Milwaukee Picks Up Third Straight Win

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 16)
Milwaukee 77, James Madison 66
#20/19 Wisconsin 69, Green Bay 66
DePaul 81, Wright State 72
Eastern Illinois 86, UIC 66

Milwaukee (3-1) pushed its win streak to three games with its win over James Madison. The Panthers wrap up play in the NIU Tournament against tournament host Northern Illinois on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Milwaukee 77, James Madison 66
Jordan Aaron scored 24 points and Matt Tiby added 16 points and 13 rebounds as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee claimed a 77-66 win over James Madison Saturday on the second day of the NIU Invitational.

The Panthers (3-1) have won three in a row and captured their second win this season over a team that played in last year's NCAA Tournament.

Milwaukee used a 14-5 run midway through the second half to build a nine-point lead and then calmly maintained the advantage over the final 10 minutes of the game.

Andrey Semenov had 20 points to lead James Madison (1-2), which had opened the tournament with a win over Northern Illinois.

The Panthers used just the right combination of perimeter shooting and inside play to beat the 3-2 zone offered up by James Madison. Milwaukee made 11 three-pointers, including five from Aaron, while the Panthers also got to the foul line 27 times and saw post players Tiby and Kyle Kelm combine for 30 points.

Plus, Austin Arians found his way underneath the zone for three layups during a key stretch of the second half, eventually finishing with 14 points.

"I don't know if we've played 40 minutes of a clean basketball game yet, but yet we're finding ways to manage through some of those lulls and be better," Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter said. "When Austin started running that baseline and getting lost in behind and finished some of those inside, I thought that was the key to the game."

Aaron, a preseason all-league selection, had his best outing of the young season. He scored 14 of Milwaukee's first 22 points and then hit some big shots as the Panthers closed things out in the final 10 minutes.

"It was a great breakout game for him, because he has not really put those type of numbers up," Jeter said. "We knew we were going to need that from either him or Austin, and tonight it was Jordy."

Milwaukee started fast, scoring 11 of the first 15 points. The Panthers' lead hit 22-13 on an Aaron steal and layin with 9:20 remaining and UWM was still up 28-21 on a Tiby layin with 5:30 left.

JMU settled in from there, forging a 29-all tie on a Semenov fadeaway with 3:30 left, and the two teams went into the locker room tied at 31.

It was 35-all after the first three minutes of the second half before the Panthers started to break away, scoring seven in a row for a 42-35 lead. The advantage hit 49-40 on a Kelm three-point play with 10:31 left and was still 59-50 after a Tiby three-point play with 7:40 remaining.

UWM's advantage hit double digits for the first time at 65-55 when Kelm buried a three with 4:03 left, and free throws from Aaron and Kelm made it 75-62 with 1:26 remaining, allowing the Panthers to truly pull away.

Milwaukee wraps up its three games at the NIU Invitational by squaring off with the host Huskies at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

#20/19 Wisconsin 69, Green Bay 66 
Junior Keifer Sykes scored 16 points in both halves en route to a career-high 32 in front of a program-record 9,906 fans at the Resch Center, but No. 20/19 Wisconsin (3-0) rallied past Green Bay (1-1) for a 69-66 victory in non-conference men’s basketball action on Saturday night.

Building on his impressive resume in big games, Sykes finished with 32 points on 13-of-26 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.

Sykes scored the first eight Phoenix points of the night on a high-flying dunk on the game’s first possession and a pair of three-pointers. Green Bay led 25-23 with 7:45 left before halftime, but Wisconsin scored the next nine points to claim its largest lead of the night (32-25). Using a pair of layups from Sykes, Green Bay closed the deficit to 34-29 at the break.

Sparking a 10-1 run coming out of the break, Sykes scored eight points to put the Phoenix in front 39-35 just three minutes into the second half.

Green Bay’s lead increased to seven points to seven points (50-43) when junior Greg Mays converted a three-point play with 11:30 remaining. Mays finished the contest with nine points, six rebounds and a blocked shot.

Wisconsin, who entered the game after wins over St. John’s and No. 11 Florida, went on a 17-4 over the next six minutes to lead 60-54 with 6:03 on the clock. The Badgers still led 65-60 before Sykes drilled a jumper and made a floater in the lane to cut the margin to one (65-64) with 1:27 remaining.

After a pair of Wisconsin free throws, sophomore Carrington Love drove down the lane and scored to again make it a one-point game (67-66) with 12 seconds left.

Traevon Jackson was fouled and split a pair of free throws, but Sykes’ layup attempt was blocked by Frank Kaminsky with five seconds on the clock.

Kaminsky connected on 1-of-2 free throws, giving Green Bay a chance to tie. Sykes caught the ball near midcourt, but his 25-footer bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

Green Bay was outrebounded by four in the first half, but led by sophomore Jordan Fouse ended the night with a 40-35 advantage on the glass. Fouse reached double digits in rebounds for the second-straight game, grabbing a game-high 12 boards.

Fouse and freshman Kenneth Lowe each totaled three of Green Bay’s nine blocked shots. With senior Alec Brown in foul trouble and limited to 18 minutes, Lowe played 21 minutes and ended the game with six points, four rebounds, three blocks and two assists. Senior Vince Garrett added eight points and eight rebounds.

Kaminsky led the Badgers with 16 points while Sam Dekker added 13 and Josh Gasser ended the night with 11.

Green Bay returns to action next Saturday, hosting Minnesota-Duluth at the Resch Center at 7 p.m.

DePaul 81, Wright State 72
The Wright State men's basketball team led most of the contest, but DePaul closed the game on a 20-4 run over the final 7:42 to pull out an 81-72 decision Saturday afternoon at the Allstate Arena as part of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.

WSU jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead just 1:44 into the contest as AJ Pacher and JT Yoho each hit three-pointers, only to see the Blue Demons answer with eight straight of their own.  The score was tied two more times until the Raiders used a 10-4 run, capped off by a Reggie Arceneaux triple, to go up 24-18 with six minutes to play in the period.

A pair of Jamee Crockett three gave DePaul a 33-32 advantage late in the half until a three-point play by Cole Darling put Wright State up 35-33 at the break.

The Raiders shot 44 percent overall in the first half, including four of eight from behind the arc, and made seven of eight free throws compared to 50 percent shooting for DePaul, who was four of seven from three-point range and 11 of 14 at the foul line.

A Kendall Griffin three gave WSU its biggest lead of the day at 44-35 with 18:12 remaining in the second half and, despite the Blue Demons tying the game at 52, the Raiders were up 68-61 following a Yoho triple with eight minutes to go.

From there, however, it was all DePaul as the Blue Demons tallied 10 unanswered points to take the lead for good and after Pacher cut the deficit to one with a layup at the 3:41 mark, added eight more to go ahead 79-70 in the final minute.

The Raiders shot 57 percent in the second half to finish at 50 percent overall, including seven of 18 three-pointers, and hit 17 of 23 free throws while DePaul shot 55 percent for the game, 58 percent after halftime, and was 28 of 36 at the stripe, 17 of 22 in the second half.

Yoho led WSU with 13 points while Pacher and Matt Vest each had 11 and Jerran Young 10 off the bench.

Cleveland Melvin paced DePaul (2-1) with a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds, with 16 of those points coming in the second half, while Brandon Young had 14, Tommy Hamilton 13 and Billy Garrett 12 off the bench.

Wright State (1-2) continues play in the Classic on Monday as the Raiders host Manchester at 7:00.

Eastern Illinois 86, UIC 66
The UIC men’s basketball team (1-2) trimmed a 17-point Eastern Illinois (2-1) lead to single digits in the second half but the Panthers pulled away for a 86-66 victory Saturday afternoon at the UIC Pavilion. Junior Marc Brown scored 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting for his third consecutive 20-point outing of the season.  He was joined in double figures by Jordan Harks and Kelsey Barlow with 13 and 12 points, respectively.  EIU’s Reggie Smith paced the Panthers with 23 points and six assists.

“We knew it was going to be a physical game,” said Head Coach Howard Moore.  “We obviously weren’t ready for a game like this and I take responsibility for that.  I give credit to Eastern Illinois and Coach Spoonhour - they played their hearts out.  We’ll take this game and learn from it.”

EIU was red hot from three-point range, hitting 9-of-14 (64.3%), including 6-of-8 in the first half.  The Panthers executed a 17-3 run midway through the opening period to go in front 31-16.  UIC ended the first half on a high note by scoring the final four points and pulled within 13 before the break.

Freshman Lance Whitaker opened the second half with a three-point play, igniting an 8-2 run that cut EIU’s lead down to 42-35 by the 17:56 mark.  UIC eventually made it a two-possession game (46-40) after a Barlow three with 15:16 left to play.  Six points was the closet UIC came to the Panthers for the rest of the night as EIU seemed to have an answer for every Flames’ bucket.

Harks performed well in his 30 minutes of action by grabbing a game-high eight rebounds and shooting 6-of-10 from the field.  Barlow tallied his third-straight game of five or more assists with seven helpers on the night, matching a career-high.

UIC is back in action Wednesday (Nov. 20) when the Flames play host to Northwestern. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. CST inside the UIC Pavilion. The Flames defeated the Wildcats in Evanston, Ill., last year by a final of 50-44.

Sunday will see four League teams on the road, beginning with Youngstown State's trip to Massachusetts at 1 p.m. ET. Valparaiso will travel to Ohio at 2 p.m. ET, while Milwaukee will play its final game of the NIU Invitational against host Northern Illinois at 4:30 p.m. ET. Oakland will close the night at #15/15 Gonzaga, tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.