UW-Milwaukee Captures Horizon League Men's Basketball Title, NCAA Tournament Berth
March 8, 2005
Men's Basketball Championship Page
The junior forward's free throw with 4.2 seconds left gave the Panthers a 59-58 win over
The Panthers didn't cut down the nets when they won the regular-season title at home, preferring to wait until winning the tournament title and the automatic NCAA bid that goes along with it.
"We saved it because we had a goal in mind," tournament MVP Joah Tucker said. "It feels good to finally cut the nets down. We savored the moment. It means something when you're older and you say, 'We won a conference championship.' But our goal was to get into the (NCAA) tournament."
After reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2003, the Panthers got ahead of themselves last year when they won the regular season and then lost the tournament title game to rival Illinois-Chicago, also at U.S. Cellular Arena.
The Panthers (24-5) looked like they were blowing it again, trailing most of the night and missing 11-of-24 free throws, including the first of two by Tigert's with 4.2 seconds remaining.
"I told him, 'One's as good as two. We just need one,' "
It worked.
"I could tell he was confident he'd knock down the next one," Tucker said.
Sure enough, Tigert stepped up to the line with nothing but red shirts around him and calmly sank his second shot.
"It's nice to redeem myself," Tigert said.
Despite the Panthers' efforts to keep the ball out of his hands, freshman Brandon Cotton, who had 21 points, brought the ball upcourt, hounded the whole time by Boo Davis. He was off-target on a contested jumper that would have sent the Titans to the NCAA tournament at 15-15.
Instead, the yellow-and-black-clad students stormed the court, something that was denied them a year ago.
Ed McCants' 18 points led the Panthers, who held
Tucker added 15 points and
The Titans, who went 0-13 this season when failing to score 60 points, were going for their first tournament title since 1999.
Cotton's 11 first-half points helped Detroit take a 30-24 lead at the break, and Muhammad Abdur-Rahim's basket to open the second half gave the Titans their biggest lead at 32-24. The Panthers responded with three straight 3-pointers, two by McCants, the conference's player of the year, to go ahead 33-32. It was their first lead since 2-0.
McCants' two free throws with 10:22 remaining capped the Panthers' 17-4 surge and gave
The Panthers trailed until Tucker sank two free throws with 55 seconds left to tie it at 58.
Cotton missed an underhanded layup, but Ryvon Covile got the rebound and Chris Hill fouled out with 28 seconds left. Covile missed both free throws, however. The Titans were 11-of-16 from the line.
Tigert spun toward the hoop on the Panthers' last possession, but his shot rimmed out as he was fouled by Covile. After he sank his second shot for a 59-58 lead, Watson chose not to use his final timeout.
Cotton, the only
"I thought I could play with anybody," said Cotton, voted the league's top newcomer. "I'm mad about the loss but I feel good about this year."
The crowd of 10,783 was the largest in Panthers' history.
