Associated Press

Milwaukee Bucks (16-14, sixth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Indiana Pacers (16-17, eighth in the Eastern Conference)

Indianapolis; Tuesday, 3 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Indiana faces Milwaukee in a matchup of Eastern Conference teams.

The Pacers are 2-2 against division opponents. Indiana has a 5-10 record in games decided by 10 or more points.

The Bucks are 5-5 against the rest of the division. Milwaukee has a 5-7 record against teams above .500.

The Pacers make 48.8% of their shots from the field this season, which is 3.5 percentage points higher than the Bucks have allowed to their opponents (45.3%). The Bucks are shooting 47.8% from the field, 0.3% higher than the 47.5% the Pacers’ opponents have shot this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Tyrese Haliburton is averaging 17.8 points and 8.7 assists for the Pacers.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is scoring 32.7 points per game and averaging 11.6 rebounds for the Bucks.

LAST 10 GAMES: Pacers: 7-3, averaging 117.6 points, 43.9 rebounds, 29.8 assists, 7.2 steals and 5.3 blocks per game while shooting 50.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 113.4 points per game.

Bucks: 5-5, averaging 109.2 points, 42.6 rebounds, 25.2 assists, 8.5 steals and 4.4 blocks per game while shooting 46.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 109.7 points.

INJURIES: Pacers: Aaron Nesmith: out (ankle), Isaiah Jackson: out for season (calf), James Wiseman: out for season (calf), Obi Toppin: out (ankle).

Bucks: AJ Johnson: day to day (illness), Giannis Antetokounmpo: day to day (illness).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

There’s still a long ways to go, but the UW-Milwaukee Panthers have built themselves some breathing room atop the Horizon League standings.

By virtue of an 88-81 victory over the vastly improved IU-Indianapolis Panthers on Sunday afternoon at the Klotsche Center, UWM – the preseason pick to win the conference – is 3-0 in Horizon League play for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

The Panthers used an 11-2 run sparked by a pair of Jamichael Stillwell baskets just after the final media timeout to grab control, then used 13-for-16 shooting from the free-throw line over the final 1 minute 50 seconds to salt the game away.

“This one was important because now we go on the road for three straight,” said coach Bart Lundy, whose team takes its four-game winning streak to Oakland on Jan. 2, followed by games at Detroit Mercy on Jan. 4 and Purdue-Fort Wayne on Jan. 8.

BOX SCORE: UWM 88, IU-Indy 81

Youngstown State sits at 4-0 currently, with UWM (10-4, 3-0) the only other undefeated team remaining in the league.

“We had to defend our home going into this stretch,” Lundy continued. “Oakland will obviously be a rematch of the championship game (of last season’s Horizon League Tournament), the Detroit trip is always tough and then Fort Wayne is an extremely good team. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but to be sitting 3-0 does give you a little leg up.”

Senior guard Themus Fulks scored a career-high 26 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists in 34 well-rounded minutes to lead four Panthers in double figures.

Kentrell Pullian added 20 points, Erik Pratt 11 (nine in the first half) and Stillwell put up his ninth double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds for UWM.

“We feel like we’re the best team in the conference,” said Fulks. “But it doesn’t matter what we feel. We have to prove it every single night.”

Stillwell sets a school record

Stillwell, the 6-foot-8 junior, is now all alone in the UWM annals having recorded five straight double-doubles.

He passed BJ Freeman – who set the previous mark last season – thanks to a game-turning sequence that began with his strip of Indianapolis guard Paul Zilinskas at midcourt.

Stillwell finished the play by soaring to the basket with a two-handed jam, then after the Jaguars sunk a pair of free throws he scored on a pretty driving layup on the baseline to give the Panthers a 74-72 lead with 2:39 remaining that they wouldn’t relinquish.

“His intensity amped up,” Lundy said of Stillwell. “He knows when winning time is, and not everybody’s like that. I don’t often get distracted by the crowd, but when he got the steal and the dunk, our crowd was loud. That’s a good sign, to hear a loud crowd in here.”

Stillwell is now averaging 13.4 points on 49.3% shooting and an even 12 rebounds (including 57 offensive). He ended the day .2 rebounds per game behind Northern Arizona’s Carson Towt for the Division I lead.

“I feel like from the first game we’ve played, he’s made tremendous strides,” Fulks said of Stillwell. “Coming from junior college, he had to make the adjustment a little bit the first 2-3 games, get settled in. Figure out what he was really good at, you know?

“And I feel like now he knows it. He’s really good at rebounding the basketball, being a lockdown defender, and he’ll score the ball as well.”

Themus Fulks is showing his all-around game

When it was pointed out to Lundy that perhaps it was a surprise that the 6-2 Fulks, a transfer from Louisiana-Lafayette who was signed specifically to fill a glaring void at point guard, is leading the Panthers in scoring at 15.4 points per game, the coach was quick to point something out.

“Well, I knew he was a good point guard, but I’ve always kind of known Themus as a scorer – he led the state of North Carolina in scoring as a senior,” he said of the Winston-Salem, N.C. native who averaged 9.2 points and six assists per game in leading his team to the NCAA Tournament last year.

“A good point guard, he picks and chooses spots. Today was a good game, because he recognizes when the other team is in the bonus and really can get into the paint. He also can distribute, and that makes him dangerous.

“He’s tricky. Getting into that mid-range, he’s got some tricks in the bag.”

Fulks, who has gone for 23 and 26 in his last two games against Division I opponents, hit 6 of 10 shots (none of which were three-pointers) and 14 of 16 free throws.

His 53.8% shooting on the season is outstanding, and only Stillwell (73) has shot more free throws than Fulks (68).

“Coach Lundy gives me a lot of freedom out there,” Fulks said. “I’m just trying to make the right play. I’m not really thinking, ‘I need to score this, I need to pass this.’ I just try to read what the defense gives me and make the best play for the team.”

Panthers getting to the free-throw line at will

Led by Fulks, UWM hit 27 of 37 free throws for the game (73%), with the 37 attempts tying a season high set against Cleveland State on Dec. 5 and the 27 makes 10 more than Indianapolis attempted for the game.

Through 14 games the Panthers have shot 342 free throws, an average of 24.4 per game that should put them around the top 30 teams in Division I come Monday.

“It’s huge,” acknowledged Lundy. “The margins that we work as a team to create are on the glass (UWM won there as well, 36-26) and with the free throws. We won by 10 on the glass and made 10 more than they attempted; that gives you a good chance.

“If we make a few more threes, then we’re cooking. I think that’s coming.”

Just as important is making the free throws, something UWM has struggled to do at times this year. On Sunday, the Panthers hit 20 of 27 in the decisive second half with the 13-for-16 finish in the final 1:50 crucial.

“After practice, coach tells us to make 50,” said Fulks, a 75% marksman on the year. As a unit, UWM is shooting 66.4%; it entered Sunday ranked 321st out of 350 Division I teams at 65.6%

“I think repetition and everybody just really dialing in, locking in, taking the time to realize that these free throws can win games and lose games will help us.”

MILWAUKEE – A West Allis man is accused of robbing someone at gunpoint and stealing multiple cellphones over the course of less than a month.

Prosecutors charged 23-year-old Shamar Moore with three felonies and three misdemeanors in the case. According to court filings, he was caught on camera more than once. 

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Nov. 24: South Milwaukee armed robbery

A victim got off a bus and went into a grocery store near Chicago and Blake, a criminal complaint states. When the victim left the store around 6:10 p.m., he said he noticed someone was following him. 

Prosecutors said the suspect – later identified as Moore – pushed the victim down on Columbia Avenue and told him to hand over his phone and wallet. When the victim refused and started to fight back, he said the suspect pulled out a gun and said: “Don’t hit me, or I will shoot you.”

The victim then handed over his wallet and phone, per the complaint, and the suspect also took a gold cross necklace before he ran off. The wallet had $915 cash inside, as well as a debit card, insurance card and the victim’s ID. 

Court filings said surveillance video from an MCTS bus showed both the victim and the suspect on board until both men got off at the same stop. Video from a nearby business showed the victim going into the grocery store and, when the victim left the store, the suspect emerged from a wooded area. The suspect then followed the victim through the parking lot, and a different camera showed the suspect continuing to follow the victim until they were both out of camera view.

Dec. 11: South Milwaukee property damage, theft

A South Milwaukee woman reported a possible break-in shortly after 1 p.m. The criminal complaint states she came home and noticed her doorbell camera had been smashed. She watched video from a different camera that showed a suspect – later identified as Moore – smash the camera.

Surveillance image of damage to doorbell camera (Courtesy: MCDAO)

Later that same day, around 4 p.m., police were called to the area of 10th and Milwaukee. Court filings said two victims said they were doing roof repairs and returned to their work van to find their backpacks, which had their wallets inside, had been stolen.

Video showed the suspect – later identified as Moore – going into the van and walking away with two backpacks. The suspect was wearing similar clothing to the person who smashed the doorbell camera.

Surveillance image of backpack theft suspect (Courtesy: MCDAO)

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Dec. 14: Milwaukee theft

Milwaukee police were called to a bar on Menomonee Street in the Historic Third Ward around 2:25 p.m. Prosecutors said a victim told officers he was sitting outside with his cellphone on the table in front of him when a suspect grabbed it and ran.

The victim got up to chase the suspect – later identified as Moore – and did so for roughly a block, the complaint states, before going back to the bar and activating the tracking device on his phone.

Officers used the tracking information and began to search for the phone and suspect, ultimately spotting the suspect near 1st and Florida, where court filings said the phone had pinged. The suspect began to walk faster once he saw the officer, but the officer did not stop the suspect because he didn’t think the suspect was “close enough to the ping location.”

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Prosecutors said the officer kept following the phone’s ping and went to the area of 5th and National, where he saw the same suspect again. This time, the suspect began to jog away, and the officer caught up with the suspect on Washington Street – where the suspect began to run through yards.

Updates on the phone location, per the complaint, “matched the route” that the officer saw the suspect running. Eventually, the officer caught up to and spoke to the suspect, who identified himself as Moore and took four phones out of his pockets – including the one stolen on Menomonee Street. Police also found a gun inside Moore’s backpack; he did not have a concealed carry permit.

Dec. 17: Cudahy theft

According to the complaint, a victim told police he was at a laundromat near Packard and Ramsey when a suspect snatched his cellphone around 10 a.m. He said he yelled for the suspect to give it back, but the suspect ran.

The victim then got into a witness’ car, prosecutors said, and the two drove around the neighborhood to look for the suspect together. Once they spotted the suspect, the victim got out and chased after the suspect on Birchwood Avenue. He kept chasing the suspect into a bank parking lot, where officers arrived.

Court filings said both the victim and witnesses identified the cellphone theft suspect at the scene, and surveillance video from the laundromat corroborated the victim’s statement. Officers recognized the suspect – ultimately identified as Moore – from MCTS surveillance images related to the November armed robbery case out of South Milwaukee.

Shamar Moore (Courtesy: MCDAO)

In custody

Upon his arrest, court filings said Moore was wearing a dark blue jacket with a “distinctive tear” on the front. The tear was visible on the suspect’s jacket in the MCTS video, the doorbell camera damage video and the van theft video. The MCTS video, in which the suspect was unmasked, was the same person who Cudahy police arrested nearly a month later.

In all, Moore is charged with:

• Armed robbery
• Theft of movable property (two counts)
• Misdemeanor theft of movable property
• Misdemeanor criminal damage to property
• Misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon

Moore made his initial appearance on Dec. 22. Court records show bond was set at $10,000.