Your Milwaukee Panthers fought a valiant battle in Wichita, Kansas Saturday night. Milwaukee (2-4, 0-0) opened the game playing nearly flawless while the Wichita State Shockers were, for a solid 10 minutes, a listless ship-made-of-bricks, taking on water and allowing the Panthers to lead by as many as 11 with multiple opportunities to lead by a lot more than that.
Danilo Jovanovich (12pts, 4reb) proved to be a frontline force against high competition once again getting the Panthers' motor going from the tip.
But around the 10-minute mark of the first half, Wichita State (4-1, 0-0) found their shooting. And with basketball being a game of runs, they capitalized with their first and most consequential run in this game. WSU steadily cut into the Milwaukee's sizeable early lead and the teams would enter break with Milwaukee up by just a basket, 30-28.
The second half featured a more even contest with Milwaukee holding onto a 2-3 point lead for dear life as the Shockers cut further into it. And sure enough, the Shockers took control of the game reins, going up 47-44 with 11 minutes left in the second. The WSU outside shooters went to work with Michael Gray (24pts on 4-7 from 3pt) and Kenyon Giles torching the Panthers from mid-range and distance and extending the Shocker lead into insurmountable territory.
A glimmer of hope appeared when Seth Hubbard (10pts, 5ast) brought the Panthers within 4 with a couple of beautiful mid-range fadeaways, but it was not in the cards for Milwaukee to pull off the road upset in this game. Milwaukee lost to Wichita State, 75-58 for their third loss in a row, mercifully ending what was arguably the most challenging non-con road trip in program history.
Rebounding was a major factor in this loss. WSU nabbed 45 offensive rebounds to Milwaukee's 36, but the gap seemed bigger. They converted on second chances as consistently as we missed layups, put-backs and bunny shots (the Panthers' hoop was sealed by an otherworldly force in the second half).
Milwaukee did not shoot the game-target 30 three pointers and converted just 6 of the 23 that they did shoot for a dismal 26%. The Panthers also shot just 21-59 (36%) overall from the field, which, won't cut it against a team like Wichita State.
One of the most glaring problems emerging for this Panther squad is the lack of effective point guard play. In this loss, Pippa-White, Dixon and Dorceus combined for a paltry 6 pts and 2 assists at the point guard position for Milwaukee. That has to improve by a lot, or it'll be a long and middling season.
The opportunity was there in this one, but it takes a near-flawless game to upset a good program on the road, and we simply made far too many mistakes. This team continues to show that it can play toe-to-toe with some of the best- for 35 minutes at least- but to be the best you do have to defeat some of the best teams from time to time.
The Panthers return to Milwaukee for a game against Dominican (DIII) on 11/25 at 6pm at the Klotsche Center before another road game at Akron 11/29 at 6pm. It's time to even this record up and get some major momentum going into the conference schedule.
go panthers.
tilt the floor. 🏆🏀
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