UWM was tied with four minutes to play at Purdue Fort Wayne. What followed was quite unusual.

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UWM’s AJ McKee and Darius Duffy chase a loose ball in a game earlier this season. The Panthers fell to Purdue Fort Wayne in an odd way Wednesday.

A remarkable comeback effort by UW-Milwaukee was wholly undone in one maddening minute.

After erasing a 13-point second-half deficit to draw even with just over four minutes to play, the Panthers allowed an 11-0 run entirely on free throws in a span of less than one minute as Purdue Fort Wayne pulled away late for a 78-73 win Wednesday night.

“Everybody on our bench on our team was pretty frustrated,” UWM coach Bart Lundy said on his postgame radio show with broadcaster Scott Warras. “If we’re gonna be a really good basketball league, I don’t think anyone watching wants a game to get decided like that. But maybe I’m wrong.”

Here’s how it was effectively decided.

Final stretch dooms Panthers

A Darius Duffy three-point play and AJ McKee free throw tied the score at 61 with 4 minutes 19 seconds left, putting the Panthers seemingly in prime position to steal a road win despite trailing by as many as 13 early in the second half.

Instead, things completely fell apart.

Mastodons guard Jalen Jackson, who led all scorers with 25 points, was fouled and made two free throws to put Fort Wayne back in front by two with 4:08 to play.

Quinton Morton-Robertson then was fouled while securing a defensive rebound and pushed the lead to four at the charity stripe on the other end.

Moments later, Themus Fulks was called for a foul while scrapping for a loose ball and Rasheed Bello knocked down two more free throws.

On the Panthers’ ensuing possession, McKee had the ball knocked away by Bello and was whistled for a foul, leading to not only two more Mastodons free throws but a technical foul on Lundy, who was upset about the two previous calls.

On the first call, Lundy felt Fulks hadn’t fouled Bello while trying to possess the loose ball; on the second, the third-year Panthers coach believed it was Bello who should have been called for the foul for…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/uwm-tied-four-minutes-play-140314669.html

Author : Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Publish date : 2025-01-09 14:03:00

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