to 10 of 16 for WSU.
Ward led WSU with 14 points off the bench, nine coming in the second half, while Ta-myra Davis had a near double-double of 11 points and nine rebounds. Molly Fox also added 11 points and Thomas had nine points and eight boards.
Traci Edwards paced all scorers with 20 for Milwaukee (11-13, 6-7 Horizon), 14 of those coming after halftime, while McCain had 15, Imperiale 11 and Lindsay Laur a near double-double of 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
Wright State (10-14, 6-7 Horizon) heads to Northeast Ohio next weekend for a pair of games, starting on Thursday, February 19, with a 7:00 matchup at Cleveland State.
