A remarkable comeback effort by UW-Milwaukee was wholly undone in one maddening minute.
After erasing a 13-point second-half deficit to draw even with just over four minutes to play, the Panthers allowed an 11-0 run entirely on free throws in a span of less than one minute as Purdue Fort Wayne pulled away late for a 78-73 win Wednesday night.
“Everybody on our bench on our team was pretty frustrated,” UWM coach Bart Lundy said on his postgame radio show with broadcaster Scott Warras. “If we’re gonna be a really good basketball league, I don’t think anyone watching wants a game to get decided like that. But maybe I’m wrong.”
Here’s how it was effectively decided.
Final stretch dooms Panthers
A Darius Duffy three-point play and AJ McKee free throw tied the score at 61 with 4 minutes 19 seconds left, putting the Panthers seemingly in prime position to steal a road win despite trailing by as many as 13 early in the second half.
Instead, things completely fell apart.
Mastodons guard Jalen Jackson, who led all scorers with 25 points, was fouled and made two free throws to put Fort Wayne back in front by two with 4:08 to play.
Quinton Morton-Robertson then was fouled while securing a defensive rebound and pushed the lead to four at the charity stripe on the other end.
Moments later, Themus Fulks was called for a foul while scrapping for a loose ball and Rasheed Bello knocked down two more free throws.
On the Panthers’ ensuing possession, McKee had the ball knocked away by Bello and was whistled for a foul, leading to not only two more Mastodons free throws but a technical foul on Lundy, who was upset about the two previous calls.
On the first call, Lundy felt Fulks hadn’t fouled Bello while trying to possess the loose ball; on the second, the third-year Panthers coach believed it was Bello who should have been called for the foul for diving into Milwaukee’s Faizon Fields.
Bello hit all four free throws to make it a bizarre 10-0 run on only free throws in 29 seconds.
When Jackson was fouled on Fort Wayne’s next possession and split his two foul shots, it capped an 11-0 run that sent the Panthers to 4-2 in the Horizon League.
“They proceeded to shoot (11) free throws,” Lundy said. “I got a technical there. I can’t hurt our team. I’m not sure how I deserved that. But I told the guys I’m there to protect them and help them.”
Milwaukee now trails first-place Youngstown State by 1½ games.
This was the Panthers’ first game against a team in the top six of the league standings.
Panthers grew big deficit, struggled on offense again
Another ugly abbreviated stretch of basketball spelled doom for the Panthers at the end of the first half.
The teams were tied at 32 with 1:18 to go in a back-and-forth period before the Mastodons rattled off eight unanswered points leading up to the final buzzer as Jackson converted a three-point play, Bello hit a three and Jackson, on the heels of an ill-advised three by John Lovelace when Milwaukee could have held for the final shot, made a pull-up jumper at the buzzer.
The deficit grew to 13 with 17:32 to play, but the Panthers clawed back to even with an 18-6 run.
Fulks scored a team-high 18 points while Kentrell Pullian (16 points and 12 rebounds) and Jamichael Stillwell (15 and 11) recorded double-doubles.
On the heels of a 30.8% shooting performance as a team in a grind-it-out win over Detroit Mercy on Saturday, the Panthers struggled to score again, hitting at a 37% mark Wednesday.
McKee had another rough shooting night, going 3 for 12 for eight points. The senior transfer is shooting just 33.9% and averaging 9.9 points over his last 11 games.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UWM undone by free throw-only run in loss to Purdue Fort Wayne
