UWM narrowly escapes against lowly IUPUI but earns best Horizon League conference start since 2006
Taking on one of the lowest-ranked teams in the nation, it wasn’t always pretty and it sure wasn't one of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's better performances of the year, but, hey, it was a win.
The Panthers went down to the wire on the road with IUPUI in a game that started at 10 a.m. Thursday, ultimately denying the Jaguars their first conference victory of the season in a 72-69 win.
"We were lucky to get out of there with a win," Panthers head coach Bart Lundy said. "The commissioner of the league was talking to us yesterday and told us about how, two years ago, Wright State led the league coming into this exact same 10 a.m. game at IUPUI. They were in last place and beat Wright State.
"The fact that we won is big and all that counts."
Kentrell Pullian scored 12 points to lead a balanced scoring attack for the Panthers (15-7, 10-3 Horizon League), who came up with a pair of stops on defense as the Jaguars (3-21, 0-13), who entered the day ranked 360th out of 364 Division-I teams on KenPom.com’s rating, had looks to tie the game in the final seconds.
"It’s human nature you see a team's record and don’t play as sharp as you could," Lundy said. "We didn’t play sharp. As the game went on, we got caught in some distractions, missing some shots and getting frustrated with officiating. That gave them numbers on the back end."
Milwaukee held the lead for the vast majority of the game but never by more than eight points. Its largest lead came at 66-58 with five minutes, 52 seconds left in the second half but the Panthers couldn’t put the Jaguars away without one final push.
Box score:Milwaukee 72, IUPUI 69
A 7-0 IUPUI run immediately trimmed Milwaukee’s lead to 66-65, then the Jaguars were within two points at 71-69 following a DJ Jackson pull-up jumper with 40 seconds left.
After BJ Freeman, who had to sit most of the first half with three fouls and saw his 20-point scoring streak come to a close at six games, missed a jumper, Ahmad Rand came up with a critical block on IUPUI’s driving layup attempt with 11 seconds to play.
Markeith Browning II split a pair of free throws on the other end, allowing the Jaguars one final attempt to send the game to overtime, but Vincent Brady’s three missed the rim to allow the Panthers to escape.
The 10-3 start to league play is Milwaukee’s best since 2005-06 and ensured it will remain tied for first in the Horizon, at the very least, for now. Youngstown State, Cleveland State and Northern Kentucky – all of which entered Thursday tied with Milwaukee at 9-3 in conference play – were set to tip off later in the day.
Next up for the Panthers is one of the few teams ranked beneath IUPUI by KenPom, in-state rival Green Bay on Monday at home. The Phoenix recently fired head coach Will Ryan and have lost their last 13 games by an average of 21.1 points.
The Panthers will want to come out far less choppy than they did Thursday. They shot just 37.7 percent from the field (26 for 69) and had an array of simply careless turnovers. Milwaukee allowed IUPUI to shoot 56 percent (14 for 25) in the first half as the Panthers clung to a 38-37 halftime lead over the hosts before ultimately locking down and causing almost as many turnovers (nine) as made baskets allowed (12) over the final period.
"We tried to prepare our guys that it was going to be kind of a trick game," Lundy said. "(IUPUI), they haven’t been winning but they’ve been playing everyone close. Their last seven or eight games could’ve gone either way. Our guys understood that and we had good spirit, but the game just had no flow to it. We were choppy and a lot of fouls. They played really hard, too, give them credit for making it a battle."
The Panthers likely don’t walk out with a win if not for their effort on the glass, securing 18 offensive rebounds for 25 second-chance points. Seven different players grabbed at least one offensive board with Freeman leading the way with five en route to finishing with 10 points.
"We did have a little bit of a size advantage, but some of those are just guys grabbing their own misses," Lundy said. "Just getting the ball to the rim and putting pressure on the rim. Converting for whatever reason was a struggle. One of those games where everything was a struggle, but we got the result we wanted."
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UWM escapes against IUPUI to earn best Horizon start since 2006
