A Pewaukee grad burned UW-Milwaukee time and time again in Panthers' double OT loss

When playing at home, Bart Lundy’s team has been tough to beat in Horizon League play.

It only made sense, then, that the visiting player to snap that trend at the UWM Panther Arena would be one playing near the comforts of home.

Pewaukee High School graduate Jack Gohlke buried eight three pointers, including game-tying shots in the final minute of both regulation and the first overtime, and scored a career-high 27 points and the Oakland Grizzlies handed the Milwaukee Panthers a 91-87 defeat in double overtime Saturday night.

Gohlke, a sixth-year senior in his first year of Division-I ball after transferring from Hillsdale College, is a sharpshooter who had attempted just four two-pointers all year compared with 179 threes. He let it fly freely 30 miles away from where he grew up and hit dagger after dagger for the Grizzlies, who handed Milwaukee its first conference loss at home.

BOX SCORE: Oakland 91, UWM 87

"You have to give Oakland a lot of credit," Lundy said. "Their shooters huge shots. Gohlke made huge threes. I don't know I would change that much about our gameplan going in. They hit more threes than we thought that they would and hit some really deep ones."

Gohlke sent the game to overtime with a deep three from the logo after an offensive rebound gave him a second chance with 33 seconds left.

Gohlke burned the Panthers again by doing the exact same thing in overtime, catching and firing from deep on the left wing to draw the score even at 76-76 with 36 seconds to go after a Kentrell Pullian triple had just given Milwaukee the lead.

"We were doing a pretty good job when they run their stuff," Lundy said. "It was the offensive rebounds we didn't come up with that he shook loose on. The one that he hit that wasn't off an offensive rebound at the end, I'll go back and watch the film but that sucker was from like 40 feet. I don't remember if it was completely contested but, yeah, he had some tough ones."

Then in double OT, Gohlke hit a running catch-and-shoot look from the corner to give Oakland a four-point advantage with 98 seconds to play. Milwaukee never got a possession with a chance to tie or take the lead the rest of the way.

The Panthers saw a 27-point, eight rebound performance from Pullian on 10 for 13 shooting go for naught in the loss.

The Panthers had shots to win at the buzzer in regulation and overtime, but Erik Pratt missed a pair of threes first, then Freeman’s contested driving shot in the extra period was no good.

UWM, in a first half full of big runs, led by as many as 11 at one point but trailed 38-37 going into the break as Oakland closed with a 12-0 spurt.

The Panthers had their largest lead of the night at 30-19 with eight minutes to go in the half, with Pullian pouring in 13 of those points.

Pullian scored 16 points in the first half before giving way over the final period to Faizon Fields and Erik Pratt, who scored 21 of the team’s 31 points.

A Pratt corner three tied the game up with 6:45 to play not long after the Grizzlies had opened up an eight-point advantage.

Trey Townsend was particularly challenging for the Panthers defense in the second half, scoring 11 points on his way to 21 for the game.

Fields had a 21-point, 16-rebound double-double, setting career highs in both categories. He blocked three shots, drew seven fouls and was largely responsible for the Panthers clawing back in the second half with his aggressive play. Fields finished with 10 offensive rebounds.

"Every time I saw a shot, I just wanted the ball more than anything," Fields said. "I gave maximum effort trying to go get the rebound, trying to give my team an extra possession so we could come out on top."

Milwaukee was without forward Darius Duffy, who injured his finger in Thursday’s game and is likely out for the year.

All things considered, it was not a treacherous defensive outing for the Panthers, which can’t be said of many of their games this season. Oakland shot just 37.8% from the field and was 13 for 33 on two-pointers while turning it over 15 times.

But the Grizzlies did just enough damage on the offensive glass, pulling in 15 of their 45 misses and getting 24 second-chance points off of that effort, that along with the marksmanship of Gohlke it was too much in the end for the Panthers.

"We'll take 37 percent," Lundy said. "Most nights you're going to get a win. We got to find a way to get better and locate shooters better."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Pewaukee grad Jack Gohlke leads Oakland basketball past UWM