Panthers suffer through a long night
The UW-Milwaukee Panthers got their first look at one of the best teams the Horizon League has to offer on Thursday night.
The results weren’t pretty. Overwhelmed defensively and out of sync offensively, UWM suffered its worst loss of the season, 91-64, to Northern Kentucky at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
Big man Drew McDonald, the Horizon League’s preseason player of the year, scored a game-high 25 points, and Lavone Holland and Tyler Sharpe added 19 points apiece as the second-place Norsemen shot 60% overall.
It was easily the best shooting performance to date against the Panthers (9-12, 2-6), who have now lost four straight and five of six with first-place and league-unbeaten Wright State coming to town on Saturday.
“Tonight was certainly not our night,” said coach Pat Baldwin, whose team was playing its first home game of 2018 after five straight on the road.
“We came up against a very good opponent that returned a lot of quality players inside and out. They dictated tempo from the very beginning; they set the tone for how they wanted to play and we couldn’t match that.
“We couldn’t get anything going offensively. They took our rhythm away. But the way they handled us offensively kind of affected how we played on the defensive end. There’s a lot to learn from this.”
Northern Kentucky (13-6, 6-1) — which ended UWM’s surprising run in the championship game of the Horizon League Tournament last March — scored the first six points of the game and never looked back.
The Norsemen shot 55.6% in opening a 49-23 halftime lead, and led by as many as 30 points midway through the second half.
UWM pushed back briefly right out of intermission, scoring the first six points and forcing four Northern Kentucky turnovers. But Carson Warren-Newsome blew a point-blank layup that would have cut the deficit to 49-32.
UWM was whistled for a technical foul with 6 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the game for calling a timeout when it had none left.
“I think our guys, when I look in their eyes and I talk to them, they’re ready to play,” Baldwin said when asked about his team’s effort level. “They really want to be out there.”
The Panthers played the second half without point guard August Haas, who had to be helped off the court after apparently twisting his ankle.
Brock Stull scored 12 points and Brett Prahl 11 to lead the Panthers.