When the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team took the court on Wednesday, Nov. 30, few in the audience thought they could win.

Indeed, the University of DePaul Blue Demons thought as much. Their look of pure superiority was quite visible. No one would have been surprised had UWM laid down and died to the 14th-ranked team in the country.

The Panthers were up to the challenge.

In a flurry of great shooting and timely turnovers, UWM pushed the Blue Demons for big leads early in the game, owning a nine-point lead with 14 minutes left in the first half. However, they turned over the ball in bunches and DePaul went into halftime with a 37-36 lead.

The second half saw DePaul opening up the lead, largely on the shoulders of Allie Quigley. Quigley scored 20 of her 23 points in the second half, shooting up a storm and leaving the Panthers in the dust. Khara Smith, the big body underneath, left her mark on UWM with 23 points of her own. In the end, UWM lost 91-79.

UWM cut DePaul’s second-half lead to 69-63 before DePaul went on a 9-0 run and pulled away.

In the game UWM shot 51 percent from the field and 45.5 percent on three-point tries but that was not enough to beat the Blue Demons, who dominated in rebounds.

“DePaul has a level of confidence we just don't have yet,” head coach Sandy Botham said. “They think that they can't be stopped and that helps them. We need to get that mentality. Our players have to want the ball more and knock down their shots.”

UWM didn't leave DePaul unscathed, however. Freshman Traci Edwards dropped 21 points on the Blue Demons and grabbed eight rebounds. Senior Nichole Drummond seemed to finally break out of her shooting slump, scoring 20 points. Molly O'Brien had 14 points and eight rebounds to add to Milwaukee's totals.

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