UW-Milwaukee basketball cruised to a 56-point victory in their season opener against NCAA Division III-Lakeland on Monday night at the Klotsche Center. Their 118 points were the second most in a single game in school history.
Transfers Lead the Way
Transfer point guard Themus Fulks made his presence known early, scoring and then assisting the first two Panther baskets of the contest. Fulks, a redshirt senior from Louisiana-Lafayette, is one of six transfers in black and gold this year.
Fellow transfer Jamichael Stillwell led Milwaukee with 18 points and 14 rebounds in just 20 minutes of play.
“I want to come out like a ‘dawg,'” said Stillwell. “The more aggressive I am when I come out, you kind of scare them up.”
Monday was Stillwell’s NCAA debut – the 6-foot-8 junior spent the previous two years at the NJCAA’s Butler CC and Miami-Dade CC, respectively. He averaged 12.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game at Butler last year.
“It’s what we see everyday from him,” said head coach Bart Lundy on the tone Stillwell set early. “He’s physical inside… really good on the glass.”
Preseason second team all-league selections AJ McKee, making his Panther debut, and Erik Pratt each chipped in 14 points. McKee, a transfer from Queens (NC) waited 13 minutes to score his first bucket, finishing through traffic while drawing a foul.
John Lovelace Jr. added points including a sensational alley-oop dunk in late in the first half. The Brown Deer native came from Horizon League rival Youngstown State over the offseason.
Louisville transfer and former Whitnall standout Danilo Jovanovich did not play due to illness.
Odessa College transfer Esyah Pippa-White along with redshirt freshmen Maurice Thomas and Austin Villarreal each made their NCAA debuts on Monday night. Pippa-White was 1-for-5 from the field while Villarreal made his lone field goal attempt.
After stalling for much of the first half, UWM basketball took a 19-point lead into the intermission with a late scoring surge. Their full-court press led to 19 Lakeland turnovers and 34 points off those takeaways.
“We talked as a group about playing for each other,” said Lundy on their halftime adjustments, “having more joy, getting other people shots, being connected defensively.”
Milwaukee outscored their in-state opponents 66-29 in the second half, their highest scoring output in a second half in school history.
But in these games, success isn’t necessarily defined by the result on the scoreboard.
“First of all, it’s the spirit of the team,” explained Lundy on what he looks for. “Did we play the right way? I don’t know that we absolutely did in the first half, but the second half was good.
“We were more connected defensively… And I thought we would dominate the glass, but that was as good as you get.”
UWM outscored Lakeland 80-22 in the paint and grabbed 56 of the 80 rebounds in the contest. The fast-paced Panthers added 43 points on fastbreaks.
“The pacing got better as the game went on,” said Lundy, admitting he tried some unconventional lineups against the D-III opponent. “When we get the lineups we’re used to playing in practice, we flow better.”
Tim Ward led the Sheboygan-based squad with 20 points including 7-for-9 from the field. The Illinois native was the lone Muskie in double digits as 18 different players saw the court.
Lakeland competes in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, which serves 14 institutions including the Milwaukee area-based Concordia, MSOE, Wisconsin Lutheran and Alverno.
The Panthers entered the season as the projected No. 1 team in the Horizon League for the first time since 2006. A conference tournament championship would mark their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014.
Milwaukee begins a three-game road swing on Thursday against Northern Iowa and 2024 NCAA Tournament challengers Longwood and Duquesne. They return home for the Cream City Challenge from Nov. 22-24 at the UWM Panther Arena.