BJ Freeman erupts in season debut but UWM's upset bid falls short against Providence

After scratching and clawing for 19-plus minutes in the second half at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Rhode Island on Saturday evening only for the boulder to fall back down the hill as soon as it got close to the top, the UW-Milwaukee men’s basketball team had a shot to make things get quite interesting as the game’s final minute ticked down. 

Trailing the Providence Friars by eight points with under a minute to play, the Panthers’ full-court trap forced a turnover, which gave guard Erik Pratt an open look at a three from the top of the key. 

If he canned it, the Panthers would have cut the deficit to five, making it a two-score game for the first time since midway through the first half, and gave the press a chance to infuse more chaos into the game from there. 

Instead, it didn’t go and the Panthers were left with a 79-69 loss in the end. 

The ultimate result wasn’t what Milwaukee wanted, but the 40-minute effort it put forth against a Big East foe on the road was a positive early-season step.

BOX SCORE: Providence 79, UWM 69

“I was proud of the guys with the fight that we had,” Panthers head coach Bart Lundy said. “We competed until the end.”

BJ Freeman, who was suspended for Monday’s season-opener against UW-Stout for a violation of team rules, made his season debut and did his best to try and lift the Panthers to an upset as 14-point underdogs with 33 points and 10 rebounds.  

Pratt was the lone other double-digit scorer for the Panthers, who shot just 37.7% from the field and 3 of 17 from three-point range but did sink 20 of 23 free throws. 

Saturday’s showing from the Panthers looked better than last season’s outings against high-major opponents on the road. 

Lundy said there was a different attitude surrounding the game from his team, too.

“I think there’s a way different feel going into those games,” Lundy said. “We had no idea if we could compete or what was going to happen last year. This year’s team feels we should compete. We should be in the game and be able to play with these guys.”

BJ Freeman changes everything for the Panthers 

The impact of Freeman on the rest of the Panthers was hard to miss from the jump. 

From shot creation, to ball-handling to generating open looks for teammates, Freeman’s abilities open up the door for so much of what the Panthers want to do offensively. 

Facing a Friars opponent with size and athleticism, Milwaukee had an upward battle ahead of it on the offensive end that it won’t often face in Horizon League play. There wasn’t going to be much in terms of winning off the bounce and finishing, which put plenty on Freeman’s plate. 

Freeman scored nearly half of the Panthers’ points, including 20 of the team’s 43 in the second half. He took 15 field goal attempts as well as nine free throws over the final period as it became clear he was going to need to be the primary scoring option off the dribble. 

“BJ had a whale of a game,” Lundy said. “...He opens everything up. He scored a lot tonight but he can also facilitate. He got to the free throw line and we got our defense set, and we also got lots of offensive rebounds because they were helping on him in the second half.” 

Freeman’s 33 points were the second-most of his career, trailing only his 43-point outburst against Stetson in the College Basketball Invitational last March. Over his last 22 games dating back to last season, Freeman is averaging 22.9 points per game.  

Work to be done on defense for Milwaukee

It may not be fully apparent just by looking at the box score and seeing Providence shot only 39.4% from the field, but there will still be plenty to clean up when the Panthers break down the film from their defensive effort. 

Rebounding, as it often was last year, was also a struggle. Providence had 13 offensive boards in the first half, matching the Panthers’ defensive rebound total. Milwaukee improved in that area in the second half, allowing only six more offensive rebounds

“We had a deficit on the glass in the first half that gave them the big lead,” Lundy said. “They had 13 offensive rebounds to our one in that half. We did shore that up in the second half, which was good, but we’ve got to be better on the boards.”

The Panthers also at times had difficulty with stopping dribble penetration and were forced into a series of frenetic rotations while the Friars spun the ball around the perimeter. 

Of the Friars’ 62 points scored on field goals, 30 came from behind the arc on 31 attempts. The other 32 were all in the paint. Milwaukee will need to do a better job of forcing opponents into tougher looks as the season progresses, but considering Providence’s length and athleticism, Lundy was generally pleased with his defense, rebounding aside, which included throwing some zone at the Friars from time to time.

“We went into it thinking they’re a good shooting team but not a great shooting team,” he said. “They’re good individually at getting to the rim. There’s four guys with a shot at playing in the NBA on that team. You got to choose what you’re going to give up and we gave up some drives and some transition scoring in the first half, but I thought the zone made them shoot more threes than they were comfortable with. The ones they made were actually pretty well-contested. 

“On the road in front of 10,000 people and a Big East opponent, I’ll take 39 percent shooting.” 

Second half effort keeps the Panthers within striking distance

Sloppy play late in the first half by the Panthers sparked a 15-6 Providence run that gave the hosts a 13-point lead at the break.

Milwaukee didn’t go down without a fight. From chipping the lead to single digits on six occasions to forcing consecutive shot clock violations and another turnover in the final two minutes, the Panthers stepped up.

“Really proud of their fight,” Lundy said. “If (Pratt) makes that shot in the final minute, they got to go against that press again. The returners know what this feels like, but for the new guys this was a great experience of this feeling and being down and fighting back.”

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