Kansas City, Mo. ? About the only shots falling for Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s men’s basketball team Wednesday were those coming off the hot hand of guard Ed McCants.
The Panthers fell to No. 2 Kansas University, 73-62, at Kemper Arena and did so with horrible free-throw shooting and just one real weapon throughout the night: McCants, who dropped 26 points by hitting six three-pointers, often with a hand in his face.
“I didn’t get very many open looks,” McCants said. “I was more focused tonight. It has been too long since I have been playing up to my potential. Tonight, I tried to take things in stride and step up.”
McCants hit six of his first eight three-point attempts, and the 17,843 fans in attendance noticed, groaning every time McCants got another shot off. He did miss his last four attempts, though, a microcosm of the poor display UWM put forth.
“If those shots went down, it would have been a whole new ball game,” UWM coach Bruce Pearl said. “Kansas was beatable tonight because it was their first game without (Wayne) Simien. But they are a very good basketball team and extremely well coached.”
The most glaring display of futility by the Panthers was the bricklaying done at the free-throw stripe. UWM missed eight of 11 free throws, the worst shooting by a KU opponent since UNLV in 1998.
“We missed a bunch of free throws, and we didn’t execute like we should have,” Pearl said. “We have some guys who aren’t doing their job.”
UWM (6-3) will play Dec. 30 at Manhattan, the last of a seven-game stretch of road games. It’ll be the Panthers’ last tuneup before Horizon League games start in January.
“All you have to do is go out and do your job and do it as a team,” Pearl said. “Good things will happen.”
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