Brown Deer grad burns Panthers with soaring dunks
Once again, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found itself in overtime against Youngstown State.
Once again, the Panthers found themselves equally unable to convert on offense and get stops on the other end.
The Penguins opened the extra period by scoring on their first five possessions, putting the Panthers in a hole they couldn’t overcome en route to an 84-80 loss Friday night at Panther Arena.
“It’s all toughness,” Panthers head coach Bart Lundy said. “It’s all toughness. When we’re tough, we’re good. When we’re not good enough, we just slip into the not-tough mode. We just don’t have the margins to do that.”
There were bits of Friday night where the Panthers displayed the requisite toughness Lundy was looking for.
Then once overtime arrived, the Panthers simply couldn’t get a stop.
Milwaukee erased a 14-point halftime deficit and forced overtime on Faizon Fields’ game-tying basket with 14 seconds to play. They played connected on defense and shared the ball well on offense.
The Penguins, who scored 20 points and started off on a 10-2 run in overtime against the Panthers at Youngstown State earlier this month, did not have a single possession without scoring for the entire five-minute period until turning the ball over on an inbounds pass with 5.6 seconds to play.
Brown Deer High graduate John Lovelace silenced the crowd with an emphatic dunk plus a foul in transition, then broke the Panthers backs for good with a putback slam with 31 seconds left right after Milwaukee had clawed back to within two points. In all, Lovelace had three dunks in overtime.
The Panthers missed a pair of looks from three with just under 20 seconds to play that would have cut the deficit to one and the Penguins’ DJ Burns hit a pair of free throws to push the lead to six with 10 seconds to play to ice the contest.
In the two overtimes against the Panthers this year, the Penguins shot 12 of 18 from the field and made 13 free throws.
The loss dropped Milwaukee to 9-8 in Horizon League play and into a tie for sixth place with Cleveland State.
BJ Freeman scored 22 points to lead the Panthers but shot just 6 of 18 from the field. Kentrell Pullian and Fields each had 13 points.
Milwaukee trailed, 39-25, at the half after shooting a trepidatious 22.9% (8 for 35) from the field. The Panthers, despite their constant effort, could not crack the interior defense of the Penguins, which was anchored by 7-foot-3 center Gabe Dynes.
“22.9%,” Lundy said. “We can say we missed shots. But that’s all toughness. 20 offensive rebounds allowed. That’s all toughness. 52 points in the paint, a season-high. That’s all toughness. That’s what it is. That’s what it is for this team.
“I think they’re getting it. But the sooner we realize that, the better chance we have in this tournament coming up.”
What is leading to the Panthers having bouts of not being tough enough in Lundy’s eyes?
“It’s a few things,” he said. “One is chemistry. We’re quick to get upset with each other and then you go from rowing in the same direction to not and it can happen in a single play. Some of it is focus. There’s some guys that lose focus pretty quickly...
“We just get caught up in the little, little things that don’t matter – a lot.”
A 15-2 run early in the second half not only got the Panthers back in the game but gave them a lead at 47-45. The two sides would go back and forth the rest of the way with seven lead changes over the final 10 minutes.
Milwaukee remained aggressive on offense with its drives to the rim and got both Dynes and backup center Imanuel Zorgvol fouled out during regulation.
But the player who entered the game only after both had fouled out was the one who ultimately burned the Panthers: Lovelace.
It was not the first time this year that a local product burned Milwaukee on its home floor, either; Pewaukee graduate Jack Gohlke of Oakland hit 8 threes and scored 27 points in a double OT loss for the Panthers on January 27.
Lovelace, who attended Wauwatosa East before transferring into Brown Deer later in his high school career after a stop at a prep school in Missouri, scored 15 points, a road career-high, in only 19 minutes.