Every Panthers’ (6-3) starter scored between eight and 12 points in a 64-51 victory against SIU-Edwardsville (1-6) on Thursday night in the Panther Arena.
“It’s good to see that,” Head Coach Rob Jeter said. “It doesn’t allow a team to come in and really focus in on one guy, or two guys.”
Milwaukee took a small 29-26 lead into the half after shooting a lackluster 9-for-31 (29 percent) from the field. The Panthers pulled away in the second half behind the strength of an outstanding 13-for-23 (56.5 percent) performance. For the game, UWM shot 22-for-54 (40.7 percent).
“This game was played kind of exactly how I thought it would play out,” Jeter said. “SIUE has done a nice job in the first half of all their games except one. They have good players – their bigs inside are tough to handle and that’s part of the reason why we had a lot of respect for that. I thought our guys did a nice job in both halves of sticking to our plan.”
Matt Tiby led the team with 12 points and eight rebounds. Jordan Johnson chipped in with 10 points, seven rebounds and a game-high seven assists. Cody Wichmann joined them in double figures with 10 points.
Carlos Anderson led SIUE with 10 points.
Milwaukee will make the short trip to Madison on Wednesday to face the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m.