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Cancer fight recalled in tattoos of Milwaukee basketball’s Stevie Elam
Stevie Elam was lost his right kidney to cancer at age 3. His journey and the faith that helped him persevere are chronicled on his body.
Because the whistles had been so plentiful, Stevie Elam’s defense in the waning moments had to be perfect.
It was ‒ depending on who you ask.
As a foul-ridden contest between rivals came to a close at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Feb. 15, UW-Green Bay guard Preston Ruedinger wisely attacked the rim with his team trailing by a point and the clock under 10 seconds. Expecting at the very least to draw some contact and a whistle, all he instead encountered was Elam stripping the ball away.
The freshman stripped Ruedinger, then sank two free throws to ice a 75-72 win for the Panthers to avoid what would have been the first sweep to their in-state foes since 2018-19.
“He had to get that ball pretty clean,” Milwaukee head coach Bart Lundy said. “They were driving with force. We had a couple plays before that where it looked like we stopped them and we did get whistled. But Stevie Elam’s strength as a true freshman, his hand strength is off the charts; it’s probably NFL-level.”
Lundy’s counterpart disagreed, to say the least.
“The last play of the game, just to get the ball they were grabbing us and holding us,” Phoenix head coach Doug Gottlieb said. “Again, I understand if you’re not calling that, that’s fine. You had the exact same play at both ends in the last play of the game.”
Gottlieb paused, ever so briefly, then aggressively slammed his fists into the table atop the dais.
“The exact same [expletive] play,” Gottlieb yelled. “The exact same play.”
Gottlieb was fed up with the officiating crew from the afternoon after receiving a technical foul and seeing his team shoot 18 free throws compared to Milwaukee’s 37. He specifically called out the technical he received in the second half with just under 7 minutes to play and his team up three, as well as a loose-ball foul on CJ O’Hara with 4:25 to go and his team up four.
“I need the new commissioner of the Horizon League to explain to me what a technical foul is when I don’t leave the box, I don’t curse, I’m not demonstrative,” Gottlieb said. “There was nothing, nothing that should have been called a technical foul. I know when I earn one. I did not earn one. The CJ play, we’re up [four] points, that dramatically changed the [trajectory] of the game.”
Postgame tirades aside, the Panthers had to overcome a huge night from Green Bay’s Marcus Hall to do so, as the junior from Schofield, Wisconsin, had 32 points and seven rebounds.
Central to Milwaukee’s efforts in doing so: free throws and Chandler Jackson, who scored 23 points.
Twenty-four of the Panthers’ free throws came in the second half, and they hit 22 of them – despite being one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the country at 68.5% entering the day.
Milwaukee led for only 1 minute, 53 seconds in total.
After cutting the lead to one three times prior in the final minutes, the Panthers took the lead with 69 seconds left when Esyah Pippa-White was fouled going for a defensive rebound and hit a pair of free throws.
On the other end, Hall corralled his own miss and laid it back up with 45 seconds left to put the Phoenix up 72-71.
But Amar Augillard wisely drove to the basket on the other end, where he drew a foul much to Gottlieb’s chagrin and hit Milwaukee’s 19th and 20th free throws of the half.
“Our end, [if] you don’t want to call a foul, he drove into traffic, whatever,” the Phoenix second-year coach and former radio host said. “It’s the exact same play as the other end. Could not be more similar. And yet every time they drove in there it was a foul, and every time we did it was a miss.”
Milwaukee shot 19 more free throws than Green Bay despite drawing only five more fouls.
Jackson went 8 for 8 from the stripe as he finished two points shy of his career-high of 25 points, which he set in Milwaukee’s most recent game, Feb. 10 at IU Indy.
Initially thought of as a likely redshirt candidate, Jackson has become arguably the heavily injured Panthers’ most-consistent scorer of late. He’s averaging 14.1 points over his past eight games.
“To see Chandler from June to where he is now, he’s just a different guy, different player,” Lundy said. “When we inserted Chandler, we really inserted him for his communication. He helps everyone get better defensively. That’s what got him the opportunity and everything has grown from that. It wasn’t like he was in practice scoring at will on everyone. He talked. He communicated. He cared.”
Elam was the only other Milwaukee player to reach double-digit scoring, finishing with 11 points.
With the win, the Panthers moved a half-game clear of Youngstown State and Cleveland State for eighth place in the Horizon League, which matters because the 10th and 11th place teams face off in a play-in for the conference tournament.
Green Bay left the building, meanwhile, in a tie for third – and forcefully demanding answers from the conference.
“All we ask is that there’s a fair game. That’s what we ask,” Gottlieb said. “CJ O’Hara goes and gets an offensive rebound, their player dives at his legs and CJ gets called for a foul. I need [Jill Bodensteiner] at the league, our new commissioner, to explain to me the disparity in the officiating. That’s what I need explained to me.
“I have no problem with their team, their staff. They played hard. They did what they do. They played tough and they played aggressive. I need somebody to explain to me, just those two. There are others I have massive issues with, including every time we touched them there was a foul in the second half.”
PLOVER, Wis. (WBAY) – Police in the western part of the state are spreading the word after someone stole over $95,000 worth of Milwaukee-brand tools. Police are concerned that they’ll be sold online or sold outside the state.
Milwaukee-brand tools were stolen from a trailer at a solar farm in Plover.
Police say there were 130 items, including more than 40 half-inch impact guns, multiple wire cutters, grease guns, 80 batteries, and a couple of small generators.
Investigators are warning that buyers who purchase stolen items can have them seized and could lose their money or even face criminal charges if they knew the property was stolen.
Copyright 2026 WBAY. All rights reserved.
MILWAUKEE – UPDATE: Milwaukee police said Ciara Crump, reported critically missing on Wednesday, has been found safe. The original missing person notice is available below.
The Milwaukee Police Department needs help to find 29-year-old Ciara Crump, a critically missing woman who was last seen near 80th and Marion just after 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 17.
What they’re saying:
Police described Crump as 5 feet, 2 inches tall and 180 pounds with brown eyes and long brown hair. She was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants while carrying a black bag.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android
What you can do:
Anyone with information on Crump’s whereabouts is asked to call Milwaukee Police District 7 at 414-935-7272.
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