Pounce approves- this Milwaukee Panther team is a whole lotta fun to watch
The final game in the Cream City Classic featured your Milwaukee Panthers vs. Southeast Missouri State as the opponent. The SEMO Redhawks (5-3, 0-0) were picked for 4th in the Ohio Valley Conference by most sports media outlets. Much like against the higher-touted Boston U and UC Davis before them, Milwaukee was playing downhill in most of the contest, and would emerge victorious, 84-68, for the third Panther victory in three days.
Milwaukee (5-3, 0-0) got of to a rather sluggish start. SEMO looked a step quicker for much of the the first 5 minutes and even maintained a brief lead. But that is about as precarious as it got for the Panthers on this Monday night.
Because before any kind of sizable Redhawk lead could be built to capitalize on another bevy of early Milwaukee turnovers, SEMO went ice cold. And Milwaukee began heating up. Shortly into the 2nd half Milwaukee was up by ~20 for a good 5 minute stretch. We went on an 18-0 run at one point and had 6 forced turnovers during that run!
The Panthers thoroughly controlled the game and though they looked to be worthy adversaries, by the end of 40 minutes of "hell on hardwood" from the Panther defense, the SEMO Redhawks were probably happy to get on the bus and move on, in a sense, from this disaster.
Milwaukee dominated its own MTE event/tournament- as it should. And now the unfortunate, but at-least-hard-fought loss to St. Thomas seems ages ago. One thing that is most noticeable is a general positive air about all discussion on all things Milwaukee Panther Basketball (and by extension the new Lundy era and some of these amazing players that are rapidly making themselves household names).
The exciting and positive energy that Ahmad Rand and Markeith Browning and sometimes Moses Bol bring in the form of dunks and blocks and overall amp'ing up the defense via vigilantly patrolling the post is invaluable to this relatively DI-inexperienced and newly-formed Milwaukee team.
The echoes of Panther fans talking outside the Klotsche Center and online after this resoundingly successful MTE were clear: "Milwaukee Panther Basketball is really good again".
Maybe a bit too fast as 5-3 does not make any kind of champion. But here in Milwaukee PantherfanLand we'll gladly take the wins in bunches and celebrate all the victories in this journey.
BJ Freeman (23pts, 8reb, 3ast) was our leading scorer and had a career night- a first of many career nights as a Panther, I suspect. Justin Thomas (19pts, 13reb, 4ast, 3stl) played out of his mind and Markeith Browning (12pts, 5reb, 2blk) continues his warpath to establishing himself one of the leaders on this team. These are just three of the 6 or 7 players we have that can go for 15pts on any given night. This is a luxury we have been mostly starved of for over a decade.
It wasn't all good of course. We actually lost the turnover battle badly (we've got to clean up our handles)- our 22 to SEMO's 16. Actual Sportswriter Todd Rosiak of the Journal Sentinel noted that we have the third-worst turnover rate in Division I. Eek, guys and gals. Not good.
But enough nitpicking when the vibes are good with the program; let's keep it moving that way.
Up next we've got Green Bay, at Green Bay (0-6, 0-0). Milwaukee will likely be heavily favored which is all the more reason to take this game as seriously as every game should be taken. They all count the same. Let's continue winning and return to Milwaukee to face IUPUI in good spirits this Saturday night.
Comments