Panthers survive comeback for big win
Antoine Davis seems hellbent on giving Pete Maravich a serious run for his money.
He sure gave UW-Milwaukee one Thursday night, too.
Davis, the nation’s leading scorer, caught fire in the second half and scored 42 points but the Panthers endured the furious comeback attempt he led for Detroit Mercy for a 94-89 win at the Panther Arena.
Davis chasing Pistol Pete
Davis entered the day 268 points behind the legend Maravich’s longstanding NCAA career scoring record of 3,667 points. Early on, the Panthers hounded him on defense in an effort led by Markeith Browning II, not giving Davis, who averaged 26.6 points per game entering the game, space off of screens and forcing him into contested jumpers.
“That’s the best game that I’ve seen Markeith play,” Panthers head coach Bart Lundy said. “He’s been really embracing that defensive stopper identity. We were all upset after last game and he was as focused as I’ve ever seen.”
Then Davis and the Titans caught fire. Milwaukee saw a lead of 56-39 evaporate midway through the second half. Davis hit 5 threes and Detroit made eight of nine during a 30-11 extended run over a 10-minute stretch to take a 70-67 lead.
When Davis buried a three to go up 7370, it marked 23 points for him in a span of seven minutes, 12 seconds.
“If you leave him, even for a second, he’s going to get the ball and shoot it,” Panthers guard BJ Freeman.
Milwaukee, which had largely struggled for two weeks and lost a deflating game to last-place UW-Green Bay on Monday, refused to pack it in.
Big shots from lift Panthers
Freeman scored 26 points and dished out 10 assists to lead the Panthers, and came up with myriad big shots in the second half. He sunk a pair of triples consecutively during the middle of the Titans’ pendulum-swinging run to keep the Panthers afloat, then responded with his sixth three of the night to take an 83-80 lead with just over three minutes to play.
Four straight Titans free throws gave the lead back to the visitors but Elijah Jamison hit the shot of the night, a three from the wing on a pass from Kentrell Pullian putting the Panthers up, 89-87, with 1:44 to go.
“Elijah doesn’t get enough credit, but as a freshman coming into these games, I looked at his face before the game started and he had that warrior’s mask on,” Lundy said.
As it did for the final four minutes as Detroit failed to make a field goal, Milwaukee blitzed Davis on the ensuing possession and got the ball out of his hands. Ahmad Rand blocked a shot – his school-record setting 55th of the year – and then Justin Thomas came away with a steal.
“We just started doubling them,” Freeman
said. “I started on No. 2 (Kyle LeGreair) and just went to double team ‘AD’ because we knew every time he was going to get the ball and something was going to go up. He was going to chuck something up. So we just focused on him and No. 2, he couldn’t really shoot like that, so it was just executing what coach told us to do.”
Pullian hit a pair of free throws to go up by four and Thomas made another two at to ice the game with 15 seconds left.
Browning goes down with injury
Browning was in arguably his best allaround game as a Panther when he came down and landed on a Titans player’s foot, appearing to roll his left ankle, with just over eight minutes to play in the second half.
Lundy said postgame he wasn’t sure of the injury’s severity.
Browning had 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting, six rebounds and six assists with no turnovers while also making life as tough as possible for Davis before going down.
Milwaukee gave up the lead for the first time since the game’s opening moments almost immediately after Browning left the contest and Lundy noted how the team responded promptly.
“I thought our guys rallied,” Lundy said. “I told them that their bottles got turned over and they found a way to pick them back up. Found a way to win. Made some big plays down the stretch.
How about that first half?
Milwaukee finished the game with an impressive 1.362 points per possession, its best showing against a Division I opponent this season and third-best against a D-I team since 2008, according to BartTorvik.com.
The Panthers led 50-31 going into the break after shooting 70% from the field and 60% from three. They only turned the ball over five times. Browning led the way with 15 points while holding Davis to 3 for 11 shooting from the field.