Feb. 19, 2005

Box Score |  Quotes

HONOLULU, Hawaii - Ed McCants scored 20 points and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee collected a season-high 17 steals in claiming an 87-81 win over the University of Hawaii Saturday afternoon at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Panthers (21-5) have now won 14 of their last 15 games after beating the Rainbow Warriors (14-8) in front of a national television audience and 8,024 noisy fans.

Adrian Tigert didn't miss a shot in adding a career-high 19 points while Boo Davis tallied 13 to help UWM to its 10th road victory of the season.

Matt Gibson scored 26 points to lead Hawaii, which shot 51.7 percent from the field but turned the ball over 21 times and, despite a huge size advantage, allowed the Panthers to claim 18 offensive rebounds.

"This was a great effort. I felt like we won the game on energy and intensity," UWM head coach Bruce Pearl said. "It's a tough matchup for us because Hawaii is so big and so skilled. We just felt like we had to turn the pressure up as much as we could even though they did a good job of attacking it at times."

UWM took control of the game with a run from late in the first half through early in the second half. Hawaii led 23-17 with 5:50 remaining before the Panthers scored 12 of the next 14 points to grab a 29-25 edge. The Rainbow Warriors closed to within 34-32 at halftime but the Panthers scored 16 of the first 23 points of the second half to build a 50-39 edge.

UWM then led by as many as 14 points and held off a pair of Hawaii rallied thanks to strong free throw shooting and some key steals that led to easy baskets.

The Panther bench again played a key role in the win. No one played more than 30 minutes and 10 different players scored. UWM's tempo prevailed and, though Hawaii did get a number of points after beating the Panthers' pressure, they had little left in the tank in the end.

"They were committed to attacking it and they got some good looks down at the end," Pearl said "But it's a cumulative effect. They made some terrific runs at us in the second half but they couldn't make a third and I think it was the tempo that meant they just didn't have any energy."

The steals total by UWM included four apiece for Chris Hill and James Wright and three apiece from Davis and Jason McCoy. Wright also added nine points and three rebounds and did a stellar job on Hawaii's leading scorer Julian Sensley, who scored just eight points.

The Panthers have a week off before closing out the regular season next Saturday at Cleveland State. The game tips off at 4:30 p.m. CST.