MADISON, Wis. – The Milwaukee men's basketball team was unable to carry the momentum of a strong first half into the rest of the contest, seeing Wisconsin pull away for an 83-64 victory Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center.
The Panthers (5-7) did plenty of things right against the Badgers (6-5) over the first 25 minutes of the day, but an 11-0 scoring run midway through the second half essentially decided the contest.
Darius Roy led MKE with 25 points, adding four rebounds and an 8-of-10 showing from the free throw line.
Te'Jon Lucas joined him in double-figures with 10, chipping in four boards and four assists.
"A tough game – we played as hard as we could in the first half," head coach
Pat Baldwin said. "Then, in the second half the wheels fell off a little bit and we started fouling a little too much. They got to the free throw line – I think there was an 11-0 spurt – that got us."
D'Mitrik Trice led UW with a career-high 31 points, making 11-of-14 shots from the floor, including just one miss on six attempts from long-range.
"Our guys gave a tremendous effort," Baldwin said. "We were hitting some shots in the first half, got to the basket, made some plays."
Down just a bucket at the break, a cold start from the field in the second saw the deficit grow to seven, but an alley-oop finished nicely by
DeAndre Abram had the margin back down to five at 49-44.
From there, the Badgers took control. A Trice triple made it a 10-point deficit for the first time at the 11:16 mark, forcing a timeout. The advantage grew to 16 at 66-50, capping off that 11-0 scoring run that decided MKE's fate on the day.
"It was a struggle in the second half, defending them and keeping them out of the paint," Baldwin said. "We have to learn from situations like this and learn from really good teams and get ready for conference play coming up."
A track meet of a first half saw each team running up and down the court to the tune of five ties and 14 lead changes, with both sides connecting on better than half of their shots in an entertaining opening 20 minutes.
Wisconsin welcomed the Panthers rudely, scoring the first nine before a Baldwin timeout helped settle things. MKE ripped off a 10-0 spurt of its own to quickly get back into it, taking a 10-9 lead at the 15:12 mark on a Roy three.
The teams traded punches for most of the period. A
Josh Thomas fastbreak layup had the team ahead 15-14, followed by a pretty fadeaway from Roy that put an exclamation point on a 19-7 stretch at 19-16.
Four made field goals in a row helped MKE take a 24-21 lead on a spin move by Lucas and a Roy corner 3 put the Panthers back ahead at 32-30 with just under six minutes to go. A deep Lucas triple also had Milwaukee ahead by a score of 35-33. Wisconsin eventually led 43-41 at intermission.
For the game, Milwaukee shot 42.3 percent (22-of-52) from the floor, but cooled down after a strong 55 percent (16-of-29) effort in the first half. The Badgers ended the contest at 50 percent (26-of-52), while also winning the rebounding battle, 36-27.
Up next, the Panthers take a short break for the holidays, starting back up again with the first Horizon League games of the season. That two-game road trip starts with a visit to Northern Kentucky Dec. 28.
