The Milwaukee Panthers (1-1) fell to the Eastern Kentucky Colonels (3-0) 77-71 Saturday night at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. After trailing by as much as 26, the Panthers pulled within five, but couldn’t overcome the deficit. Josh Thomas led the team in scoring.
Milwaukee portrayed their ability to fight and comeback after being outplayed in the first half.
“We turned the ball over too much and gave them momentum and we gave them the lead,” said Panthers Head Coach Pat Baldwin. “We put ourselves in a huge deficit. If we take care of the ball like we did in the second half I think it’s a different ball game.”
The Panthers deployed a different starting five Saturday, featuring a three-guard setup of DeAndre Gholston, Donovan Newby and Patrick Baldwin Jr. In addition, Vin Baker Jr. started at forward and Joey St. Pierre started at center.
Thomas led the team with 23 points (10-12 FG, 0-2 3Pt, 3-4 FT) off the bench, including six rebounds, an assist and a block in 35 minutes. Gholston added 22 points (9-21 FG, 2-7 3Pt, 2-2 FT) with eight rebounds and a steal. In addition, Baldwin Jr. had a double-double, with 19 points (7-20 FG, 2-9 3Pt, 3-3 FT), 11 rebounds, fours assists, a steal and a block. He is the first freshman in team history to record a double-double in his first two games.
“Josh (Thomas) is extremely valuable to our team, especially in a game like this,” said Baldwin. “Where you need extra ball handling, you need extra attackers and he’s aggressive too.”
Despite his great performance, Thomas was not pleased with the result.
“I’m 100 percent a sore loser,” Thomas said. “I wanted to win the game. I feel like I didn’t do enough. We couldn’t get more prepared and we had everything set up for what we were supposed to do as a team. We got to get better and we got to execute.”
Devontae Blanton led the Colonels in scoring with 12 points (4-7 FG, 1-1 3Pt, 3-4 FT), including six rebounds and three assists. Unlike the Panthers, Eastern Kentucky had four players score in double digits.
Eastern Kentucky ran a full-court press defense against Milwaukee and the Panthers were not prepared for it. They were overwhelmed by the strong defense in the first half and struggled taking care of the ball. They turned it over 13 times compared to the Colonels’ four. In result, Eastern Kentucky took eight more shots than Milwaukee, and made seven three pointers in the half.
After scoring Milwaukee’s first five points, Baldwin Jr. went scoreless the rest of the half. He was just 2-for-7 from the field. DeAndre Gholston led the Panthers with 10 first-half points. Milwaukee struggled getting to the line, taking just two free throws in the half, while the Colonels took nine. The Panthers trailed 46-31 at halftime.
Baldwin mentioned that his team needs to prioritize aggressiveness in future games.
“I think as you’re more aggressive, you shoot more free throws,” he said. “We only shot nine free throws for the game. We need to be more aggressive, we need to get to the paint more and we need to be a little more forceful as well to get to the free throw line.”
In the second half, the Panthers went on an 11-0 run, the game’s longest for either team. They cut the lead down to six with a few minutes left, but ultimately ran out of time. Thomas, Baldwin Jr. and Gholston combined for 64 of the team’s 71 points. The trio attempted 53 of the team’s 65 shots.
The Colonels shot 39.4% from the three-point line compared to the Panthers’ 21.7%. In addition, they attempted 10 more free throws than Milwaukee. The Panthers were able to keep the game close in the end by outrebounding the Colonels by five and scoring 12 more points in the paint.
Samba Kane left the game in the second quarter, however, it turned out to just be a cramp. The Panthers played without Tafari Simms (groin) and Jordan Lathon (hip flexor) in Saturday’s game. They are both still waiting on an MRI.
The Panther Arena housed 4,318 fans for what was the biggest crowd for a Milwaukee basketball game since 2014. Saturday was the home opener and homecoming game.
“It (the crowd) worked with us both ways,” said Baldwin Jr. “It was the first time we were playing in front of our big home crowd and it kind of threw us off a little bit. In the second half you could see when we started playing well they started getting behind us and we started feeding off their energy.”
Thomas emphasized how important the fans are to him.
“I thought it was amazing,” he said. “This is my third year being at Milwaukee, last season we had a COVID season so no fans were in the stands. This is my first time seeing this building this packed. I’m just a little upset we let those fans down.”
Milwaukee opened the season with a win Tuesday night at North Dakota, while the Colonels started the season 2-0 with wins over Georgetown (KY) and Ohio Valley. The Panthers have an important matchup against the nationally ranked Florida Gators in Florida on Thursday, Nov. 18.