UWM 67, Boston U 46: Panthers smother Terriers defensively in easy victory

Don't look now, but the UW-Milwaukee Panthers have a winning streak.

Riding a smothering defensive effort they got up big early, opened a 30-point lead in the second half and never trailed in beating Boston University, 67-46, on Day 2 of the Cream City Classic at the Klotsche Center.

Ahmad Rand's 12 points led the Panthers, who had 15 players see action and 13 find their way into the scoring column as they followed up on Saturday's last-second thriller with a laugher against a Terriers team that saw star big man Walter Whyte essentially be harassed into non-factor status (six points on 2-for-5 shooting).

"We hadn't talked about this being a tournament at all, just because we needed to focus on now, on today," Lundy said. His Panthers wrap up their inaugural MTE at 7 p.m. Monday against Southeast Missouri State.

UWM (4-3) then opens Horizon League play at UW-Green Bay on Thursday night and hosts IUPUI on Saturday night.

"Maybe tomorrow I'll mention, 'Hey, this is what it'll feel like in March if you guys want to win a championship. You've got to come out and you're banged up a little bit, you're tired, but the team that wakes up the freshest and gets going is going to be the team that plays well.'

"I like the SEMO matchup because I don't like the SEMO matchup. They're really tough and they really scrap. But I think that's good for us and that'll be a good challenge, because they're going to match our toughness, for sure."

Just shy of history

The Panthers were this close to tying a program record in the first half.

Boston (4-3) had made only three shots from the field and scored 10 points until Jonas Harper knocked down a three-pointer from the left corner with 9.9 seconds remaining, leaving UWM with a 32-13 halftime lead.

Mount Senario (a non-Division I opponent) scored 10 points in the opening 20 minutes on Dec. 27, 2000 and Valparaiso 12 on March 3, 2017, so the Panthers were forced to settle for allowing their third-fewest points ever in the first half of a game.

UWM had been allowing an average of 66.2 points per game coming in while Boston was scoring at a 73.8 points-per-game clip, but it was obvious in the early going that those norms wouldn’t come close to being reached in this one.

Boston managed a lone free throw in the first 8 minutes 5 seconds and one field goal – a dunk – in the first 13:29 before knocking down its first jumper.

All told, the Panthers limited the Terriers to 4-for-26 shooting (15.4%) and the lone three-pointer in the closing seconds on 12 attempts (8.3%).

Boston found the range a bit more in the second half but by the end of the game had shot 25.9%, which ranked as the fifth-worst performance from the floor by a UWM opponent in school history.

“I thought we had good effort throughout our roster,” Lundy said. "It's hard to play for a lead that long. Except for one small stretch we stayed focused and guarded. Obviously, those numbers tell the story.

"We had great energy. Second game in two days and Boston is a really good team; they're trying to find themselves a little bit. But they won 21 games last year and I'm sure we're going to look back at this one and realize we defeated a really good team as the season goes along."

Browning earning a reputation

Markeith Browning II can be a highlight reel whenever the ball is in his hands, as he reminded fans again Sunday when he threw down a windmill dunk on the breakaway after a steal where he was eye-level with the rim.

"He's an elite NBA athlete, without a doubt," Lundy said of the 6-foot-4 sophomore, one of only four holdovers from last year's team.

"We're talking to him constantly about when he gets near that rim, he's so explosive off two feet, but sometimes he doesn't use it. You've got to make that functional, and I think he's starting to learn that. He's really smart, he processes everything and he's really coachable.

"He beats himself up a little, but he cares a lot."

Browning's biggest contributions on the offensive end have been on his drives to the hoop (53.7% shooting) as well as distributing the basketball – his three assists per game lead the Panthers – but he's making a name for himself as a lock-down defender.

"The thing that's stood out the last two games is Markeith has guarded the other team's best player, and both of those guys are as good as anybody we'll see in our league," Lundy said. "He's carving out his niche. He was playing the three and we moved him to the four to guard those guys. Sometimes you just figure it out offensively because defensively that gives us a chance to be pretty good."

The Panthers are deep

Lundy said coming into the season that he wouldn't be afraid to utilize 11 or 12 players regularly and so far, that's been the case with 10 players averaging double-digit minutes and two others just shy of that mark.

He's shuffled his starting lineups to the point that Sunday marked UWM's seventh different alignment in seven games with Browning, Kentrell Pullian, BJ Freeman, Justin Thomas and Ahmad Rand all getting the initial nod.

Like most coaches, Lundy is mostly looking for defensive intensity and assignment surety from the players he relies upon most. Another positive Sunday was the reduction in turnovers, with 13 for the game and only four in the second half.

"That first group that started tonight is playing so well together I'm having trouble finding minutes for some of those other guys that deserve minutes," Lundy said. "But as a coach and you get that group and they're humming along and getting stops, it's tough (to go away from it)."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW-Milwaukee defense smothers Boston University in easy victory