It was an all too familiar scene. Just before tip-off it was announced one of the basketball players was out late the previous night, was arrested, and would not be participating in Saturday’s game. The only difference, this time it was the Panthers’ opponent that was getting into trouble off the court.

Bradley senior guard, and also the teams second leading scorer and leader in assists, Daniel Ruffin was suspended indefinitely before Saturday’s BracketBuster match up. Add his subtraction with that of third-leading scorer Andrew Warren, who is sidelined with a broken hand, and the Braves bench began to look a little depleted.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter said he did not alter his game plan at all when he found out about the suspension.

"When I hear something like that, I prepare for him being there," Jeter said. "I don't believe them until I see he's not out there at tip-off."

Unfortunately for Panther fans, neither players’ absence seemed to matter, as Bradley walked out of Carver Arena with an 84-72 victory over a UWM team that has lost five of their last six games.

The Braves were led by a pair of guards, senior Jeremy Crouch and freshman Sam Maniscalco. Crouch scored a game-high 24 and seemed to be able to answer the Panthers anytime they attempted to cut into the Braves lead. Maniscalco added 13, and just appeared to be too quick for whoever was matched up against him.

Maybe the most important stat of the game wasn’t what Bradley did, but what the Panthers didn’t do, and that was score for a stretch of over six minutes.

This isn’t the first time a scoreless drought like that has happened recently, as the team went nearly 10 minutes without putting the ball in the hoop against in-state rival Green Bay just one week ago.

"We had another lull of about seven minutes where we didn't score," Jeter said. "It's disturbing because I can't quite figure out why we continue to hit those lulls. Certainly some of it has to do with the teams we are playing."

The shooting woes plagued almost the whole team as UWM finished just 40 percent from the field for the evening.

The only players who seemed immune to the cold shooting were sophomore Charlie Swiggett and freshman Anthony Hill. Swiggett came off the bench and scored a season-high 13 points to lead all Panthers while Hill added nine more in just eight minutes of action.

The Panthers will try to end this mini-slump they are in on Monday when they take on Horizon League newcomer Valparaiso at 8 p.m. at the U.S. Cellular Arena. This will be UWM’s third game in six days.

> Comments