MADISON, Wis. – Playing shorthanded and for the second time in 24 hours, the Milwaukee men's basketball team fell to Wisconsin Tuesday night at the Kohl Center. The two teams were playing for the first time since 2019.
 
The Panthers (7-7) fell behind early after a slow start, as the Badgers (9-4) scored 18 of the game's first 20 points. Limited to just 10 available players due to injury and illness, the visitors matched the home side with 50 points over the final 24:48, but a 30-10 UW lead at the 4:48 mark of the first half proved too much to overcome in an eventual 80-60 loss.
 
"I'd like to thank Wisconsin and Coach Gard for playing the game," head coach Bart Lundy said in the postgame press conference. "I think it's good for our program, good for the fans, and good for the state. I do wish we had a better performance, but really grateful for the game and grateful to have the opportunity."
 
Josh Dixon led the offense with 17 points, with Amar Augillard joining him in double-figures with 15 points. Augillard went 6-of-8 from the line and added five rebounds.
 
Sekou Konneh contributed eight points and a game-high eight rebounds in just 14 minutes of action, while Faizon Fields had a statline of 8 points/6 rebounds.
 
The game opened on a rough note for the Panthers, seeing the Badgers turn a 2-2 game into an 18-2 lead with 16 in a row as the MKE offense went eight minutes without a field goal. Even though the deficit did hit 30-10, the team never gave in, battling back slowly and surely.
 
"It's just that start that we had was too much to overcome," Lundy said. "We needed to see a ball go in. I thought we played like a tired team. We played 23 hours ago – played really well – but didn't perform quite as well tonight."
 
That comeback effort continued in the second, with back-to-back baskets from Dixon igniting a 9-0 run that was capped by a Konneh putback to make it 39-30. The lead was still just nine at 41-32 on a pair of Dixon free throws at the 14:46 mark before UW regained all momentum.
 
The Badgers scored nine unanswered points in a span of about 90 seconds to build the margin back to 18 and kept it steady the remainder of the evening. With 7:23 left in the game, Wisconsin was still over 70 percent from the floor in the second half to thwart off the big comeback push.
 
"Not to make excuses, but we are a little diminished," Lundy said. "Injury, sickness … lost two key guys. Danilo (Jovanovich) played but was awfully sick. The guys we got, we had a lot of young guys out there playing. I thought they fought. We cut it to nine a couple of times, we guarded, we rebounded okay, we just couldn't make a shot. Give them credit, he's a heck of a coach and they are really good defensively."
 
Milwaukee was also even in the rebound battle at 40-40 but 33.3 percent (21-of-63) shooting from the floor was too tough to battle back from. UW finished the night at almost 50 percent (.491/28-57).
 
Up next, the Panthers will play for the third time in four days when league play continues at Wright State to open the New Year Thursday. Game time against the Raiders is set for 1 p.m. CT.