Nov. 20, 2011

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team bolted to a 25-2 lead and never looked back in claiming a 73-38 win over Texas Southern Sunday afternoon at the U.S. Cellular Arena.

Milwaukee (4-0) is off to its best start since the 2004-05 season, when the Panthers won their first six games.

UWM led by 28 points at halftime and made liberal use of its bench in the second half while adding to the advantage against the Tigers (1-3), who won the SWAC and qualified for the NIT a season ago.

Kaylon Williams had 17 points and Ja'Rob McCallum 14 to lead the Panthers, who made 11 three-pointers and had 20 assists on 27 baskets in breaking down Texas Southern's trapping zone defense.

"We talked about trying to keep it out of certain areas where they are really good at double-teaming," UWM head coach Rob Jeter said. "We really wanted the ball to hit the inside, to try to get the ball inside and then go back out. We felt we would have a chance to get some looks and guys shot the ball with confidence."

Williams added six assists and five rebounds to his 17 points in his best game of the young season. The preseason All-Horizon League pick missed the exhibition game and season opener but now seems to be settling in.

"It was obvious those first two games I was pressing," Williams said. "Tonight I just came out to try to get the other guys involved early. They hit some shots and that created open looks for me. They are a very good team and we showed we came ready to play today."

Milwaukee's defense was also strong, limiting Texas Southern to just 35.6 percent shooting for the game and only 13 points in the first half. UWM also had a 45-22 rebounding edge, including 18-2 on the offensive glass. Kyle Kelm led the rebounding efforts with a collegiate-best 10 boards.

"We really needed to fill gaps because they are another team that is really good off the bounce," Jeter said. "We wanted to fill gaps and try to corral some of those little speedy guards."

The Panthers scored the first 12 points of the game and eventually led 25-2 on a three-pointer by Evan Richard midway through the first half. The advantage was 41-13 at the break and pushed the lead to 30 early in the second half. The advantage never dipped below 23 after that.

"I'm just real proud of the start of both halves," Jeter said. "We've been talking as a team about trying to make sure we can come out and play a better style of basketball to start games and to start second halves, and I thought today we did a nice job of that."

UWM returns to action Wednesday night, playing at Michigan State in a 6 p.m. contest.