FARGO, N.D. – The North Dakota State women's basketball team (1-1) dropped a hard fought contest to the Milwaukee Panthers (1-0) on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 16, 77-73, in front of an attendance of 479 at the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse.

With the loss, the Bison fall to 1-1 on the season, while Milwaukee moves to 1-0.

Senior Brooke LeMar led the Bison with 18 points on 4-for-12 shooting, while sophomore Emily Spier posted a career-high 14 points on 6-for-12 shooting. Junior Kahla Becken went 3-for-6 from three-point range and scored 13 points, and fellow junior Marena Whittle posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Holly Johnson also reached double-digit rebounds, pulling down 10 boards, respectively.

Milwaukee senior Ashley Green led all scorers in the contest, tallying 36 points on 13-for-18 shooting to go along with 15 rebounds.

NDSU went 25-for-70 from the field in the game for 36 percent, and 10-for-27 from three-point range for 37 percent. The Bison shot 65 percent from the free throw line, going 13-for-20.

Milwaukee went 43 percent from the field, going 26-for-60, and 3-for-11 from beyond-the-arc for 27 percent. The Panthers made 22 of 32 free throw attempts for 69 percent.

The Bison and Panthers both pulled down 43 rebounds during the game.

Trailing 74-64 with 1:22 remaining in the second-half, NDSU freshman Taylor Thunstedt drilled a three to spark a 6-1 run that cut the NDSU deficit to 75-70 after a LeMar three-pointer with 29 seconds to go. Milwaukee inched the lead back to seven with 18 seconds remaining on a layup from freshman Jenny Linder, but LeMar was fouled on a three the next possession with five seconds left and made all three free throws to cut the Panther advantage to 77-73. That would be as close as NDSU would get, though, as time expired, handing the Bison their first loss of the season.

The first-half of the contest featured 11 lead changes and eight ties, with neither team able to claim more than a seven point advantage. The Bison went into halftime trailing the Panthers by only one point, 39-38.

North Dakota State is scheduled to travel to Western Michigan on Wednesday, Nov. 19, for its first road game of the season. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) in Kalamazoo, Mich.