The Milwaukee Panthers evened the season record at 2-2 with a home win- 85-56- over Division III Luther College Friday night.
All's well that ends well but we need complete, 40 minute games
The team started out considerably rusty, and led by as little as 7 with ~10 minutes in the second half. The offense could not buy a bucket shooting ~30% for much of the first half from all spots (FG, 3PT, FT) and the Panthers entered halftime up by just 7 points on the Luther Norse.
The crowd at Panther Arena struggled to generate much excitement.
But then a huge late-game surge which BJ Freeman sparked at the 10:20 mark in the second half turned a near-trainwreck into a raucous homecoming win in front of hundreds of students before Thanksgiving break. The crowd eventually did light up.
As did the Panthers offense. The shots began to fall and a thundering Langston Wilson slam finally brought the crowd to their feet. Mr. Wilson scored an NCAA career-high 15 points, Freeman led all scorers with 23 and Elijah Jamison added 15.
For all its sputtering start, the Panther offense also recorded a program record-low 3 turnovers on the night.
3.
While Luther represents the second and final non-DI game of the year and this rout was to be expected, it was a good tune up for the big trip to Florida for the 2023 Sunshine Slam Tournament.
Stetson is next up on Monday, right near the beach.
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