Feb. 12, 2011

Box Score  |  Postgame Extra

CHICAGO - Anthony Hill scored a collegiate-best 32 points while Kaylon Williams contributed a school-record 14 assists as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee claimed a 70-59 win over UIC Saturday afternoon at the UIC Pavilion.

The Panthers (15-11, 10-5 Horizon) led by as many as 16 points in capturing their sixth-straight win. UWM had runs of 15-4 and 14-2 in completing a regular-season sweep of the Flames.

Hill scored 10-straight points to start the second half and help the Panthers pull away. His burst pushed an eight-point halftime lead to 16 and UIC would never get closer than seven the rest of the way.

Tone Boyle added 14 points while Tony Meier contributed 11 points and eight rebounds. Milwaukee also had just eight turnovers to go with 19 assists, while the Panthers' defense forced 16 turnovers and limited the Flames to 38.2 percent shooting from the field.

Williams' 14 assists are tied for the most in over 100 years of basketball at UWM, equaling the 14 Kerry Glover had in 1982. The tally did set a new Division I mark, besting the 13 Marc Mitchell totaled twice.

Robo Kreps scored 24 points to lead UIC (7-20, 2-13), which had beaten Green Bay Thursday night.

"The thing that really jumps out for me is the 19 assists and eight turnovers. Kaylon Williams, in particular, did a nice job of directing our offense - 14 assists, that's pretty special," UWM head coach Rob Jeter said. "We just wanted to manage through the first half after we took that lead. They did a nice job cutting into it, but every time we seemed to get to a point where UIC was putting together a run, Tony Meier had a big answer. I'm pretty proud of the effort this group has put together to string together the wins that we have."

Williams directed the Panther offense with precision, pushing his personal total to 29 assists over the last three games.

"It seems that he is playing with a little bit more energy," Jeter said. "He has a little better pace to his game. He has a much better rhythm to how he is directing our team."

"You just have to do whatever is working," Williams said. "I couldn't make a shot, so I was just dropping it off to the people that were open."

And, for the second-straight game, UWM rode a hot start to a win. Thursday, the Panthers opened the game with a 26-7 run. This time, Milwaukee bolted to a 15-4 advantage.

"Our starts are getting us going. We start and teams get down," Williams said. "In that first half, we started to let them get some hope and come back. But, coach gave it to us at halftime again - you can't put your foot on the pedal and let off, you have to keep going. I thought we did a good job of that in the second half."

Hill's 32 points bested the 30 he scored against Youngstown State in December and this outing comes one week after he scored 29 points in a win over Green Bay.

"My teammates were just dedicated to getting me the ball and I was focused to scoring around the basket," Hill said. "We just got the ball in the right places and my teammates helped me out."

Milwaukee again used a fast start to take a double-digit lead in the first half. UWM scored 13 in a row at one point, with seven-straight points from Hill making it 15-4. Meier then made a pair of free throws two minutes later to push the lead to 19-7.

UIC surged back at that point, as Milwaukee missed nine of its next 10 shots from the field. The Flames eventually pulled all the way to within 23-20 on a tip-dunk by Dorian Tyler with four minutes remaining, but Boyle answered with a three on UWM's next possession to restore a six-point advantage. The Flames pulled back to within four at 26-22 and 28-24, but four-straight points by Boyle to end the half allowed Milwaukee to carry at 32-24 lead into the locker room.

Hill then took over early in the second half, with his 10-straight points building a 42-26 advantage. Five-straight points by Kreps eventually brought UIC to within 44-37, but Meier countered with a three-point to restore a double-figure advantage.

The Panthers eventually rebuilt their lead to 14 on four-straight points by Ja'Rob McCallum and the Flames were never able to cut it under nine. A layup by Boyle with 4:17 left extended the advantage back to 15 and UWM again led by 16 before emptying its bench.

UWM now returns to the U.S. Cellular Arena for its final regular season home game as first-place Valparaiso visits Milwaukee Wednesday night.