Wis-Milwaukee loses 64-50 to No. 10 Marquette

MILWAUKEE – Wisconsin-Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter knows better days are ahead — especially when the Panthers make some shots.

Milwaukee went 4 of 28 on 3-pointers and lost to its cross-town rival, No. 10 Marquette, for the 39th straight time, 64-50 on Thursday night.

Milwaukee, from the Horizon League, shot just 25 percent in the second half and 26.7 percent for the game. Tony Meier, the team's second-leading scorer (11.3 points per game) missed all 10 of his shots, including nine 3-pointers, and finished with two points.

"I just have to believe that we're going to make some shots," Jeter said. "And I have to believe that some of the guys that were running at us tonight, hopefully we don't see those same type of guys in our league. We do have some teams that are pretty talented."

Junior Cadougan tied his career high with 15 points and set a career mark with seven rebounds for the Golden Eagles. Darius Johnson-Odom and Davante Gardner added 12 points each for Marquette (11-1), which was coming off its first loss of the season Monday at LSU.

Ryan Allen led Milwaukee (9-4) with 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds and six blocked shots. Kaylon Williams had 11 points.

Jeter called Allen's performance "spectacular." Allen was a bit more humble.

"It could have been anybody else," he said. "Just kept it simple and not do anything out of the ordinary."

Marquette's 39-game winning streak against Milwaukee is the second-longest involving two Division I teams. Syracuse has beaten Colgate 45 straight times.

The series dates to 1917, and Marquette's 75-72 victory last season was the closest game in series history. This one also had the look of a rivalry, with physical and sometimes sloppy play on both ends. The teams combined for 41 fouls, including three technicals.

"We're pretty close with those guys," Allen said. "We were out there just having fun. It was nothing more than that. It was just playing basketball, and playing basketball that happens. You kind of jar people a little bit."

Gardner had three fouls in the half — two on one play, as he followed a hard foul on an alley-oop attempt by Allen with a technical for protesting the call. The play resulted in four free throws for the Panthers and cut Marquette's lead to 27-25.

The Golden Eagles took off from there.

Marquette used a 10-1 run spanning the first and second halves to open a 37-26 lead. Jamil Wilson had six points during the spurt, and Milwaukee went 7:28 without a basket.

The Panthers pulled to 45-38 with 8:46 left after two free throws by Kyle Kelm. But Marquette used an 11-3 run over the next 4-plus minutes to seal it.

"I am not discouraged by the things I saw on this stat sheet because I saw a team out there that really played hard," Jeter said. "We made them play. Now, they did the same thing to us, too. Just a couple more shots, and maybe we're in a different position down the stretch to have a little better result."

Added Jeter: "It's an emotional game for both teams, and you just hated to see it get ugly. You just want to see two teams play, and we got back to playing basketball."

Johnson-Odom, guarded by Allen, was off his game and the Golden Eagles held off Milwaukee in the second half in large part without him. Johnson-Odom picked up his fourth foul with 13:12 remaining, tripping Williams 30 feet from the basket. He fouled out with 2:52 left.

Cadougan, however, picked up the slack.

"UWM was sagging off on me," he said. "They were just sitting on my teammates so I just had to make something happen. I tried to muscle my way in there. I tried to find the best available shot that I could get. I guess my strength took me all the way to the basket, and I made plays."

That was the plan.

"It's no secret that at Marquette, Junior's job is to run the team," Jeter said. "He does a great job of that. Tonight we wanted him to be more of a scorer, and he did that."

Ja'Rob McCallum, Milwaukee's starting shooting guard, missed his seventh straight game with a wrist injury. Marquette, playing its third game in six days, faced its own adversity.

"Everybody is kind of beat up, tired legs, flying back late, getting back early, working out," Wilson said. "Mentally, it's just wearing on us as much as physically."