PROVIDENCE, R.I. – BJ Freeman posted a 30-point double-double, with 20 of those coming after intermission, and the Milwaukee men's basketball team put together a strong second-half effort despite falling to Providence by a final score of 79-69 Saturday night in front of a crowd of 12,090 at Amica Mutual Pavilion.
"I thought we found a little bit of our identity tonight," head coach
Bart Lundy said. "It was a tough environment. We always want to win, but we will learn and move on. You can take so many lessons from this. It's good for our team growth and individually, a lot of guys are starting to figure things out."
Freeman finished with a game-high 33 points and added 10 rebounds for his third career double-double as the Panthers (1-1) outscored, out-rebounded, and out-shot the Friars (2-0) in the second half of the contest.
After a first half that saw Milwaukee trail by 13 courtesy of a 12-4 scoring run by the home team heading into the break, the Panthers surged back time and time again down the stretch, only to be held off as the Friars extended their winning streak against non-conference opponents to 20 consecutive.
"We had a pretty bad rebounding deficit at halftime and they competed super-hard on the glass in the second half," Lundy said of his team. "And BJ got rolling in the second half. Not only scoring, but he got to the free throw line which allowed us to set our defense and helped a lot."
Freeman's 33-point outburst came in his 2023-24 season debut and included a perfect 11-for-11 showing from the free throw line.
Erik Pratt was also in double-figures for the MKE offense, scoring nine of his career-high 12 points in the second half as well.
Darius Duffy chipped in with a solid all-around outing of seven points and nine rebounds in just 16 minutes of playing time.
"Guys off the bench –
Aaron Franklin,
Darius Duffy,
Erik Pratt – a lot of guys contributed," Lundy said. "And I thought Angelo (Stuart) was great off the bench too. We have a chance to be a really good team. If we come out and rebound better from the start, we could have won that game. But I was proud of their fight."
Jayden Pierre led five Friars in double-figures with 16 points; Josh Oduro finished with a double-double of 13 points and 12 boards.
Down 13 at the break, Freeman converted an and-one to make it 40-31 on the first MKE possession. Providence responded by scoring nine of the next 11 points of the contest, forcing a Lundy timeout down, 49-33.
The next surge was six in a row, only to see a huge Friar three extend the advantage back to 13 at 52-39. Duffy finished a tough reverse to get Milwaukee back within seven and a pair of Freeman free throws again had the deficit down to seven at 56-49.
One final surge pushed it to the point where the Panthers had a three-pointer that would have made it a two-possession game with under a minute to play but could not convert.
For the game, Milwaukee shot under 40 percent (.377) but also held the Friars below that mark as well (.394). The Milwaukee defense also limited the opposition to 32.3 percent (10-of-31) from distance and only lost the battle of the boards by six (45-39) after trailing by double-figures at the break.
Up next, the Panthers remain on the road to take on Colorado Tuesday. Game time is set for an 8 p.m. CST tip-off.
