MILWAUKEE - Jordan Johnson's triple-double helped the Milwaukee men's basketball team open up a close game in the second half in blowing out Youngstown State University, 87-51, Monday evening at UWM Panther Arena.
"It's amazing to see a 5-9 guy do some of the things that Jordan does," Milwaukee head coach
Rob Jeter said. "I am real proud of the triple-double … that's hard to do."
The Panthers (18-11, 9-7 Horizon League) led the Penguins (10-19, 5-11 Horizon League) by nine at halftime and had the lead cut to just six at 43-37 before taking over. Milwaukee went on a 27-4 run, fueled by nine assists over the first 10 minutes of the second half by Johnson to make it a second straight easy victory at home.
"The first half was a little bit of a grind, I thought," Jeter said. "It was not a real good flow to the game. We all know that Youngstown is a very dangerous team, so that is always in the back of your mind, the way they shoot the basketball. Second half we settled in quite well."
After beating Cleveland State by 34 on Saturday, tonight's 36-point margin of victory gives the Panthers back-to-back wins by 30-or-more first the first time since the 2004-05 campaign.
Johnson's 10 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds marked the fourth triple-double all-time in program history and the first since Kaylon Williams put up the identical stat line in a win over Butler January 3, 2011.
"When we came out of a timeout, the coaches were saying 'you need three more assists'," Johnson said postgame. "So I just went out there and tried to look for my teammates and let them score the points. I am just really excited right now."
Milwaukee now owns half (4 of 8) of the recorded triple-doubles in NCAA Division I basketball history in the state of Wisconsin. In addition to William's gem, Marc Mitchell had a pair in the 1992-93 season. Wisconsin and Green Bay have one apiece in their program history and Marquette has two.
Johnson grabbed his 10
th rebound at the 14:09 mark, scored his ninth and 10
th points with 11:22 remaining on a pair of free throws and rounded out the historic performance with his 10
th assist on
J.R. Lyle's three-pointer with 9:54 to go.
In addition to Johnson's heroics,
Matt Tiby finished with 19 points and eight rebounds to lead the way.
Akeem Springs netted 14 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds, while
Austin Arians had 11 points and six boards.
The Milwaukee defense was terrific again, limiting YSU to 30.5 percent shooting for the game to mark the lowest by an opponent this season. It also held Cameron Morse – who came into the game averaging 20.1 points – to just five points on 2-of-9 shooting.
After YSU started making a dent at the start of the second half, Milwaukee responded with six points in a row in 37 seconds, all scored or assisted by Johnson to make it 50-37 at the under-16 media (15:32) timeout.
From there it was all Panthers, with the 27-4 run making it 70-41 and allowing plenty of time for the starters to rest on the bench down the stretch for the second time in three days.
The Panthers won the rebounding battle, 50-30, and shot 45.3 percent (29-of-64) from the floor for the contest.
Neither team could get much going early. A Penguin three-pointer tied the game at 9-9 but at that point the two teams had combined to make less than 30 percent of their shots (7-of-24) on the night.
An 11-2 spurt, capped by an Arians' 3, made it 20-11 in the favor of the home team and open up the first lead of any kind either way. Three free throws by Arians a few minutes later sent it to double-figures for the first time at 25-13 with 7:31 to play.
Up next, one of the biggest games of the season on the schedule, with a national television audience on ESPN2 awaiting the game between Milwaukee and first-place Valparaiso Friday. Tip time downtown is set for 6 p.m.
