MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee men's basketball team jumped out of the gates by scoring 19 of the first 21 points and never looked back, running away from Cardinal Stritch with a 112-38 victory on Homecoming at UWM Panther Arena Saturday night.
"I appreciate Cardinal Stritch being willing to play – it was very difficult to get this date filled when we were trying to schedule," head coach
Bart Lundy said. "Obviously, it's Homecoming and we couldn't really move it. For them to be willing to come and participate was big."
The Panthers (2-1) led by 37 at the break and scored 24 in a row against the Wolves (0-4) midway through the second period to blow it wide open.
"I thought we got contributions from a lot of guys," Lundy said. "When you get up by a lot of points, you get to see who is going to be disciplined, who is going to be silly, who is going to stick with what we do … and I thought they took it seriously that we were trying to get better as a team, regardless of the score."
Angelo Stuart led the way with 18 points, one of four MKE players in double-figures.
Jalen Johnson put together a perfect night, shooting 8-for-8 from the floor and 1-for-1 from the line to finish with 17 points. He added five rebounds.
Elijah Jamison went for 16 points and seven rebounds, while
Kentrell Pullian contributed a solid line of 12 points, a team-high eight rebounds, and three assists.
Vin Baker Jr. added 8 points/5 steals. A total of 15 players saw the court on the night – 14 finishing with points – with no player seeing more than 22 minutes of playing time.
Damar Reed led Cardinal Stritch with 15 points, the only visitor to crack double-figures.
Everything worked well for the Panthers on the night, finishing with the fourth-most points in a game in school history. Several other marks made new entries into the record book, including the +74-point margin of victory – the second-most in school history trailing only the 100-21 (+79) win over Mount Scenario back in December of 2000.
The defense did well, limiting the Wolves to 21.9 percent (14-of-64), the third-lowest field-goal percentage in a game for an opponent in school history. They also added 17 steals, a number that ties for seventh-most in a single game.
Other impressive statistics for single-game records include: 41 made field goals was a tie for fourth, 55 rebounds was a tie for fifth, and the 38 points allowed was the third-fewest given up in a game in school history (21 and 37 are No. 1 and 2).
The Panthers finished the game at 53.2 percent (41-of-77) from the field, sinking eight three-pointers. They turned the ball over just six times.
Up next, the team will enjoy most of the rest of next week away from the court, returning to action to take on Iowa State Sunday in a game set to start at 5 p.m.
