Marquette University
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Women's Basketball Stops UW-Milwaukee 70-51
12/1/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 1, 1999
MILWAUKEE - When the emotion of the crosstown rivalry cooled down, it was a matter of Marquette being too big, too strong.
In other words, too Lisa, too Abbie.
The Golden Eagles' big two, Lisa Oldenburg and Abbie Willenborg, took emotion out of play as they tag-teamed UW-Milwaukee, 70-51, before a lively crowd of 2,008 at the Klotsche Center on Wednesday night.
Oldenburg got the ball rolling, scoring all 10 of her points on 5-of-6 shooting in the first half. Then, she tagged off to Willenborg, who put the Panthers in a submission hold in the second half.
"I pretty much just stood back and watched her go in the second half," Oldenburg said.
Willenborg, who has battled a shooting slump in the early going of the season, was virtually unstoppable inside in the second half, converting seven of nine field goal attempts to finish with a game-high 24 points. For good measure, the 6-2 senior hauled down 12 rebounds to lead the visitors to a 39-34 advantage.
"Obviously my shots weren't falling in the first half, so I had to do something different," Willenborg said. "We talked about getting the ball inside more in the second half and it worked out pretty well."
Marquette coach Terri Mitchell recognized coming in that her team had a huge size and strength advantage over the Panthers, now 2-2. But the Golden Eagles weren't able to exploit it until the second half.
"That's our game plan every night, to get the ball inside. Even when Lisa and Abbie graduate, that will be our plan," Mitchell said. "But in the first half we were settling for taking jumpers and I thought we could get better shots."
Shooting had been a problem for Marquette, but it wasn't on this night. After a so-so first half (13 of 36), the Eagles' block-pounding offense was 17 of 25 (68%) in the second half for a composite 49%.
"We tried mixing up our defenses on them, going back and forth from a man to a zone, but it didn't do much good," said UWM coach Sandy Botham. "They were just too big and strong for us inside.
"Willenborg is the player they've been going to since she was a freshman, so it wasn't a big surprise to us when they got the ball inside to her in the second half.'
UWM captain Daryl Schaffeld, who had the unenviable task of trying to deny entry passes to Willenborg, had a different perspective. Growing up in neighboring suburbs of Chicago, she has been competing against Willenborg for years.
"I've been playing against Abbie in just about every sport - soccer, volleyball, basketball, you name it, since we were about 5 years old," Schaffeld said. "You have to give it to her - she's a tough competitor."
The Golden Eagles, who improved to 4-1, gutted out a 30-20 halftime lead, mostly on the strength of gritty defense.
When the game was over, old friends Mitchell and Botham shook hands and talked about the future.
"We talked about our next opponents and wished each other luck," Mitchell said. "Everything goes back to normal now."
By Dan Manoyan
of the Journal Sentinel staff
MARQUETTE 70, UW-MILWAUKEE 51
MARQUETTE (4-1)
Oldenburg 5-6 0-0 10, Bowman 3-5 0-0 7, Willenborg 10-19 4-4 24, Johnson 2-6 0-0 5, Oliver 1-7 1-2 4, Nelson 0-0 0-0 0, Klug 3-4 0-0 6, Gales 0-2 0-0 0, Ristau 3-4 0-0 7, Williams 3-6 0-0 6, Seffern 0-1 0-0 0, Zawodny 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 30-61 6-8 70.
UW-MILWAUKEE (2-2)
Kaufmann 1-3 0-0 2, Jonason 3-6 0-0 6, Schaffeld 4-12 0-0 11, Stoltenberg 1-6 0-0 3, Wilhite 1-8 0-0 3, Fletcher 0 0 0-0 0, Love 0-2 1-2 1, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Von Wald 4-7 1-2 9, Gregory 0-0 0-0 0, Filipek 0-1 0-0 0, Luchsinger 0-5 6-7 6, Lubbers 4-9 2-2 10, Brawner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-60 10-13 51.
Halftime- Marquette 30, UWM 20. 3-point goals-Marquette 4-13 (Bowman 1-3, Willenborg 0-2, Johnson 1-3, Oliver 1-3, Ristau 1-1, Williams 0-1), UWM 5-21 (Schaffeld 3-9, Stoltenberg 1-4, Wilhite 1-5, Love 0-1, Von Wald 0-1, Filipek 0-1). Rebounds-Marquette 39 (Willenborg 12), UWM 34 (Schaffeld 8). Assists-Marquette 17 (Oldenburg 6), UWM 13 (Schaffeld 7). Turnovers-Marquette 18, UWM 19. Fouled out-None. Total fouls-Marquette 14, UWM 12. Att-2,008.
