UW-Milwaukee misses golden opportunity to climb in Horizon with 77-60 loss to Cleveland State

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UW-Milwaukee guard AJ McKee (5) and forward Darius Duffy (34) chase a loose ball during a game earlier this season against Wofford. UWM lost to Cleveland State on Saturday, 77-60.

Twenty solid minutes can’t erase 20 disastrous ones.

At least not against the class of the conference on the road.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee couldn’t have drawn up a more dreadful start at Horizon League leader Cleveland State and paid the price for that early sluggishness with a 77-60 loss Saturday afternoon.

MORE: Box score | UWM schedule | Standings

The Panthers had an opportunity to pull within one game of the Vikings at the top of the conference standings, but instead put a massive dent in their chances to at least share a regular-season title. Milwaukee, at 9-5 in the conference, is now actually in position to not even host a Horizon quarterfinal, trailing Youngstown State and Robert Morris by half a game.

“They came out with a much more physical team,” Panthers head coach Bart Lundy said. “Just didn’t adjust and respond in that first half. And we had uncharacteristic turnovers. You’re gonna miss shots, but the turnovers and then we didn’t stick together when things got hard.”

While the record — they are also 16–9 overall — is more than respectable still, the place in the standings is a sign of how the Panthers still haven’t hit their stride during conference play.

The same inconsistencies that have burned the Panthers throughout the season characterized Saturday’s loss as well.

Things couldn’t have objectively been much worse than they were in the first half for the Panthers.

They shot 19% from the field, didn’t hit a single three-pointer, only attempted five and never led, but no stat better summarizes the dismal mess that was the first 20 minutes than this: Milwaukee made four field goals and committed 14 turnovers.

“We just kept doing the same thing over and over,” Lundy said.

There was brief life toward the end of the first half when the Panthers cut…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/uw-milwaukee-misses-golden-opportunity-005331854.html

Author : Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Publish date : 2025-02-09 00:53:00

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