UWM again suffers frustrating loss to Oakland, this time fueled by technicals

It was another disheartening, frustrating night at UWM Panther Arena. 

The Milwaukee Panthers found themselves trapped in an early deficit once again and, despite a second-half push fell apart after a pivotal replay review decision in a SCORE loss to the Oakland Grizzlies on Jan. 15.     

Adding injury to insult for the shorthanded Panthers, the defeat came at the hands of the Grizzlies, who have won six of the last seven meetings and knocked Milwaukee out of the Horizon League Tournament each of the past two years.

BOX SCORE: Oakland 73, UWM 60

Sekkou Konneh set a career-high against a Division-I opponent with 16 points while Aaron Franklin had a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double, but a 2 for 19 start from the field spelled doom for the Panthers, who shot just 34.3% from the field and missed 18 of 20 three-point attempts. 

Danilo Jovanovich (shoulder) and Faizon Fields (ankle) were out once again for Milwaukee, which continues to skid with four senior starters hurt. The Panthers are now 8-11 and 4-4 in the Horizon.

Confounding replay review turns tides

The Panthers felt they were right back in the game when, down by six with just over seven minutes to play, Tate McKenzie blocked a shot and grabbed the board for a shot clock violation. 

As a result of a tie-up as the shot clock expired, a Grizzlies player fell to the ground with bodies tangled. Grizzlies guard Brody Robinson sprinted into the scene from well out of the play, shoving McKenzie and instigating a further scuffle. After Robinson then fled the scene, uninterested in remaining in the vicinity of the larger McKenzie, guard Josh Dixon gave him a slight shrug. McKenzie then walked over to exchange a word with Robinson. 

After going to review, the officiating crew of Alfred Smith, Anthony Burris and Kenneth Moreland determined it would be the Grizzlies who would get two technical shots and possession. 

Robinson, ultimately rewarded for inciting a kerfuffle he wasn’t involved in, hit both free throws. Seconds later, a Brett White three pushed the Oakland lead to 11 for a backbreaking sequence. 

The Panthers sideline had been apoplectic at the crew all game, and the inconsistent whistle finally boiled over for them when, moments after the on-court skirmish, Lundy was issued a technical after Franklin was tackled following an offensive rebound to no whistle. 

“I thought the way that they interpreted what happened really hurt us,” Lundy said. “Then I get the technical a few plays later which I didn’t feel like I had a choice. I do think it was poorly officiated. But that’s part of the game and give Oakland credit. They came in and really punched us.”

From there, the Panthers seemed spent emotionally and physically, as they didn’t make another field goal for more than five minutes.

“I mean, that was game,” Lundy said. “That was game.”

Youthful lineup infuses some energy

During the the Panthers’ blowout loss to Northern Kentucky Jan. 9 a second-half unit featuring three freshmen – Stevie Elam, Josh Dixon and Konneh – gave Lundy’s crew some life. 

It was more of the same six days later.

After the Grizzlies jumped out to an 11-2 lead, Elam immediately poured in five points. In cutting the deficit to five at 24-19 with 5:44 to play in the period, the freshman trio had combined for all but four points. 

Elam was +3 in 13 first-half minutes; Dixon was a net zero. The starter trio of Amar Aguillard, Chandler Jackson and McKenzie were all -12. They were all mostly benched after the opening minutes, with Aguillard leading the way with seven minutes in the half. The Panthers rolled with a lineup of Elam, Dixon, Konneh, Franklin and Isaiah Dorceus that cut the deficit to two scores until a 7-2 Oakland run capped the half. 

“We made the change in the lineup today, which completely backfired and I’ll take all the blame for that,” Lundy said. “But we did it because we were worried about not matching up.”

Oakland again extended its lead out of the half against the starting unit before the same bench-heavy lineup for the Panthers cut the lead to six multiple times, the final of which was a Franklin layup just preceding the dust-up.

Dixon, despite shooting 4 of 13, finished a game-high +5 for Milwaukee; Elam was +4 and Konneh +1.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see who’s performing at a high level,” Lundy said. “Those guys are fearless. We’re in second semester. They’re not really freshmen anymore. I would anticipate that their influence on this team is going to keep getting bigger.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Oakland basketball defeats UW-Milwaukee once again