Panthers Advance in NIT Action
MILWAUKEE – In their second straight post season appearance, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee hosted the Rice Owls in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at the U.S. Cellular Arena.
The Panthers started off the game like they were still sour from their heart-breaking loss to Illinois-Chicago in the Horizon League Championship game. But, UWM settled down and led by Dylan Page’s 22 points, the Panthers won their first-ever post season game, at the Division I level, 91-63, over Rice from the WAC.
It was the first-ever meeting between the Owls and Panthers and it will be one that Rice will like to forget.
“It feels a lot better, especially with the way we played. It feels good,” Page said. “It was pretty easy, but it wasn’t easy in the first half.”
Rice (22-11), who finished fourth in a conference that sent five teams to the post season, started off hot as they got out to a 20-13 lead with 10:08 remaining in the first half. But from there, the Panthers took over.
UWM (20-10) would score the next 10 points to take a 23-20 lead with 8:08 to go and would not trail the rest of the game. UWM would finish off the half with a 23-10 run to give them a 36-29 lead after the first twenty minutes.
UWM will play Boise State after they defeated UNLV, 84-69. Game day, time and location will be determined in the next day or two.
“It was kind of easy, because they kind of gave up,” UWM’s Ed McCants said. “In conference, a lot of teams – like UIC – they know all of our play calls, how to shut things down and disrupt passes. Rice didn’t have the same luxury.”
In the second half, McCants began to light up the scoreboard as he scored 14 of his 21 points in the second stanza. McCants started the second half surge with a two, a three and a pair of free throws, giving them a 41-29 lead with 19:27 left. Rice would never get the lead to under 10 from there.
In fact, the Panthers would take a commanding 51-31 lead with 16:42 to go and the lead would not duck under 20. UWM would eventually get the lead up 33.
“It’s something that’s happened to us all year long,” Rice coach Willis Wilson said. “There’s times were our lack of maturity shows. It’s a learning curve – it’s a growing process.
“We’re trying to get our basketball program where the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is. Because they’re playing in championship type games every night.”
The Rice Owls were one of five teams from the WAC that were selected to play post-season games. Nevada and UTEP, the first and second place teams in the conference, qualified for the NCAA Tournament. While, Boise State, Rice and Hawaii also qualified for the NIT.
Rice’s top scorer and First Team All-WAC performer, Michael Harris, only managed just 11 points, seven points below his average. Brock Gillispie led the Owls with 15 points.
“When you qualify for the post season, there are no bad teams,” Wilson said. “If you let up against a bad team, especially on the road, the momentum is going to swing. You’ll be lucky to slow it down.
“This is a program that was apart of the Bracket Buster from the onset of the year. We’ve had a respect for this program for some time. But we got a good nucleus coming back. We feel the best is still ahead of us.”
