This week the Panthers play Green Bay. With that in mind, I put off last week’s women’s basketball moment of the decade until early this week because the next two moments are Green Bay relevant and will be posted this week.
Today’s moment stemmed from the Jan. 20, 2001, meeting between the Panthers and the Phoenix and is also relevant for another reason, but more on that later.
In the game in question, Jessica Wilhite set a school and league record with 10 three-pointers on her way to 32 points. She was 11of-23 in the game from the field and 10-of-17 from three-point range. The unfortunate part of the game was that it was not enough and GB won, 67-63.
The game recap and box score are here.
The 10 three-pointers came during Wilhite’s sophomore season, a campaign in which she would lead the team in scoring a knock down a school and league-record 93 three-pointers. She was named to the all-league first team that season and led the Panthers to their first NCAA Tournament. Behind seven more Wilhite three-pointers and a league tournament record 36 points, UWM exacted revenge on Green Bay in the tournament finals to clinch its post-season berth (more on that later… not “today later” but “soon later.”).
In four years in a Panther uniform, Wilhite proved to be a deadly three-point shooter, hitting 277 by the end of her career… a figure that lasted until last Saturday when Maggie McCloskey reached 278 for Loyola. (See… more relevance.)
When she graduated, Wilhite was a member of UWM’s 1,000-point club and the program’s career Division I leading scorer (1,471 points). She remains sixth in school history in scoring and is one of just six players in school history to average double-figures in points in each of her four seasons.
Wilhite proved to be a multi-dimensional guard for Milwaukee, finishing fifth in school history with 266 career assists and fifth with 178 steals in her career. It was, though, the three-pointers that set her apart. But, it was as a dynamic three-point shooter that she cemented her place in school history.
Some other somewhat related tidbits about 10 three’s in a game and big games at Green Bay… Ronnie Jones holds the men’s school record when he hit 10 three’s at Youngstown State Jan. 2, 2002. Before anyone had ever heard of Traci Edwards, the school record for points in a game was 38 by Andrea Filipek at Green Bay Jan. 23, 1999. She was 13-of-18 from the field and 7-of-8 from three-point range in 27 minutes… off the bench.
Jessica Wilhite is on the ballot for the Milwaukee Panthers All-Decade Team. Have you voted? Click here to vote for the top five players of the 2000s.
