Panthers’ victory helps cap 20-win season
There would be no cutting of nets Saturday night at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena but that didn’t stop feelings of effervescence from flowing around the building after the final buzzer sounded.
The Panthers had just capped an 8172 win over Cleveland State, raining down a dominant second half that made up one of the team’s most complete efforts of the year, to cap a 20-win regular season (20-10) that saw them also go 14-6 in Horizon League play.
It didn’t lead to a share of the conference title as the Panthers had hoped it might be when IUPUI led first-place Youngstown State at halftime earlier in the evening. A Penguins rally gave them the Horizon banner – and outright, at that, as the Panthers’ win bumped Cleveland State out of a tie for first.
There was ample room for perspective from the Panthers, though.
Milwaukee was picked to finish ninth in the conference before the season began. And there was good reason for that prediction, too.
As one Panthers staffer said earlier in the year, the program wasn’t a sleeping giant when Lundy took over last March. It was lifeless.
“Not finishing ninth is really nice,” Panthers head coach Bart Lundy joked.
The Panthers finished second in the conference, their best finish since winning the regular season title in 2010-11 under Rob Jeter, and earned the No. 2 seed in the conference. They will host a Horizon tournament quarterfinal Thursday at the Klotsche Center, with Lundy choosing to play on campus in a smaller venue because it will create for a more raucous environment.
“Just what it means for the university, to establish and get back that pride in Milwaukee basketball,” Lundy said. “There’s so many of these fans that have to go back to 2010 to be proud of the program. Every single year, we want to be a perennial power in the league. And when people say, ‘Milwaukee’ they think of a really good basketball team.”
The Panthers have played this season like a team picked to finish ninth, not in execution but in aggression and attitude. They press full-court on defense, play assertively in transition, fly high for highlight dunks and often go up and down the floor with a little attitude.
Setting the tone in many ways is BJ Freeman. Most nights, the Panthers go as he goes in both confidence and play. That sure held true Saturday.
Freeman scored a career-high 31 points to notch his 11th conference game with at least 20 points, shooting 8 of 17 and hitting 12 of his 13 free throws.
Freeman fueled a quick turnaround out of the break after another sloppy first half for the Panthers – something they no doubt will need to clean up before Thursday.
Milwaukee entered the locker room trailing, 36-31, thanks in large part to the 13 turnovers it committed.
The Panthers grabbed a lead on a Freeman three-point play with 16:13 to play, then increased their lead with a 13-3 run over three minutes, 31 seconds.
Ahmad Rand capped the run with an emphatic poster dunk off an offensive board that made it 63-49.
Freeman surpassed his previous career high of 30 with a pair of free throws with 9:54 remaining but didn’t reappear in the game after his knee collided hard with the court a few minutes later. After heading back to the locker room with a member of the team’s athletic training staff, Freeman gingerly walked back to the bench toward the conclusion of the game and remained there.
“My knee’s been pretty much banged up for about a week and a half, both of them,” Freeman said. “They’ve been swelling. I’ve been getting treatment on it but it got to the point after I banged it on the floor where I couldn’t push it. But I’ll be fine.”
Will Freeman be healthy by next Thursday?
“Of course.”
The Panthers locked down on defense in the second half, holding the Vikings to 33.3% shooting in the period. The Vikings went 32 minutes and 9 seconds without hitting a three, which was a far cry from recent games from Milwaukee’s opponents. Over their previous six games, the Panthers were allowing an average of 12.2 made threes with double digit makes in each contest.
Milwaukee still battled its own turnover woes in the second half, finishing with 23 on the night, but buoyed that by shooting 48.1% from the field and making 23 free throws, including Kentrell Pullian sinking all eight of his attempts to ice the game.
Rand finished with 12 points on senior night as he, Moses Bol and Vin Baker Jr. were honored before the game. The ceremony was a reminder of another reason for excitement around the program: the Panthers lose only 16.3% of their minutes from 2022-23 to graduating players.
What Milwaukee did this regular season, it did it with not only with young players, but young players who were almost entirely new to Division-I basketball. And nearly the entire roster was new to the program.
Freeman, a sophomore, transferred in from Dodge Community College. Pullian played D-II. Justin Thomas, who finished the game with nine points, seven boards, four assists and three steals, played previously at junior college and under Lundy in D-II. Starting point guard Elijah Jamison is a true freshman. The list goes on and on.
The current on-court version of the Panthers looks nothing like it did over the summer when the team first reported to campus and underwent what Lundy calls a high-intensity “boot camp” of workouts and conditioning drills. But the players bought into the motto of stacking good days, spending time at each other’s apartments and going out to eat at Canela Cafe on Downer Avenue.
“We knew something was there before the season even started,” Freeman said. “We were coming together. Just spending time with each other, growing a bond that’s so strong and nobody can break it. Like Coach said, it’s us versus the world.”
Now, though, the focus shrinks. It’s the Panthers versus just three unknown opponents if they want to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014.
“We got to 20 wins but the job’s not done yet,” Freeman said. “Like we said, they picked us ninth.”