Your Milwaukee Panthers took care of business at Panther Arena last night, defeating Youngstown 79-64 in a game that was a bit of an anomaly. It marked the 10th straight home win for Milwaukee.
Milwaukee (13-6, 6-2) did not have any made three pointers (0-5 on the night), but largely, it didn't matter.
The Panthers once again showed their dominance in the paint by winning the boards 43-28, including 15-7 on offensive rebounds which provided several second-chance points. The Panthers also played a relatively clean basketball game and decidedly won the turnover battle 8-14. The 13-28 from the charity stripe was atrocious and will need to be cleaned up, though. (it might have been a real blowout had that not been the case).
This was the one of the best complete game performances of the season- and yet no threes? We'll take it (but as other Panther fans have noted- relying on no perimeter shooting at all will prove risky if other teams zone screen us out of the paint!). For now, another convincing conference win, even one in such a strange fashion, is something to be celebrated.
Faizon Fields (21pts, 9reb) and Themus Fulks (18pts, 4ast) led the scoring barrage for Milwaukee. Stillwell (10pts, 10reb) got his usual double-double. And Danilo Jovanovich (10pts, 7reb) played an impressive game in front of the Serbian Night crowd of 1,957 on a rare warmer (35 degrees) downtown winter night.
Fulks is playing more and more controlled at the PG and Faizon Fields- my-oh-my what can I say other than, "we missed you, FF!". Fields and Stillwell are combined, a P5-caliber, dominant presence in the post.
Milwaukee began the game with a series of put-backs and lay-ins and dunks and never changed that formula. Steadily the lead grew from 5 to 10 to 15 to as many as 17 in the late second half. Simply put, the Penguins (11-8, 6-3) couldn't keep up. They got within 8 points in with 6:35 remaining but then the lead ballooned again and was never significantly surrendered the rest of the way.
Chris Carroll led YSU with 14 points and 6 rebounds.
Milwaukee hosts Robert Morris tomorrow at 2pm. The outside temperature will be low but the excitement inside Panther Arena will be high. Get down there (or at least tune into ESPN+) and watch these Panthers.
If they (Pratt, KP, namely) start heating up from the arc in addition to the Tilt-Mode style they are starting to mold into perfection? They will be steadily on their way to the Horizon League Finals again.
go panthers.
tilt the floor. 🏆🏀
Comments