Panthers struggle at crunch time

The effort was there throughout for the UW-Milwaukee Panthers on Saturday afternoon.

The execution in crunch time proved to be another matter.

Trailing by three points with 1 minute 48 seconds remaining, UWM missed two potential tying three-pointers and the front end of two bonus situations before eventually falling to Montana State, 6864, at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

“What it comes down to in a game like this — especially when it’s late and it’s tight — is execution,” said coach Pat Baldwin, whose team had scratched out a 7562 win at Northern Illinois three days earlier.

“That’s the bottom line. It’s a four-point game, a three-point game, we have opportunities and we didn’t execute the way we wanted to. From that standpoint it’s very disappointing, because our guys gave us everything that they had.”

The Panthers (5-3) were out of sync in a big way in the first half, enduring a scoreless spell of 8:05 and turning the ball over 12 times, yet found themselves within 29-27 at intermission.

They came out firing on all cylinders in the second half, hitting their first five shots to grab a 39-34 lead, and stayed in front until the Bobcats (6-3) pulled even on a three with 9:32 remaining.

The lead see-sawed back and forth the rest of the way. After Brock Stull’s layup tied the game at 64-64 with 2:12 left, Montana State’s Tyler Hall drilled a long three from the left wing on the other end to make it 6764.

Stull missed a long three badly and Jeremiah Bell the front end of a bonus, yet the Panthers still had a chance to tie after forcing a Bobcats miss and calling a timeout with 25.2 seconds remaining.

Bell ultimately missed a long three out of the stoppage. UWM rebounded, but Jeremy Johnson missed the front end of another bonus, and the Bobcats’ Isaac Bonton sank a free throw on the other end to salt it away.

“We just couldn’t get enough defensive stops in order to push it to our side a little bit,” Baldwin said. “Give Montana State a lot of credit. They hit the shots when they were open; some of our guys may have fallen or there may have been some defensive lapses.

“Still, we had opportunities to capitalize on, and we didn’t seize those opportunities.”

Brett Prahl tied a career high with 18 points and Johnson 12 to pace the Panthers, who actually out-shot the Bobcats, 42.3% to 41.5%.

Hall, who poured in 42 in UWM’s victory at Montana State last season, managed 23 on 8-for-19 shooting in this one.