Milwaukee shot an extremely hot 69.4 percent from the floor, including a 55.6 percent clip from the 3-point line, as it rolled to an 81-67 win over UNI, ending Northern Iowa’s season.

Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said that is hot of shooting isn’t exactly something she expected from her squad on Thursday night.

“That is by far the best we have shot in my six years. I think it was a school record by percentage, we really couldn’t miss,” Rechlicz said. “I made a call to a friend of mine right before the game and said the only thing I was concerned about was whether or not we would put the ball in the basket, so I guess somebody was looking out for us.”

Before heading down to Iowa, Milwaukee (21-11) had a chance to get in a few practices to prepare on the court for UNI (19-14), but after a long stretch of regular season play and a semifinal run in the Horizon League Tournament, Rechlicz said she opted to not practice much before the first round of the WNIT, a risky move to be sure.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Northern Iowa players Ellie Howell, left, and Karli Rucker, right, attempt to take the ball from Milwuakee’s Brandi Bisping during the second half of UNI’s 81-67 loss at the McLeod Center in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament on Thursday.

“Going into this week we had actually taken quite a few days off to rest our bodies and that could have played out two ways,” she said. “One is we could have been out of shape and not ready to shoot or it could make us refreshed, and luckily for us it was the back end and we were really refreshed today.”

The fresh legs weren’t just evident in the shooting percentage, as Milwaukee won the rebounding battle 33-25 and it had six more assists than UNI.

Northern Iowa head coach Tanya Warren said the true difference in the game was Milwaukee came in ready to play, and her squad didn’t.

“I thought they were extremely focused and as focused as they were we had a lack of focus,” Warren said. “And I have no explanation for that other than I needed to do a better job of having my team ready to play.”

Giving up nearly 70 percent shooting takes two factors, some hot shooting from one team and some defensive breakdowns by the other. Warren said her team definitely fulfilled their part of the equation.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“The best thing I could tell you to sum it up is, they were very good and I am not going to take anything away from them, but we were not very focused and did not have a good attention to detail,” she said. “When you allow a team to come in and run and get in a rhythm, game on, and that’s what we allowed them to do. We looked like we wanted to be on spring break.”

Sophomore guard Jamie Reit led the way for Milwaukee, going 8-for-12 from the floor including a 5-for-8 mark from behind the arc to tally 21 points. In the third quarter specifically, UNI came out looking to cut into a 42-30 halftime deficit and it was able to make some runs, but every time Northern Iowa would get some momentum Milwaukee would quell it with a big shot.

“Jamie Reit was a huge part of that, she just came in and hit some shots right off the bat for us, especially in the second half,” Rechlicz said. “When we ran a three for her to start and she hit that I knew we would be ok.”

Jenny Lindner also had a stellar game for Milwaukee, finishing a perfect 8-for-8 from the floor with 19 points, while Steph Kostowicz finished with 13 points on a 6-for-9 performance shooting.

Kostowicz also drew the tough task of stopping UNI’s Megan Maahs, who had the most double-doubles in a season for Northern Iowa in the last 15 seasons with 12.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Rechlicz said Kostowicz job wasn’t necessarily to stop Maahs from scoring, but to stop her from being effective on the glass.

“That was a huge focal point, we matched Steph Kostowicz on Maahs one on one and what I told Steph was ‘I don’t care how many defensive rebounds you get, just make sure Megan doesn’t get any because she is such a good rebounder,'” Rechlicz said. “We really tried to lock our post player on theirs, and that gave some of our guards an opportunity to come in and get defensive rebounds early but it was really our goal to not let her get going off of easy stuff.”

Kostowicz accomplished her goal as Maahs finished with 14 points, good for second on the team behind Rose Simon-Ressler with 15, but she only hauled in four rebounds, which also led the team.

Maahs said she had to give credit to Milwaukee for keeping her away from the boards.

“I guess I could have gone to the glass a little harder than I did but their defense was sound tonight and I think that’s what held me off the glass,” she said.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

While obviously a first-round exit is a sour way to end a season, Warren said she is still very proud of what her team did this season, reaching its eighth postseason in the last nine years and a third-straight trip to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship game.

“This game isn’t going to take away from the year we’ve had, I won’t allow that,” Warren said. “This team has had a great year and we will continue to focus on that, but we are disappointed in the outcome and disappointed with our attention to detail and everything that we pride ourselves on.”

Entering next season, UNI will return all but one starter, with Maahs coming back as an all-MVC first-team selection and junior Ellie Howell returning as an all-MVC honorable mention. With that kind of firepower coming back, Maahs said she is understandably ready for next season to start.

“I am excited for next year, this gives me a lot of motivation going into the offseason and preseason workouts and stuff like that,” she said. “I hope it motivates the rest of our team as well.”

Still, Northern Iowa will have to find a way to replace a long-time leader in the locker room, as senior Kennedy Kirkpatrick played her final minutes as a Panther on Thursday. Maahs said what Kirkpatrick brought to the team won’t be easily made up.

“We sure are going to miss Kennedy, she led our team in so many different ways that people don’t see,” Maahs said, her final words trailing off as tears welled in her eyes.

Kirkpatrick said what this team accomplished this year, going from relative no-names to pushing Drake in the MVC Tournament final and making the WNIT, is something she will remember forever.

“I am just blessed to be a part of this program and play for coach Warren and play with people like Megan,” she said, emotion heavy in her words. “I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better this last year.”

Milwaukee 81, Northern Iowa 67

At Cedar Falls

MILWAUKEE (21-11) — Schmelzer 3-5 0-0 8, Farley 3-6 0-0 8, Reit 8-12 0-0 21, Lindner 8-8 2-2 19, Kostowicz 6-9 1-1 13, Staver 0-0 0-0 0, Hayes 0-0 0-0 0, Cunningham 1-1 0-0 2, Bisping 1-1 0-0 2, Fischer 1-1 0-0 2, Johnson 0-1 0-0 2, Odegard 3-5 0-0 6. TOTALS 34-49 3-3 81.

N. IOWA (19-14) — Howell 3-8 2-2 9, Simon-Ressler 7-22 0-0 15, Kirkpatrick 2-5 0-0 6, Morgan 2-6 2-2 8, Maahs 4-9 6-6 14, Rucker 0-1 0-0 0, Kroeger 2-5 0-0 6, Gunnels 1-2 0-0 2, Hillyard 2-2 0-0 4, Hagen 0-3 0-0 0, Gerrits 1-3 0-0 3. TOTALS 24-66 10-10 67.

MILWAUKEE 21 21 21 18 — 81

N. IOWA 16 14 23 14 — 67

3-Point Goals–Milwaukee 10-18 (Reit 5-8, Schmelzer 2-3, Farley 2-5, Lindner 1-1, Odegard 0-1), UNI 9-29 (Morgan 2-3, Kroeger 2-3, Kirkpatrick 2-4, Howell 1-3, Gerrits 1-3, Simon-Ressler 1-11, Rucker 0-1, Gunnels 0-1). Rebounds–Milwaukee 33 (Lindner, Odegard 8), UNI 25 (Maahs 4). Assists–Milwaukee 24 (Kostowicz 12), UNI 19 (Kirkpatrick, Hagen 4). Total Fouls–Milwaukee 12, UNI 9. Fouled Out–none. A–1,105.