GREEN BAY, Wis. – Te'Jon Lucas scored a career-high 31 points and the Milwaukee men's basketball team went ahead early and held off a late charge to claim an 87-80 victory over Green Bay Saturday night at the Resch Center.
The Panthers (8-9, 3-2 Horizon League) put together a great defensive effort against the Phoenix (7-11, 2-3 Horizon League) in the first half to set the stage for the big win.
"I thought our defense was good and the star of the game," head coach
Pat Baldwin said. "They are a high-octane offense, so we had to do a great job in containing them and making every shot and opportunity difficult for them. Our guys did a great job defending them in the first half."
Lucas added five rebounds, five assists and three steals to his 31-point effort. He came up huge down the stretch, scoring 11 straight points when the game hung in the balance over the final minutes.
"He stepped up big," Baldwin said. "And that is the moment you need. We have two really good players that can handle the ball and make plays in Te'Jon and Darius and both of those guys made plays late."
Darius Roy added 23 points, including a huge three-pointer that helped MKE regain momentum when Green Bay had cut into the lead and made it a one-point game with just over six minutes left.
"With a team like Green Bay, it's going to be difficult to keep them down," Baldwin said. "They put pressure on us late and we weathered the storm. Darius making that three was good for us and our guys showed a lot of toughness late in the game to close this out."
Josh Thomas chipped in 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Amari Davis led GB with 28 points.
With a nine point lead at the break, the Panthers grew the advantage to as many as 12 early in the second at 44-32. The Phoenix would not go easily, pushing back with a 9-2 run before Roy hit a long three and then had a fastbreak layup to push the lead back to 10 at 51-41.
Green Bay was back at it again, using a 7-1 spurt that forced a timeout at 61-58 with just over seven minutes to play. With the lead down to just one at 65-64, Roy hit that huge triple to make it 68-64 and then Lucas took over.
He scored Milwaukee's next 11 points, going 6-for-6 from the line. Roy's 3 with just over two minutes left essentially sealed the deal at 82-73, with the two combining for 28 straight (Lucas 17/Roy 11) at that point in the contest
It was a solid first half for the Panthers, who held the Phoenix to 31.1 percent (10-of-32) from the floor in the first 20 minutes, with no makes from three-point range (5 tries). A slow start aside, a deep Roy 3 got them going and a pair of Lucas free throws knotted it up at 10-10 at the 14:40 mark.
C.J. Wilbourn netted seven in the first half, with his putback giving MKE its first lead at 16-15, part of a 6-0 run that made it 18-15.
The defense led the offense and the Panthers led, 21-15, on a Thomas 3 with just under eight minutes remaining. That was part of an 11-0 run, with a three from the wing by Lucas capping a 14-2 stretch and putting the Panthers ahead, 26-17, with 5:42 to play.
They didn't let up, getting the lead to 10 on another 3 by Lucas with the shot clock running low at 37-27 and to as many as 11 at 40-29 on a Thomas triple.
For the game, the Panthers connected on half of their 60 shots, with a 52.4 percent (11-of-21) showing from deep. They outscored GB, 34-24, in the paint and held them to just 4-of-12 on 3's, not making one until well into the second half. MKE also grabbed a slim 36-35 rebounding edge.
Up next, the homestand resumes with a pair of games, with the next contest coming up on Thursday. The Panthers welcome Detroit Mercy, set for a 7 p.m. tipoff.
