Panthers fumble the comeback, drop first home game of the season

Milwaukee was given a raft of chances to win today's matchup against the RMU Colonials and just could. not. close. the. deal.

More often than not, these Milwaukee Panthers lack strategy; talent alone won't win championships

After trailing nearly the entire game due to RMU's consistent open 3pt looks and some impressive post game by Alvaro Folgueiras, the Panthers battled back to make it a 1 point contest with 2:30 left (and again with .06 left). But Robert Morris made their free throws and kept scoring at will; Milwaukee simply could not get the upper hand at any point.

Down 1pt with 6.1 seconds left, Themus Folks attempted to score unassisted in the final 5.5 second drive but was met at the other end by 4 blue and white RMU jerseys who easily blocked his barreling layup attempt.

After this, merely .06 seconds remained (note- not enough time to dribble). But instead of drawing up a play that might have created an open look, the Panthers inbounded to AJ McKee who inexplicably dribbled(?) as time expired and heaved up a missed shot that was too late to count even if it had rang true.

This isn't the end of the season, but it is an especially painful and difficult loss because of all the chances Robert Morris gave us to win in the final minutes which we stubbornly did not take advantage of.

Passing and calling some plays may have saved the day in this one but neither were in the cards.

Milwaukee heads to Wright State next week and will attempt to correct course. Today's result stings so much not just because we were 7 point favorites but because we could not play as a team. That'll need to change if we want any chance at winning the HLT- to say nothing of playing a P5 team in March.

Gotta get back to the home court advantage which has been a feature of the Lundy Era. And somehow, some way, we've gotta get back to making basketball plays.

It's a team game. And today we did not play much like a team (rumors of "internal strife" at the pre-game shootaround were mentioned in the postgame... 😕).

Next game up- gotta beat the Raiders and get things back on track. This is a great game to forget.

go panthers.

tilt the floor. 🏆🏀