Panthers Take Winning Streak On The Road
Jan. 6, 2008
#15: Milwaukee (7-7, 2-2) @ Youngstown St. (6-7, 2-1)
Tipoff The Panthers have won four-straight games after a thrilling 55-53 victory over Detroit Saturday night. Milwaukee trailed by 14 points with 6:43 to play but rallied to win the game on a Paige Paulsen three. The Penguins have won three-straight games, including a pair of league contests this past weekend. YSU knocked off UIC Thursday night before holding off Loyola Saturday afternoon. Byron Davis leads three Penguins in double figures with 14.5 points per game. This stretch of four-straight away from home includes games at Valparaiso and Butler later this week and a game at Green Bay on Jan. 19. UWM next plays at home Jan. 24 against these same Penguins. • Game #15 The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team starts a stretch of four-straight road games with a Monday contest at Youngstown State. • Scouting The Penguins Youngstown State enters Monday's game riding a three-game winning streak. The Penguins have won two-straight league games at home, downing UIC Thursday before holding off Loyola Saturday. Byron Davis leads YSU with 14.5 points per game and is one of three players in double figures. John Barber pitches-in with 13.9 points and a team-high 6.7 rebounds per contest. • History Lesson UWM and Youngstown State have met 12 times since the Penguins joined the Horizon League in 2001-02, and the Panthers have won nine of the 12 meetings. YSU, though, swept the season series a year ago, capturing a 68-65 win in Milwaukee and an 81-63 victory in Youngstown. Overall, UWM holds a 17-4 edge in the series.
• On The Road Again Monday's game at Youngstown State marks UWM's sixth road contest of the season, with the Panthers off to a respectable 2-3 start away from home. UWM is looking to reestablish a winning trend away from home, with its Nov. 14 win at Ball State having snapped a nine-game road losing streak in non-league games. The Panthers went just 2-15 on the road last season but Milwaukee's general trend in recent seasons is for reasonable success on the road. Despite last year's numbers, the Panthers are still 38-38 on the road in the last five-plus seasons. • Plenty Of Time Away From Home Monday's game opens a difficult stretch of four-straight games on the road for the Panthers. After this contest, UWM plays at Valpo Thursday and at Butler Saturday before wrapping up the stretch at Green Bay Jan. 19. The last time UWM had to play four-straight league games on the road was the 2005-06 season, when the Panthers won at Youngstown State and Loyola before losing at Wright State and Butler. The only other time it has happened was in 2003-04, when the Panthers won all four of the games (at Green Bay, Cleveland State, Detroit and Wright State). • Staying Busy Monday's game is the third in a very busy stretch for the Panthers, who are playing a total of five games in 10 days. This stretch comes after UWM has played just twice since Dec. 12. The on-again, off-again nature of the Panthers' schedule continues in February, as UWM will play just once between games Feb. 2 and Feb. 16 before finishing the season with five games in 11 days. • Winning And Losing UWM is now riding a four-game winning streak after enduring a six-game losing streak. This is the Panthers first four-game win streak since the end of the 2005-06 season, when UWM won four-straight before falling to Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers are now looking for their first five-game winning streak since earlier in that 2005-06 campaign, when UWM won eight-straight from Dec. 17-Jan. 11. Milwaukee's overall mark after 14 games has shown tremendous improvement from last season, with the 7-7 record four games better than the 3-11 mark after 14 games last year. • Updating The Roster With the loss of Torre Johnson (dismissed from team Dec. 18) and Roman Gentry (left team Dec. 18) along with the dismissal earlier this season of Avery Smith (Nov. 7), UWM's roster has shrunk from 13 scholarship players to just 10 scholarship players. Plus, neither Tim Flowers or Kevin Johnson have dressed for the last three games and did not travel to Youngstown. Walk-ons Deion James, Jason Averkamp and Brad Carroll are also on the active roster, with Carroll currently redshirting this season. He is scheduled to receive a scholarship starting next season. Injured walk-ons Joe Allen and Zach Holt are also still on the roster. • TV, Radio Shows Return This Week After a two-week break for the holidays, both Rob Jeter's radio show and television show will return this week. The TV show will tape Tuesday morning with airings throughout the week on Time Warner Sports. Meanwhile, the radio show will air live Tuesday from 6-7 p.m. at Harry's Bar and Grill on Oakland in Shorewood. • Quick Hits The Panthers set a season-high in making 12 three-point shots in the win over Wright State Thursday ... Milwaukee has attempted 114 free throws during its four-game winning streak, scoring an average of 20 points per game from the foul line during the run ... the nine assists by Deonte Roberts in the win at Wyoming marked the most by a Panther since Clay Tucker had nine against Green Bay in 2003 ... UWM has already fielded five different starting lineups this season. Seven different players - including two true freshmen (Deonte Roberts and Tim Flowers) - have earned starts. Last season, the Panthers used seven different starting lineups with eight different players earning starts ... the Panthers have split two overtime contests ... UWM has led at halftime in just four of its 14 games this season. But, the Panthers had led at halftime in three-straight games until heading into the locker room down three points to Detroit Saturday night ... UWM has also faced a halftime deficit of 10 or more points six times ... the combined record of the five non-league teams that have wins over UWM is 57-9 entering play Sunday ... of those opponents, Marquette and Wisconsin are ranked while Drake is receiving votes ... two opponents have made 13 threes in a game, the most by a UWM opponent since Butler made 15 late in the 2003-04 season ... the Panthers collected 20 steals in the win over Upper Iowa Nov. 9, a number that is tied for the third-most in a game in the school's Division I history and the most in a single game since the 2000-01 campaign ... the Dec. 12 game between UWM and Wisconsin drew a regular-season record crowd of 10,017 to the U.S. Cellular Arena. The crowd marked the fifth time in school history a crowd of 10,000 or better attended a UWM game at The Cell. • Last Time Out Paige Paulsen hit a three-pointer with two seconds remaining to give the UWM a remarkable 55-53 win over the University of Detroit Mercy Saturday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Paulsen's three came from well beyond the arc at the top of the key. The shot completed a thrilling UWM comeback that saw the Panthers overcome a 48-34 deficit in the final six-and-a-half minutes. Paulsen wound up leading the Panthers with 17 points while Deion James added 13 off the bench for Milwaukee. The final shot by Paulsen marked the only time in the second half UWM had the lead. • Playing From Behind It is clearly not the preferred way to claim victory, but the Panthers are making a habit of coming from behind to capture a win. In fact, UWM's comeback win Saturday marked the third time this season the Panthers have turned a double-digit deficit into a victory. Milwaukee came from 17 points to behind at Ball State Nov. 14 to win in overtime. That comeback marked the biggest deficit UWM has overcome to win a game since the Panthers recovered from a 21-point deficit to beat Virginia Tech in overtime in 2001. Then, the Panthers came from 10 down in the second half to beat South Dakota State Nov. 20. Plus, UWM nearly captured two other come-from-behind wins. Dec. 8 against Loyola, the Panthers turned an 11-point deficit into a four-point lead before falling in overtime. Nov. 27 against Sam Houston State, the Panthers overcame an 11-point deficit to lead by five before faltering down the stretch. • Inside The Comeback When UWM went down 14 points with 6:43 to play Saturday night, it looked like the Panthers' winning streak would be coming to an end. Instead, Milwaukee turned the game around in nearly every category to pull out the win. First 33:30 Final 6:30 UWM Field Goals 11-43 (.256) 6-10 (.600) UWM Free Throws 8-14 (.571) 7-10 (.700) UWM Three-Pointers 4-23 (.174) 2-4 (.500) Detroit Field Goals 19-42 (.452) 1-9 (.111) Detroit Turnovers 8 5• A Little More From Saturday The Panthers claimed the win over Detroit Saturday night despite a paltry shooting night from the field. In fact, UWM's 32.1 percent shooting clip marked the lowest shooting percentage by the Panthers in a win since Milwaukee shot 28.9 percent in a 62-58 victory over Green Bay in the 2000 MCC Tournament. • How About That Defense! Many people have noticed a general improvement on offense of late by the Panthers, but don't overlook the fact UWM's defense is much improved in the last month. In fact, during Milwaukee's four-game winning streak, opponents are shooting just 42.9 percent from the field, bringing the overall season percentage down to 46.7 percent. UWM has also forced opponents into 70 turnovers in the last four outings, an average of 17.5 per game. Finally, when Detroit shot just 39.2 percent from the field Saturday night, it marked the first time the Panthers held an opponent under 40 percent shooting since Ball State shot 39.4 percent Nov. 14. • Plenty Of Paige Senior Paige Paulsen has picked the perfect time to rediscover his offensive game. The forward struggled shooting the basketball Saturday night in the win over Detroit, but he came through with the game-winning three-pointer and wound up leading the Panthers with 17 points. He has also scored 20 or more points twice in the last four outings, bringing his season total up to four 20-plus-point efforts. Paulsen is averaging 20 points per game during the Panthers' four-game winning streak after averaging just seven points per outing in the previous four games. • Bounce From The Bench UWM head coach Rob Jeter continues to look to his bench for contributions. In fact, the Panthers had played at least 10 players in the first 10 games this season before seeing the rotation trimmed to nine players in the win over Central Michigan. Then, all 10 players dressed for the game pitched-in during the three most recent wins. Milwaukee has already had five players record double-figure outings off the bench, with Deion James turning the trick four times. He did it for the second-straight time Saturday night, tallying a season-best 13 points. • Oh Ricky! Junior Ricky Franklin picked up his game about this time last season, and his performance Thursday night suggests he might be ready to follow the same pattern this season. Franklin poured in a collegiate-best 24 points in the win over Wright State. Most impressively, Franklin converted 8-of-11 shots from the field overall, including 5-of-7 from three-point range. Franklin then added 10 points Saturday night and has reached double figures in three-straight games after scoring just 5.8 points per contest in the previous four outings. • The Winning Numbers A few statistical categories jump out in comparing the numbers in UWM's six wins against its seven losses. For one, the Panthers have attempted 124 free throws in seven losses (17.7/game) and 196 free throws in seven wins (28.0/game). Also, UWM is allowing opponents to shoot 51 percent from the field in its seven losses while limiting opponents to a 42.3 percent clip in its seven victories. The opponent shooting percentage in losses includes 43.3 percent (55-of-127) from three-point range while opponents have shot just 25 percent from three-point range in the seven wins. Finally, the Panthers are averaging 76.0 points per game in seven victories while scoring just 63.9 points per game in seven losses. • Panthers On The Air UWM and Time Warner Cable have put together a multi-year agreement that makes Time Warner Sports the official television broadcast partner for Panther athletics. The three-year contract is highlighted by expanded live coverage of men's basketball. The men will appear live on Time Warner Sports more than 10 times during 2007-08. Meanwhile, UWM men's basketball games are now heard on NewsTalk 1130 WISN. • Schedule Reminder Two games that remain on UWM's regular-season schedule have been changed since most scheduled were printed in October. The Feb. 2 game at Wright State did not have a start time listed, but the game will now tip off at 6 p.m. CST. Meanwhile, the Panthers' home game with Butler has been moved from Feb. 11 to Feb. 12 and will tip off at 6 p.m. CST to accommodate a national-television broadcast by ESPNU. • Up Next UWM heads back to the road for two games in Indiana. The Panthers are at Valpo Thursday and at Butler Saturday. |
