A lopsided matchup turned into a tight contest before the UWM Panthers pulled away with an 87-71 victory on Thursday night. UWM improved to 10-10 with the win, 5-4 in Horizon League play.
Milwaukee’s aggressive but often sloppy first-half performance kept Detroit Mercy within striking distance early. Emmanuel Kuac’s half-court bank shot cut the lead to nine at the break.
A 10-0 Titan run to start the second half gave them their first lead of the game at 46-45, a lead they would hold for just two minutes. After a few minutes of back-and-forth play, Milwaukee took control in the middle of the second half, pulling away on the heels of a 17-3 run.
Thursday marked Detroit Mercy’s 21st consecutive loss to start the season, one of just two teams in the NCAA’s top division without a win.
“We had some adversity there in the second half and we got better, we got stops,” said Lundy. “We weren’t able to do that at Northern Kentucky or at Wright State.”
Though the Panthers scored an above-average 87 points, their defense proved to be the difference in the win. They forced 16 turnovers and held Detroit Mercy to just 39 percent shooting from the field.
“We simplified everything,” said head coach Bart Lundy, speaking about his team’s defensive efforts on Thursday. “I thought in the second half when we made that run, we started really getting to help, really challenging their shots.”
Among the notable defensive efforts was their holding of Jayden Stone to just 6-15 on shooting and 0-4 from three-point range. Stone entered Thursday as Detroit Mercy’s leading scorer, averaging nearly 20 points per game.
“Our overall defense on Jayden Stone was excellent,” said Lundy. “Just excellent.”
The surprise of the matchup was guard Emmanuel Kuac, who nearly doubled his entire season’s scoring output. The Canadian graduate student scored 27 points in a career-high 34 minutes, despite entering Thursday’s contest averaging just 2.3 points per game.
A strong defensive effort turned defense into offense as Milwaukee outscored the Titans 31-8 on fast breaks. The fast-paced nature of the Panthers’ offense overwhelmed Detroit Mercy at times, but also contributed to their opponent’s early second-half run.
“We’re going to play fast,” said Lundy after the game. “We’re going to try to win in transition. Tonight, we had 16 turnovers, a little much. But we’re going to try to run, and sometimes you’d rather turn it over playing fast than playing slow.”
The guard pairing of BJ Freeman and Kentrell Pullian led the way in both the scoring and rebounding department, scoring 22 and 20 points respectively. The duo each grabbed double-digit rebounds.
“Good guards rebound,” said Freeman after the game. “That’s where we try to impact, rebounding the ball, helping out bigs in there and go fight for rebounds.”
Nearly halfway through the conference season, the Panthers sit within striking distance of a coveted first-place finish in a crowded Horizon League. As of Thursday night, six teams remain separated by just one loss.
Up to this point the 2023-24 campaign has been an up-and-down affair for Milwaukee. Lundy hopes Thursday’s win proves to be the catalyst for a midseason surge.
“Saturday is really the biggest game of the year for us,” said Lundy, looking ahead at UWM’s matchup with Oakland on Saturday. “It’d be nice to get on a roll.”
The Panthers return to action on Saturday with a matinee matchup against Oakland. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. at the UWM Panther Arena.