DETROIT, Mich. – Detroit Mercy used an early scoring run to grab momentum and kept going from there, knocking the Milwaukee men's basketball team out of the first round of the 2026 Barbosol Horizon League Championships with an 84-63 victory Wednesday evening at Calihan Hall.
 
The Panthers (12-20) – who back in October envisioned a postseason starting lineup featuring Danilo Jovanovich, Seth Hubbard, John Lovelace Jr., and Amar Augillard – faced the Titans (16-14) with all four of those all-league hopefuls not even suited up; done at various times this year with season-ending injuries.
 
"We took our lumps, but through adversity and through hard things, you have to grow and get better," head coach Bart Lundy said about the injury situation that his team faced all season. "I hope that this will help our program in the long run. It's hard to go through right now. We were picked to win the league, and this is tough to take. But I don't know how many groups could have sustained the lumps that we did and kept it together. Credit our seniors for keeping the group together. They're high-character guys."
 
Sekou Konneh led the way with 13 points, just missing a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds. He finished 6-of-9 from the floor. Josh Dixon (12 points) and Chandler Jackson (12 points/4 rebounds/6-6 FT) also finished in double figures.
 
TJ Nadeau led five UDM players in double digits with 17 points, adding six boards. Tyler Spratt had 15 points to finish next on the list.
 
MKE grabbed a 5-2 lead and then had a tough time converting open shots, seeing the home side use a 14-0 scoring run that flipped the script to a 16-5 UDM lead.
 
The Panthers found some makes and an Elam 3 had the team back within four at 19-15 courtesy of a 10-3 spurt, but Detroit Mercy would quickly extend its advantage to double-figures at 26-15.
 
The first-half deficit would grow to 36-19 before settling in at 38-24 at intermission. Orlando Lovejoy's three-point play early in the second period pushed the hole to 20 for the first time at 47-26 at the 17:36 mark.
 
"I thought we were getting good looks," Lundy said of the start of the game. "I thought they were a little more aggressive than we were. Their physicality made us rushed and maybe we were a little overanxious. I thought we were getting good shots, and we were getting paint touches. A little frustration set in because the shots weren't going down. We were only down 14 at half – we needed to come out and start the second half well. And we didn't."
 
The Panthers would battle the rest of the way but would only trade baskets for much of the final 12 minutes of the night.
 
The cold shooting hurt the comeback chances, with MKE finishing the game at 37.1 percent (23-of-62) overall and 22.7 percent (5-of-22)) from deep. The team also made 60.6 percent (12-of-20) from the line. The Titans wrapped up the night at 53.6 percent (30-of-56) overall and 36.8 percent (7-of-19) from three-point range, making 81.0 percent (17-of-21) of their charity stripe tosses.
 
The victory extends a rebound season for Detroit Mercy (8-24 overall a year ago), which won for the eighth time in its past 10 games and at 16-14 marks the most wins for the program since the 2015-16 campaign. It is also the first win over Milwaukee in the postseason since 1998 (MKE had won past five), marks its first trip to the tournament semifinals since 2013, and improves Detroit Mercy to 10-0 all-time in home postseason contests.
 
Tonight's result concludes the 2025-26 campaign for the Panthers.
 
"We hope that the core group can come back and use this experience and this adversity to grow," Lundy said. "I am not much for moral victories, but sometimes when bad things happen, you grow. You grow more when you hit adversity. So, we need to grow, and we need to get better. And find a way to keep guys healthy."