UWM uses huge rebounding edge to remain undefeated in Horizon League

Despite all the injuries and the tough non-conference scheduling, here are the UW-Milwaukee Panthers alone atop the Horizon League standings at 3-0.

And their latest triumph was easily their most impressive, a 77-55 beatdown of Purdue Fort Wayne at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Monday night, Dec. 29.

It was a victory defined by toughness in the form of a plus-33 advantage on the boards – the second-largest margin in school history – and a balanced offensive attack with four players finishing in double figures and nine getting into the scoring column in all against a Mastodons team that only eight days earlier had won at Notre Dame.

"It's huge," said coach Bart Lundy of his team's undefeated start in league play. "We've got home wins against what I think are two of the better teams in the league (Robert Morris and now Fort Wayne) and the road win (at Cleveland State) is gold.

"To be here when things could have fallen apart for us with all the injuries, to see these guys step up and grab these opportunities, it's really a tribute to them and to our staff. Those guys have so much respect for our staff and genuinely like being here and being around each other.

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"To see them continue to just grab opportunities and not demand anything – they're not demanding opportunities. They're grasping opportunities, and that's pretty rare today. Happy for this group."

Example No. 1 in that area would be redshirt senior Aaron Franklin, largely a role player in his previous two seasons at UWM (7-6) who's been thrust into a much bigger role due to need and Monday turned in the performance of his career to date.

Franklin recorded his first double-double with 13 points on 6-for-12 shooting and a career-high 13 rebounds (five offensive) while also turning the screws defensively on Corey Hadnot II, who entered the game ranked third in the nation in scoring, second in the nation in field goals and first in the Horizon League with a 20.2 points-per-game average.

In 34 minutes, Hadnot put up a quiet 14 points on 5-for-17 shooting (3 for 10 from 3-point range) as the Mastodons came out ice-cold like the weather outside and never were able to heat up to make a game of it.

"I wish we had a half-hour to talk about his character," Lundy said of the 6-foot-5 Franklin, a Kansas City native. "He's been through some injuries. There's been some things that have derailed him a bit. But what people don't really know is he's an engineering major and he takes it really seriously.

"He spends countless hours studying, staying up, so he's a true student-athlete and to see him get a breakthrough, I can't be more proud of him or happy for him. Being here for three years, he's as loyal as they come.

"He would die for this program, and has played any role that we've asked him."

Fort Wayne scored the opening basket of the game and not long thereafter had its doors blown off courtesy of a 22-1 UWM run that saw five players score in all, with two 3-pointers apiece by Isaiah Dorceus and Amar Augillard accounting for almost half the Panthers' output from long range for the game (9 for 25).

By the end of the outburst UWM had a 28-6 advantage that by intermission had ballooned to 44-16.

The Panthers' lead grew to as many as 35 points before the Mastodons narrowed the gap to a more respectable 20. But that didn't occur until well into the second half and with the outcome already well in hand.

Augillard finished with 12 points, Chandler Jackson added 11 points off the bench for his second straight double-figure scoring output and Sekou Konneh finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Dorceus added nine points and seven rebounds.

The Panthers' plus-33 margin on the glass trailed only a plus-36 effort turned in against Loyola of Chicago on Jan. 28, 2009. Nineteen of their 53 boards in this one came on the offensive end, leading to a 24-0 advantage in second-chance points.

"I think that anybody that watched that game saw the determination," said Lundy. "We've only been back from Christmas break for three days with tough practices, and they were gritty. Usually, the group comes back and it takes them two days just to get going.

"This group really focused, and we had only nine bodies one day. They're just grinders. They continue to work, and everybody continues to buy into their role."

UWM will need that chutzpah over the next few days as it first plays a rare non-tournament collegiate back-to-back with a 6 p.m. tip at Wisconsin on Tuesday, Dec. 30, followed by a New Year's Day matinee at Wright State.

"I told them our approach is going to be to go in there and play as gritty and tough as we can, but to enjoy the experience as well. We've got a few guys from Wisconsin in that room," said Lundy. "I'm sure it'll be a big game for them. But obviously it's a major opponent, and then two days later we're back on the road.

"So, it's challenging. But we're grateful [Wisconsin] coach [Greg] Gard is giving us the opportunity, and this is the date they had. I didn't really ask our guys if I could do this to them. But I think for us to be able to play this game in state is really important, so we'll suit up and go play.

"If they wanted to play it tomorrow at 6 a.m., we would have played it tomorrow at 6 a.m."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW-Milwaukee uses huge rebounding edge to remain undefeated in Horizon