â??They guarded Traci (Edwards) well after she scored 42 against them last time.â?

The streak is over.

After six consecutive victories over Cleveland State, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women“s basketball team fell 57-54 to the Vikings Thursday at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Despite a 10-point halftime deficit that eventually escalated to 15 in the second half, the Panthers fought their way back to even the score with under three minutes remaining. The Vikings regained control in the final moments to hand Milwaukee its second straight Horizon League loss.

Chenara Wilson led the home team to victory with a game-high 18 points, followed by Angel Roque“s 10.

Traci Edwards, who posted a career-best 42 points in the first meeting against CSU this season, finished with just 16 for the Panthers after five consecutive games scoring 20 or more.

“I give Cleveland a lot of credit,” UWM coach Sandy Botham said. “They guarded Traci (Edwards) well after she scored 42 against them last time.”

Jody Crumble tied a career high with nine points before fouling out, while Emily Markert added eight off the bench for UWM.

A quick start by Milwaukee helped them build a 15-11 lead prior to an 18-4 CSU run that gave the Vikings a 29-19 halftime cushion. Milwaukee shot just 20 percent from the field in the first half, and finished the game at 30 percent. Cleveland didn“t fare much better, shooting 36.4 percent in the contest.

After the break, a three-pointer by Angel Roque gave Cleveland its largest lead of the game at 15. The Panthers countered with a 16-3 run to get them back in the game, which was capped by a Crumble lay-up to knock it down to a 39-37 deficit for Milwaukee.

Cleveland came back with a 7-0 spurt, which was followed by an 11-2 UWM run. Another Crumble lay-up tied the game at 48, and it was tied again at 50-50 before CSU went on to win.

Both teams struggled to control the ball, with Milwaukee turning it over 24 times and Cleveland 27. Despite plenty of miscues themselves, the Panthers snagged a season-high 10 steals.

Milwaukee (11-12, 7-4 Horizon League) still leads Cleveland State (7-18, 4-8) in the all-time series between the two schools, 18-13.

This week, the Panthers will face Butler at 7 p.m. on Thursday followed by Wright State at 2 p.m. on Saturday to close out the regular season home schedule at the Klotsche Center.

> Comments