Dec. 7, 2004

Box Score |  Notes

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Joah Tucker scored 21 points and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee held a team under 50 points for the second time this season in claiming a 57-47 win over Saint Louis University Tuesday night at the Savvis Center.

The Panthers (6-0) are off to their best start since the 1992-93 season, when they went 8-0. They also won on the road for the second-straight time while limiting the Billikens (1-5) to just 37 percent shooting from the field.

"It was a good win for us tonight," UWM head coach Bruce Pearl said. "That team is well-coached and they are hard for us to play because they run their stuff and they are patient. But we're playing well right now, and a lot of the reason is because of Joah Tucker. He refuses to let us lose. He's intimidating to play against and he's a tough matchup at small forward."

Reggie Bryant led Saint Louis with 10 points, but the Billkens joined Air Force as the two teams in six games to not crack the 50-point mark against the Panthers. UWM has now limited five of its six opponents to under 40 percent shooting and, for the season, opponents are shooting just 35 percent.

"This is the best defensive club I've had," Pearl said. "We played pretty good defense tonight."

Ed McCants, who scored just six points for UWM, was given the bulk of the credit for the Panthers' efforts defensively. Three days after chasing UIC star Cedrick Banks for 40 minutes, McCants limited SLU star Bryant to just 10 on 3-of-8 shooting.

"Ed has had a very tough defensive assignment the last two games," Tucker said. "Every time I looked up he was chasing Bryant tonight and on Saturday he was chasing Ced Banks. This is the second year I've been around Ed and I don't think he's worried about missing a couple of shots."

UWM again had to overcome foul trouble, with Tucker and Adrian Tigert each missing a portion of the second half with four fouls. But, contributions off the bench from Jason McCoy (eight points, four rebounds), Chris Hill (seven points, six assists) and walk-on Nick Hansen (three points and two rebounds in 10 minutes) helped UWM overcome the foul trouble and the absence of injured players Mark Pancratz and Rob Sanders.

The Panthers never trailed in the contest, bolting to a 12-0 lead and only allowing Saint Louis to tie the game once - at 30-all with 18:03 remaining. But UWM scored the next four points and eventually rebuilt a 45-36 lead with 7:21 left when McCoy hit two free throws. A Bryant three pulled SLU within 45-41 with 6:25 remaining, but five-straight points from UWM rebuilt the edge to nine and the Panthers finished the game at the foul line.

UWM continues its stretch of six-straight road contests Saturday night at Valparaiso. The game tips off at 7 p.m.