Slipping through fingers
Turnovers cause second-half slide
UW-Milwaukee’s quest for consecutive victories will have to wait for another day.
Mark Alstork scored all 17 of his points in the second half, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 55.8 seconds remaining, to lead the Wright State Raiders past the Panthers, 70-67, on Saturday afternoon at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
UWM (5-13, 1-4 Horizon League), which has yet to win two straight games under first-year coach LaVall Jordan, also didn’t help itself by committing 16 turnovers — its second-highest total in a game this season.
Ten of those came in the second half, helping Wright State (12-7, 3-3) erase the 11-point lead the Panthers had opened up with 14 minutes remaining.
“Just too many turnovers,” said Jordan. “If there was one thing to point to, and something that we’d been doing fairly well, it’s taking care of the basketball and giving ourselves a chance.
“But 16 turnovers are too many.”
Alstork’s first five points kick-started an 11-0 Raiders run that tied the game at 47 with 9 minutes 4 seconds left, and Wright State took its first lead of the game soon after at 5149.
The game see-sawed from there with Brock Stull’s runner at the 1:12 mark giving UWM its final lead at 66-64. Alstork answered on the other end with a three from the left wing to put Wright State back in front, 67-66, with just under a minute remaining.
In 31 minutes off the bench, Alstork turned in a stat-stuffer performance with 17 points, seven assists, five rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.
“He’s a senior, he’s got some experience, so he did a good job of operating on the inside. Then a couple times we just lost him,” said Jordan. “We didn’t stick to our principles in the way we should have been covering him, and when we made those mistakes he took full advantage of them.
“You have to be locked in, you have to be focused on the details of the scouting report. When we didn’t do that, we paid.”
The Panthers had a chance to take the lead back after Alstork’s three, but Brett Prahl came up short on a well-defended shot in the lane.
Justin Mitchell split a pair of free throws with 7.4 seconds left to leave the door cracked for UWM. Wright State then fouled Jeremiah Bell with 3.9 seconds left, before the Panthers could attempt a potential gametying three.
Bell hit the first and then intentionally missed the second, but the Panthers were unable to secure the rebound and attempt one final shot.
“That much time on the clock, he made the first one and so you have a chance,” Jordan said. “Bryce (Nze) had a hand on it and just couldn’t get it out. It’s hard to miss on purpose.”
Stull had 16 points, four rebounds and four assists to pace UWM, while Prahl and Cody Wichmann each added 12 points.
Mitchell’s 21 points and 12 rebounds led Wright State, which shot 53.8% in the second half.