Milwaukee, which was next-to-last in the Horizon League in 3-point shooting at 29.7%, went 11 of 24 beyond the arc and shot 49.2% overall in a dominant 95-79 win at the Nutter Center on Wednesday.
The Panthers scored just 21 points in the first 14 minutes but tallied 21 in the final six of the first half to take a 42-36 lead at the break.
The Raiders, 10-11 overall and 4-6 in the HL, gave up 53 second-half points, leaving first-year coach Clint Sargent flummoxed by what seemed like a lack of fight. The Raiders had a decent turnout on a frigid night (3,963), but fell to 2-3 in league home games.
“I’m very disappointed with our effort tonight. The start of the game felt odd to me emotionally. It was two teams out there waiting for somebody to throw the first punch. ... For the first time, in my opinion, we didn’t respond collectively at all in-game. That concerns me as a coach,” Sargent said.
“That’s something I lead more than anything. I’m sitting here trying to understand, OK, how does that happen? I don’t think this has been a pattern for us. Yeah, we’ve haven’t gotten the results, but the resiliency of our team has been very evident. Tonight, we didn’t have it. That’s a problem.”
In the final 26 minutes of the game, Milwaukee (14-7, 7-3) scored 74 points.
“We just don’t have that juice or energy we should play with,” Brandon Noel said. “We’ve seen it in spurts. Even early tonight we did, but it was short-lived. We need to maintain that longer and keep it up for a whole game.”
The Raiders were coming off a rousing 78-70 win at rival Northern Kentucky, but they gave up 95 or more points for the third time this season.
“At NKU, we only saw it in spurts, despite the winning result,” Noel said. “It wasn’t a full-game thing. We need to keep pushing for that.”
The Panthers scored the first six points of the second half, taking a 48-36 lead.
Down 51-38 with 16:28 to go, the Raiders cut it to six with the help of a 1-3-1 zone.
But Milwaukee built it back to 57-46 at 12:47 on a three-point play by center Danillo Jovanovich.
A Jamichael Stillwell put-back made it 70-55 at 8:57. And a four-point play all but ended it — Themus Fulks made a jumper, and Faizon Fields was fouled in the scrum for the rebound, making both free throws.
That made it 81-63 with 5:54 left.
Milwaukee, the HL preseason co-favorite with Purdue Fort Wayne, put six players in double figures and made 22 of 27 free throws.
Alex Huibregtse had 21 points, Noel 17, Jack Doumbia 14 and Keaton Norris 10.
“How Milwaukee shot the ball gave them some energy. Two games ago against Youngstown, they don’t make a 3 (going 0 of 5),” Sargent said.
“They had some timely shot-making that gave them life. When you don’t respond at home to that, teams feel confident, and it really doesn’t matter (if you play) zone or whatever we did. We really couldn’t overcome that hurdle.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Detroit Mercy at Wright State, 1 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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