MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee men's basketball team cut a 23-point second-half deficit down to just two points but could not complete the impressive comeback effort in falling to Southern Miss by a final score of 90-84 Saturday afternoon at the Klotsche Center.
The Panthers (3-4) scored 58 points in the second half and were within a basket against the Golden Eagles (3-4) with 92 seconds remaining. The visitors responded with a dunk to push it back to a two-possession game and then went 6-for-6 from the line the final 1:14 to secure the 90-84 victory.
"We pressed them and got them into an up-and-down game," head coach
Bart Lundy said about the comeback effort. "The big thing for me is we scored 58 points (in the second half) and we've really been struggling scoring. We got back to playing more the way that we want to play. Give them credit, especially Donovan Ivory, who's from here [native of Kaukauna, Wis.] Every time we made a run, he made a huge shot. We had a lot of shots there at the end to cut it or make it even more interesting, but you can't put yourself in that kind of hole."
Kentrell Pullian led the way for Milwaukee with a season-high 21 points, adding six rebounds and three assists.
Faizon Fields put together a fantastic effort, finishing with a career-high 17 points and nine rebounds, adding a pair of blocks. He also went 9-for-11 from the free throw line.
Elijah Jamison added a season-high 16 points, and
BJ Freeman gave MKE four in double-figures with 14 points.
"Part of that is we were an unconfident bunch going into this," Lundy said. "And the one thing I will say, we made the run coming back and I think we got some confidence, even though we lost this game – and there are no moral victories – but we got some confidence coming out of this. And we got a good KP, we got a good Elijah tonight, and we got a really good Faizon tonight. And we need those three pieces to help us."
Donovan Ivory, a native of Kaukauna, Wis., led the Golden Eagles with a career-high 32 points and seemed to hit a big shot every time Milwaukee would make a run down the stretch in the second half. Austin Crowley added 25 of his own.
An early 8-0 hole was nothing for the Panthers, who responded with 10 straight to go ahead 10-8 on an alley-oop dunk by
Darius Duffy. They didn't stop there in building a 21-16 advantage on a three from Pullian at the 11-minute mark.
Southern Miss turned the game around next, using a run that eventually hit 23-2 to evaporate the lead Milwaukee had in eventually taking a 39-23 edge. The teams traded baskets and the deficit was 41-26 at the break.
"I thought we started fairly well and then we hit another long scoring drought – not only scoring drought but stops drought, rebounds drought … we've got to figure out lineups when that's happening," Lundy said. "Part of it is we were, in the first half, and previous games, living and dying at the three-point line. Whereas, what we do is predicated on getting downhill and getting paint touches, getting to the free throw line, and making two's. And they went on a 23-2 run and we were reeling."
The hole eventually grew to 23 at 57-34. That was when the Panthers rode strong defense and a full-court press that kept chipping away. The advantage was down to 13 at 60-47 following an and-1 from Fields. Back-and-forth for a bit, the next MKE run came via the three-pointer, as triples from Freeman, Pullian, and Jamison had the lead down to six at 80-74 with 3:25 to go.
After the teams traded free throws, Freeman made a reverse layup following a turnover that brought the team within two at 82-80 and fired up the Klotsche Center crowd.
However, the Golden Eagles broke the press and scored on an alley-oop and then hit their free throws the rest of the way to seal Milwaukee's fate.
The MKE offense ended the afternoon at 45.9 percent (28-of-61) from the floor, while Southern Miss connected on a touch over half (31-of-61/.508).
Horizon League play opens up next, taking the week off before heading up to Green Bay Saturday. Game time against the Phoenix is set for 6 p.m.
