Dec. 30, 1999

Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men?s basketball team played its second top-25 team in four days, taking on No. 21 Utah Thursday in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Panthers, coming off a 33-point loss to No. 3 Cincinnati on Monday night, rebounded with a solid game against the Utes. Although the Panthers dropped the game, 71-57, the Panthers were able to limit the Utes to just 4-for-12 from the three-point range -- less than half of the team?s 8.7 three-pointers made per game average, which ranked them 16th in the NCAA statistics coming into this week. The Utes? 33.3 percent from behind the three-point arc was well below the Utes? 45.7 percent three-point shooting average, which ranked third in the nation coming into this week.

?I saw us get better tonight since our game at Cincinnati (on Monday),? said UW-Milwaukee head coach Bo Ryan. ?We matched up better tonight against Utah than we did against Cincinnati. I was encouraged in our last 10 possessions.?

The Panthers led 18-15 midway in the second half, but lost momentum when the Utes went on a 9-2 run that spanned the next 3:28, finishing the half with a nine-point lead. The Utes carried their momentum into the second half, outscoring the Panthers 18-for-6 points in the first 10-and-a-half minutes, building their lead to 23 points. The Panthers rallied late in the second half, holding the Utes scoreless in the game?s last five minutes while they scored the final 13 points of the game, narrowing the Utes? lead from 25 points to only 14 at the buzzer.

?We let it get away from us in the first half,? said Ronnie Jones (Fr., G, Las Vegas, Nev.) who led the Panthers with 15 points. ?We missed a lot of shots we should have made, and they just played every possession really well.?

Junior Chad Angeli (C, Wausau, Wis.) added another 13 points for the Panthers before fouling out with 5:36 left in the second half. Angeli attempted and nailed his first career three-pointer tonight, continuing to expand his game. He went 6-for-7 from the free-throw line and 3-for-8 from the field.

?Chad was involved in playing two future first-round draft picks in one week, and did very well. He matured as a player this week,? said Coach Ryan.

Only two Utes scored in double digits against the Panthers, led by led by Hanno Mottola with 23 points and Alex Jensen following with 18. Jensen led the team in rebounding with seven total boards ? six on defense ? and added three assists. Mottola had five boards, one assist, one block and a pair of steals.

The Panthers return home on Tuesday, Jan. 4, when they take on the Stony Brook Seawolves at 7 p.m. in the Klotsche Center.