After a battle from Detroit Mercy, UWM faces a quick turnaround for UWGB in the Horizon League basketball tournament

If a rematch with rival UW-Green Bay on Thursday is the main course for the UW-Milwaukee men’s basketball team, then Tuesday was a heck of an appetizer.

Two days after running all over Green Bay in their Horizon League regular-season finale, the sixth-seeded Panthers got all they could handle from Detroit Mercy in the tournament opener, squeaking out an 83-79 victory over a team that left the Klotsche Center 1-31.

But handle the task they did. And maybe the experience will help as UWM – which finished the regular season 17-14 and 12-8 in conference play – tries to extend its season against a team with which it split its season series.

Box score: UW-Milwaukee 83, Detroit Mercy 79

“Them hitting us early really helps us,” Panthers coach Bart Lundy said of the Titans, “because we know, hey, if we do this again, it’s probably the end.”

Milwaukee and Green Bay are scheduled to meet in a quarterfinal at 8 p.m. Thursday at the on-campus Kress Center, where the Phoenix has lost just twice this season.

“All I’m going to say about that is just wait for Milwaukee basketball on Thursday,” said guard BJ Freeman, who led UWM with 30 points. “We’re going to be ready to play and be ready for a war and be ready to battle.”

Tuesday was more of a battle than maybe it might have been.

The Panthers won the two regular-season matchups with the Titans in January more convincingly, 84-61 in Detroit and 87-71 at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. Only once this season had Detroit Mercy scored more points in a game, that in its lone win, 81-66, over IUPUI. But then the Titans did give league champion Oakland all it could handle in the regular-season finale.

“This team had just every reason to shut it down, and these last few games they were really fighting, and they’ve got two elite scorers and then those other guys playing their roles,” Lundy said. “They just figured it out too late.”

Jayden Stone led Detroit Mercy with 30 points, and Marcus Tankersley had 21, playing more than 39 minutes apiece.

That’s not to say the Panthers’ struggles were all Titan-induced. More than a few times, missed defensive assignments by UWM led to easy points for Detroit Mercy.

“I didn’t think we prepared the right way,” Lundy said. “We came off a high with Green Bay, we weren’t very good in practice yesterday and came out sluggish in the first half, gave them a lead. I don’t know if we were looking ahead a bit, but we did enough to come back and tie it up at halftime and then battle in the second half. And it was definitely a battle.”

Detroit Mercy put Milwaukee in a hole midway through the first half with a run of 14 straight points to take a 17-8 lead. Two fast-break baskets by Elijah Jamison brought the Panthers within a possession at 26-23, the teams were tied, 35-35, at the half and they stayed close most of the rest of the way.

After hitting just one of 14 three-point shots in the first half, Milwaukee put up just five in the second half and made only one of those.

“We talked a lot at halftime about let’s drive this ball to the rim, and we were 1 for 5, but when you go to the rim you can buffer a 2 for 19 from three game when you’re getting layups and you’re getting free throws,” Lundy said.

Freeman scored 19 of his points in the second half. He also made all nine of his free throws.

Freeman became the first Panthers player since Shannon Smith, a mentor of Freeman’s, 29 years ago to score 20 more points in eight consecutive games.

UWM took the lead for good on Faizon Fields’ turnaround that made it 75-73 with 2:19 remaining. Erik Pratt’s free throw with 38.2 seconds left gave the Panthers their biggest lead at 80-73.

But three-pointers by Stone and Tobin Schwannecke pulled Detroit Mercy within 81-79 with 7.6 seconds left on the clock.

Enter Freeman.

Fouled on the inbounds with 6.7 left, he hit his first free throw, waited through a Panthers time out and then deposited the second.

“I don’t really feel it much,” Freeman said when asked about the pressure. “I just like playing basketball and just doing whatever I can so we can get the win and advance.”

Milwaukee split its two meetings with Green Bay, losing on the road, 70-58, in early December with Freeman out and then romping in the second half Saturday for a 90-69 victory in the regular-season finale at the Arena. Now the third meeting means the most.

“It’ll be really tough,” Lundy said. “I told the team, when you get to this point there’s adjustments that need to be made.

“They’re going to adjust to what happened the last game, and we need to make our own adjustments. What worked on Saturday probably won’t work as well on Thursday, so we’ve got to … try to figure out how to hit a team that’s really good on their home court.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee basketball beats Detroit Mercy in Horizon League tournament