Men's Basketball Championship - Semifinals

March 4, 2006

(#2 seed) Butler 73, (#3 seed) UW-Green Bay 51
Milwaukee, Wis. (AP) - Avery Sheets scored 20 points and A.J. Graves added 19 points as Butler led the entire game, routing UW-Green Bay, 73-51, in a Horizon League semifinals Saturday. Butler (19-11) advances to the championship game for the first time since 2003.

Aswan Minatee led the Phoenix (15-of-16) with 16 points. Brandon Polk scored 17 points for Butler.

The Bulldogs used a 27-11 run to end the first half, taking a 48-23 halftime lead. They made 59 percent of their shots (16-of-27) while holding the Phoenix to 21 percent (9-of-28).

Butler scored the first four points of the second half and never was threatened. The Phoenix never came closer than 17 points, and the Bulldogs opened their biggest lead, 54-27, on Polk's two free throws with 14:32 left in the second half.

The Phoenix missed their first five shots, allowing Butler to open a 12-2 lead on Sheets' 3-pointer with 15:24 left in the first half.

It was the first game in seven days for Butler since Feb. 25 when they lost at Detroit, 73-71, denying the team a share of the conference title with the Panthers. UW-Green Bay was playing its second game in two days after beating UIC, 76-66, in a quarterfinals game Friday night.

Box Score

(#1 seed) UW-Milwaukee 80, (#4 seed) Loyola 66
Milwaukee, Wis. (AP) - Joah Tucker and Boo Davis scored 20 points apiece to lead UW-Milwaukee to an 80-66 victory over Loyola in a Horizon League Tournament semifinal game Saturday night.

UW-Milwaukee (20-8), the No. 1 seed and defending champion, will host the tournament title game Tuesday night against second-seeded Butler (18-11). The Bulldogs defeated Wis.-Green Bay 73-51 in the first semifinal. The winner gets an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. In 2003, Milwaukee defeated Butler 69-52 to go to the tournament for the first time in school history. The Panthers also won the 2005 tournament, advancing all the way to the Sweet Sixteen under former Coach Bruce Pearl.

Adrian Tigert, who missed the last two games with a back injury, gave the Panthers a lift by returning to score 17 points and grab six rebounds.

Fourth-seeded Loyola (19-11) was led by Blake Schilb with 22 points, J.R. Blount with 17 and Majak Kou 12. The Panthers have beaten the Ramblers 11 consecutive games including 94-76 in last year's tournament semifinals.

Davis scored 13 of his team's first 18 points to lead Milwaukee to a 38-27 halftime lead they would never surrender.

The Panthers used a 9-0 run midway through the first period to go ahead for good at 24-17. Davis ignited the decisive run with a three-point play with 11:43 left for an 18-17 lead. Davis stole an inbounds pass under his own basket, scored and then made a free throw because he was fouled. Jason McCoy ended the scoring spurt with a basket with 8:01 left.

Schilb made two free throws to open the second half and cut Milwaukee's lead to 38-29. But the Panthers reeled off eight straight points and the Ramblers never got that close again.

Box Score

Notes and quotes

- Butler is back in the league championship game for the first time since the 2002-03 season. This will be their eighth appearance in the league title game overall.

- The Bulldogs defeated UWGB all three times the teams played this season and now lead the all-time series, 21-13.

- Butler is now 5-1 against UWGB in the league tournament all-time.

- Butler has hit 10 or more three-pointers in each of the last four games. The Bulldogs made 12-of-29 tonight. Those 12 made three-pointers are one shy of a League tourney record for a game.

- The Bulldogs collected nine steals, tied for third-best effort this season.

- Butler limited UW-Green Bay to just 38.8 percent shooting from the field, the eighth time this season a Bulldog opponent has been held under 40 percent.

- A.J. Graves tied his career-high by making five three-pointers.

- Bruce Horan extended his streak of consecutive games with a three-pointer made to 77, the second-best streak in NCAA history.

- Avery Sheets tallied 20 points, setting a new season-high.

- UWGB is now 21-19 in post-season games and 11-11 in the Horizon League/MCC Tournament.

- The Phoenix finish the season with 204 three-pointers, tied for second-most in school history.

- UW-Green Bay did not block a shot for just the second time this season.

- Butler shot 50 percent from the field in the game, the highest figure by a UWGB opponent since Youngstown State shot 62.9 percent Jan. 5.

- Aswan Minatee scored 16 points, tying his second-highest output of the season.

- UW-Milwaukee has advanced to the championship game for the fourth-straight year. The Panthers are 2-1 in title games. Milwaukee is now 5-1 in league tournament games played in the U.S. Cellular Arena.

- The Panthers are now 8-8 all-time in league tournament games.

- UWM is now 35-6 in regular season and postseason contests played at the U.S. Cellular Arena.

- The win tonight gives UWM 20 for the season. It is Milwaukee's fourth-straight 20-win season, an unprecedented feat in school history.

- Milwaukee has now beaten Loyola 11-straight times.

- Boo Davis scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to record the firstdouble-double of his career. The 10 rebounds for Davis also marked acareer-high. Davis has also now scored 20 or more points 12 times.

- Adrian Tigert scored 17 points in his first outing since Feb. 15. He hadmissed two games with a back injury. He did make the start, the 116th of his career.

- Joah Tucker scored 20 points to extend his streak of double-figure efforts to 25-straight games.

- The crowd of 7,502 is the seventh-largest in UWM's U.S. Cellular Arenahistory.

- Loyola is now 23-26 all-time in league tournaments and trails the all-time series with UWM, 20-14.

- The Ramblers saw their five-game winning streak snapped.

- Blake Schilb scored 22 points and has now reached double figures in 53 of his last 54 games. He has also now scored 20 or more points 17 times.

- J.R. Blount's 17 points marked his 13th game in double figures.

Quotes

Butler Head coach Todd Lickliter
On having a week off leading into the game
"You never know what a week off will do, but I thought we needed it. You want to continue to stay sharp. You just don't know how your players are going to respond, but I thought they showed a lot of character and a lot of poise. I thought the freshness helped. I thought that was the case."

On UW-Green Bay
"I think that Green Bay is a very good team. We saw them play last night and they played well. The tough matchups, the alignments they run, are hard to guard. I thought it was a nice challenge for our guys and I thought they showed a lot of poise and played well enough to get us to that next level. I appreciate that."

On his team's defensive play
"I think it helped us. The ball movement was good. I thought we were really in tune defensively to guard their team. Their team is difficult to guard."

On being ready to play
"You have to respect these guys. They are good. They are going to come at you - we never expected them not to do that. Out of respect for the game and for the opponent, you need to play the game the correct way to earn the victory. That is what we wanted to do for 40 minutes. We need to do that."

UW-Green Bay Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk

On the game
"It's a disappointing loss. I think it really set the tone when we had three turnovers in our first four possessions, which led to easy layups or easy baskets for them. I think that really damaged our psyche and we had a hard time bouncing back from that adversity. I think that was the story today. They jumped out early and we had a hard time handling that."

On playing without Josh Lawrence
"I think it was difficult for us. Josh took a severe elbow to the head yesterday and I think that affected our guys a little bit. When you lose one of your leaders like that, it hurts the morale of your team. They are all a little worried about him. Not to take anything from Butler - Butler played a great game. I don't know if it would've made a difference with Josh, but, clearly, we didn't see Green Bay basketball tonight."

On seeing the season end in the semifinals
"We probably played our worst game of the season. Being the second-youngest team in the nation, starting-wise, our goal this season was to get better every day. We got better as the season went on. We were playing our best basketball coming down the stretch. Obviously our goal was to win this conference tournament. We were the three seed, we finished third in the league (tied with four other teams). We felt good about that, we felt good about the matchups for the tournament. Unfortunately, we didn't play well tonight."

UW-Milwaukee Head coach Rob Jeter

On having a week off leading into the game
"There was some concern over how we would respond. We put together a solideffort, with the exception of turnovers in a few stretches. If we can eliminate those turnovers in those stretches, create more opportunities, we'll be doing okay. For us to come off the break that we did and play a tough opponent like Loyola that won five-straight. I thought the effort was there and we played a solid game."

On getting the ball inside
"We try to score where the percentages tell us they are higher. Close and under the basket is where percentages tell us we'll make more of those. So, we try to get it in there and we like to get fouls on teams. It's hard to get fouls when you shoot three-pointers. But, we do shoot them, but we make it a point to get the ball into the low block."

On the return of Adrian Tigert
"It's a gutsy performance, to be off, away from the game, the timing is the one things you worry about. I thought his timing was pretty good coming off that stretch (of being out)."

On moving to the championship game
"You just want to be playing the game that we are going to play on Tuesday (in the Championship game). You work so hard all year to take care of the conference, which is crucial, then you try to take care of the next. We are just happy to be playing on Tuesday."

Senior Adrian Tigert

On his return
"Being out there with my teammates is the most important part. It's something you don't realize until you have to sit out. The last two games, not being around practice, you miss the guys, the comraderie that playing brings to you."

On playing in the league tournament
"Good teams need to have a lot of confidence. We've been waiting for this. Our first goal was to win a conference championship, the next one a conference tournament. So, we're just excited it's finally here. We'll be ready."

Senior Boo Davis

On scoring the first 10 points
"I just tried to come out right away and set the tone. Last game they held me to like seven points, so I came out and tried to be aggressive."

Loyola Head coach Jim Whitesell

On the loss
"The first 10 minutes, I thought we were doing of the things we wanted to do. We came out and were productive. But, Milwaukee then just beat us to the punch. There was a point when it was like 17-17, we scored two points and then didn't score for a while, it felt like an eternity to me. I give credit to them, they were sharper than us. I thought we had some tough turnovers that aided them to get some run outs and you can't do that with this team."

On trying to make a comeback at the end
"I like the way our guys finished the game in terms of spreading the floor. At one point we had five guards for a while. That's not something that's going to happen a lot, but we just tried to get anything started."