Panthers’ defense states its case well
At first glance, the season bests in points and three-point accuracy jump out in UW-Milwaukee’s 87-79 victory over Detroit on Saturday night at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
But it was the defense — especially late — that had coach Pat Baldwin beaming afterward.
The Panthers tightened the screws on the Titans in the second half, limiting them to just 32.3% from the floor over the final 20 minutes, one field goal over the final 8 minutes 25 seconds and two points over the final 5:17 in moving to 1-1 in Horizon League play.
“In order to be a very good team, you have to dig in and find it from within to try to get as many stops as you can, and it starts with that first one,” said Baldwin, who knows a thing or two about defense himself after being named the Big Ten’s defensive player of the year for 1993-’94 while playing guard at Northwestern.
“Our guys were really locked in late. The team that wound up getting more stops at the end was going to win this game, and our guys certainly did that.”
Detroit (4-11, 0-2), which entered on an eight-game losing streak and with just two Division I victories to its credit on the season, shot 54.3% in the first half and was even with UWM (8-7) well into the second half before a pair of Brett Prahl free throws with 6:45 remaining put the Panthers ahead to stay at 75-73.
The Titans managed three field goals over the final 11:33 and only Tariiq Jones’s layup with 5:50 remaining kept them from being shut out from the floor for nearly the final 81⁄2 minutes.
“It’s a group effort, and it takes everybody to sit down and defend,” said Jeremiah Bell, who led UWM’s potent offensive attack with an 18point outing.
“Communication is a big part of it. We just told ourselves going into the huddle we’ve got to take some pride in our defense and man up and stop the man in front of you.”
UWM also shot a season-high 35 free throws, one more than it had in its last th ree games combined. Th e Panth ers h it just 23, but getting to th e ch arity line th at often offers a number of positives for a team.
“Sometimes your best defense is good offense; we got to the foul line 35 times,” Baldwin said. “We want to make more, but th at slows down their transition. It limits their opportunities and allows us to get our defense set.”
Brock Stull added 17 points and freshman Carson Warren-Newsome scored a career-h igh 13 as th e Panthers once again utilized a balanced offensive attack. Nine players scored in all and six connected from long range, as UWM’s total of 12 th reepointers fell one shy of tying a season high.
Bryce Nze, ejected from the Panthers’ loss on Thursday to Oakland, was h eld out of th e starting lineup but still managed to produce with eigh t rebounds, four blocked sh ots and three assists before fouling out in 25 minutes of action.
Gaining a split to open Horizon League play was a necessity for UWM, wh ich now embarks on a tough five-game road swing. Th e Panth ers won’t return h ome until Jan. 18.