The UW-Milwaukee Panthers dropped their second straight road game to a mid-major in ugly fashion, this one a 76-62 setback at Longwood on Wednesday night in Farmville, Virginia.
But coach Bart Lundy isn’t pressing the panic button. Not even close.
“I really believe that we’re fine. We’re better than fine,” said Lundy, whose team also lost at Northern Iowa, 87-68, on Nov. 7. “We’re in such a better place than we were a year ago, it’s not close. These are good teams. You get down a little, you make some mistakes and these aren’t games you’re going to win.
“Things have got to be tighter, and you’ve got to make shots.”
Box score: Longwood 76, UW-Milwaukee 62
The Panthers had their backs against the wall before they even took the court with senior guard Erik Pratt not making the trip.
UWM responded poorly, enduring a horrid shooting night (35.9%), committing 20 turnovers and being more than doubled up at the free throw line in trailing nearly wire to wire.
Kentrell Pullian had 19 points and six rebounds and AJ McKee 16 points, with no other Panthers player managing more than six.
Things won’t get any easier for UWM, either, as it next plays at Duquesne on Nov. 19 before finally returning to its home court.
Here are four takeaways from the loss.
Where was Erik Pratt?
While he has yet to hit a three-pointer this season, the 6-foot-5 Pratt is nevertheless the Panthers’ most reliable perimeter shooter.
But after averaging 23 minutes in starting UWM’s first two games, Pratt was conspicuous by his absence Wednesday.
“He did not make the trip and he’s taken a leave from the team for personal reasons,” Lundy explained. “When you look at the stat sheet, the shooting category, yeah, that’s what people are going to say (that Pratt will be tough to replace). Well, Erik is a shot maker, but there’s other guys that do other things.
“Next man up, and we’ll adapt and adjust. And I think this team will be just fine.”
Lundy also said that it’s looking like junior forward Danilo Jovanovich, a Whitnall High School graduate, might be looking at a redshirt season as he continues to deal with a torn elbow ligament suffered in a preseason scrimmage.
Ball security took a major step backwards
After lacking a true point guard in each of Lundy’s first two years at UWM, he landed a battle-tested senior floor general in transfer Themus Fulks.
He’d dished out nine assists with just one turnover in an average of 28 minutes in his two starts entering Wednesday but took a major step back with five apiece against Longwood.
The giveaways were contagious, too, as UWM committed 20 in 40 minutes that led directly to 24 points for the opposition.
That can’t happen any night – let alone on the road against an opponent loaded up with talented transfers.
“They were really tough defensively,” Lundy said. “They were physical and (the game) was allowed to kind of be played that way. We made some mistakes, too. Of our four of five charges, I’d say four were legitimate. We’ve got to make better decisions.”
Shooting needs work
UWM shot 29.7% (11 for 37) from beyond the arc in its first two games.
It followed up with a 4-for-24 performance (16.7%) against Longwood with Pullian (1 for 7), McKee (1 for 5), John Lovelace Jr. (1 for 3) and Esyah Pippa-White (1 for 1) accounting for the meager number of makes.
The outcome could have been much worse for the Panthers were it not for a similarly poor shooting night by the Lancers (4 for 16 from three, 39.3% overall for the game).
“I don’t think we’re the greatest shooting team, but I think we’re a good shooting team,” said Lundy. “We watch it every day. We make shots every day (in practice). I think it’s just a matter of time. Getting beat on the road and getting down a little bit makes you press. I think we’ve got to see some success, see some balls go in, and a lot of that will take care of itself.
“But we got pretty good shots. We really played hard.”
UWM also went to the line just 20 times and knocked down 12 while Longwood hit 28 of 40, including 9 of 13 over the final 2 minutes 50 seconds.
The game swung on one second-half sequence
UWM was gathering momentum midway through the second half and after Pullian’s three-point make had pulled to within 47-42.
After forcing a pair of three-point misses on the other end, the ball ended up in the hands of junior forward Jamichael Stillwell, who missed a wide-open bunny that could have made it a one-possession game.
Longwood corralled the ball, hurried it back down and converted on a monster slam dunk by Elijah Tucker. UWM responded by turning it over on its possession, Michael Christmas knocked down a pair of free throws on the other end and just like that the deficit had lengthened back out to 51-42 with 9:11 remaining.
“I thought there were a couple of those (sequences) where we really got close and had really good opportunities,” Lundy said. “We’re going to watch this film and see a lot of missed opportunities.”
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