MILWAUKEE – Amar Augillard scored a game-high 25 points and
Seth Hubbard added 18 – including the 1,000th point of his NCAA career – to help lead the Milwaukee men's basketball team to a big second half and a convincing 92-72 victory over Little Rock Monday night at UWM Panther Arena.
The Panthers (2-1) took a three-point lead at the break on a Hubbard buzzer-beater and then took off after intermission against the Trojans (1-1), using an 18-4 run to gain separation and never looking back in picking up a victory over a solid opponent that was picked to win the Ohio Valley Conference in the league's preseason poll this year.
"There is just a lot to praise," head coach
Bart Lundy said. "First of all, they are an excellent team and he (Little Rock head coach Darrell Walker) is an excellent coach. He made a bunch of adjustments, and we were fortunate that #32 (Tuongthach Gatkek) got in foul trouble in the first half; we were struggling with that pressure and he's such a good defensive player. That three by Seth at half was huge for us, it gave us momentum going into halftime."
Augillard's season-best 25-point effort included six made 3's, adding three rebounds and three assists.
Hubbard's 18 came on 7-of-11 shooting (4-of-7 from three) and contributed four assists. His 3-pointer from the wing with 13:12 left in the game gave him exactly 1,000 points in his NCAA career, becoming the 33rd player to reach the plateau wearing Black & Gold.
"I tell our guys that the most important stat number is that plus/minus number at the end," Lundy said. "And Seth was +24 when he was on the floor. And it was both sides of the ball."
Danilo Jovanovich added 10 points while collecting five rebounds and delivered three assists while Milwaukee's depth showed up, too.
Esyah Pippa-White came off the bench to chip in a Panther-best 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-5 from distance.
Aaron Franklin added eight points and four rebounds in just 14 minutes on the court.
Braxton Bayless dropped 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting to lead the Trojans, with Johnathan Lawson adding 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
Augillard opened the game red hot – swishing three-pointers on four of Milwaukee's first five possessions to score 12 points and give the home team the 9-1 lead out of the gate and a 14-9 advantage in the first four minutes.
Back-and-forth from there, Hubbard gave the opening period its seventh lead change at the buzzer, hitting a three from the corner to take the 41-38 lead into the locker room.
After a dunk from the visitors cut the margin to just two at 49-47, the MKE offense turned the momentum, using that big scoring run to make it 65-51 at the 10:21 mark on a layup from Augillard. The lead would grow to as many as 22 down the stretch as the game was never in doubt the rest of the way.
"We knew we had to not get beat up on the glass and take care of the ball to win this game and we did both of those," Lundy said. "We end up winning the rebounding margin by six and just one turnover in that second half. We just played clean in that second half – it was a good half for us."
Milwaukee outscored Little Rock, 51-34, in the second half alone, committing just one turnover over the final 20 minutes, which came close to the end of regulation. The team shot 53.6 percent (30-of-56) from the floor overall, making 46.7 percent (14-of-30) from deep, and 78.3 percent (18-of-23) from the line. The Trojans finished at 48.2 percent (27-of-56) overall, made half of their 3's (8-of-16), and hit 66.7 percent (10-of-15) from the line.
Milwaukee won the rebounding battle, 32-26, and was at it again on the break, scoring 39 points in transition as well as a 29-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
The challenging schedule to start the campaign continues with a visit to Indiana for the first time in program history. Tip time is set for 6 p.m. CT on a national television audience on FS1 Wednesday evening.
