UWM uses balanced scoring effort, solid defense to keep Detroit Mercy winless

The UW-Milwaukee Panthers did what they were supposed to do on Thursday night by dispatching visiting Detroit Mercy, 87-71.

But keeping the Titans as one of just two winless programs in all of Division I wasn't easy.

An unconscious first 22 minutes by the previously unknown Emmanuel Kuac made the Panthers sweat, and it wasn't until a game-turning 13-2 run midway through the second half that UWM finally was able to breathe easy.

Four players scored in double figures for the Panthers, with BJ Freeman (22 points, 11 rebounds, five assists) and Kentrell Pullian (20 points, 10 rebounds) doing the heavy lifting.

On the other side, Kuac poured in 27 on 9-for-19 shooting, with 7 of those makes coming from beyond the three-point arc.

But he eventually cooled off and with the wraps kept on leading scorer Jayden Stone (15 points after coming in averaging 19.9) the Titans departed UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena 0-21 and 0-10 in Horizon League play.

BOX SCORE: UW-Milwaukee 87, Detroit Mercy 71

"They've got nothing to lose, so it's come out and play hard every game," Freeman said when asked about the potential danger in playing a winless team this deep into the season. "They're just waiting to get that first 'W.'

"We were in the same predicament last year and we came out kind of sluggish against Green Bay and we had to pay for that. So, just coming in with the great mentality we had today, we've got to do anything to get that win and make sure we're all on the same page so we can have a winning outcome."

UWM, which had allowed 84 points or more in its previous six games and 90 or more in its last two, opened in a zone and also immediately put some full-court pressure on Detroit.

The Panthers forced seven turnovers and scored 12 points off those miscues and eventually headed into intermission with a 45-36 lead.

But the advantage would have been much bigger had it not been for the play of Kuac, a graduate transfer from New Mexico who torched UWM for 19 points in 17 minutes including 5-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc.

He entered the night having scored 14 points and with 3 three-pointers on his ledger all season.

How hot was the 6-foot-7 forward? Enough so that he banked in his fifth and final three from half court at the buzzer to take some of the wind out of the Panthers’ sails heading to the locker room.

"He was shooting 12% from three coming into the game," said coach Bart Lundy of Kuac. "Our game plan was to shrink the floor on other guys and take away Stone. Kuac made the first two and then we made a mistake and he got a third, and then he was rolling.

"But actually we talked about he was a good scorer and good shooter in junior college. So it wasn't out of what we knew he was capable of. He just hadn't done it this year. We've had a trend of giving guys career highs."

Kuac kept rolling as he drained the first touch he got in the second half for another three. Freeman missed a three on the other end and the Titans answered with an easy layup, prompting Lundy to call a quick timeout.

It didn't work as Detroit rattled eight more quick points – including Kuac's seventh three – to grab the lead for the first time.

The Panthers answered by scoring nine of the next 11 to go back in front.

Then after a couple Titans free throws made it a one-possession game with 12:12 remaining, the Panthers rattled off a 13-2 run to finally gain some breathing room. Seven points from Freeman and four from Pullian did the trick, with Pullian's steal and dunk feeling like the final nail in the coffin.

UWM scored on five straight possessions not long after that to eliminate any remaining doubt while Kuac finally ran out of gas.

"We've had a lot of trouble just being on the same page," said Lundy of the overall defensive effort, which saw Detroit finish at 38.6% from the field a game after allowing a season-worst 63.6% in a loss at Wright State. "I thought those guys were way more locked in on being on the same page.

"We were able to change defenses a little bit. We simplified everything. We hadn't played that much zone all year. We got a little a little porous as the game went on. Then I thought in the second half when we made that run, we started to really challenge shots.

"A couple little fouls with our hands, but we played way cleaner than we've been playing. So, if we can expand those stretches, we're going to score enough points."

The Panthers scored 56 of their points in the paint while knocking down only 5 of 14 threes and finished at 57.9% from the floor, their second-best shooting performance of the season.

They also hit 16 of 21 free throws compared to the Titans' 7-for-7 effort and grabbed 41 rebounds to Detroit's 30. Freeman and the 6-0 Pullian combined to account for more than half those boards, an impressive performance by the duo.

"It's like Coach says – good guards rebound," Freeman said. "We just try to impact by rebounding the ball, helping our bigs in there."

UWM next hosts Oakland, which was knocked from the top spot in the conference standings Thursday night by a resurgent UW-Green Bay squad, on Saturday at 3 p.m.

"Right now there's three teams with three losses and four teams with four losses," said Lundy, whose team is 10-10 and 5-4. "So, I told these guys Saturday is really the biggest game of the year for us. For as much adversity as we've had, we're really only a game back in the loss column.

"It'd be nice to get on a roll."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UWM bests Detroit Mercy, keeps Titans winless on the season