North Dakota 63, UW-Milwaukee 60: Late comeback attempt falls just short

Growing pains are going to be a constant theme for the 2018-'19 UW-Milwaukee Panthers.

That was plenty evident on Saturday night, when the Panthers endured a brutal offensive showing in the first half, stepped up their game over the final 5 minutes to get back into the game only to then fail to execute in the final seconds with a chance to send the game into overtime.

Darius Roy's three-pointer from the left wing didn't fall, and UWM fell to North Dakota, 63-60, at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

BOX SCORE:North Dakota 63, UWM 60

"The only thing I take out of it is there’s opportunities to get better," said coach Pat Baldwin, whose team dropped to 0-2 on the young season. "We didn’t play, by any stretch of the imagination, well. We did get back into the game.

"But there’s so many things we can do to help our guys get better and eventually win."

Roy, a junior-college transfer, led four Panthers in double figures with 18 points while also chipping in six assists and four steals over 34 minutes in his first start at the point.

Vance Johnson added 13 points and Carson Warren-Newsome and DeAndre Abram 12 apiece, with Abram also pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds for his second collegiate double-double.

UWM had nearly as many turnovers (five) as field goals (seven) in the opening 20 minutes as North Dakota opened a 30-17 lead at intermission.

The Panthers showed more life early in the second half, and after Warren-Newsome connected on three-pointers on four consecutive possessions they'd cut the Hawks' lead to 54-47 with 6 minutes 10 seconds remaining.

North Dakota's Cortez Seales hit a jumper with 5:04 left to make it 58-50 for North Dakota's final field goal. UWM got to within 61-55 and then Abrams hit a three from the top of the key to make it a one-possession game at 61-58.

A Roy jumper after a North Dakota turnover got the Panthers to within 61-60 with 15.6 seconds remaining. After the Hawks hit a pair of free throws to open their lead back to three, the Panthers called timeout to set up their final play.

Things broke down quickly, however, and Roy had to settle for a forced three from the left wing that was no good.

"He had no other choice," Baldwin said. "The clock is going down. He had a good look. We were trying to run a play out of that and North Dakota took it away in the middle of the floor. He got over to the side, had a good look and we just couldn’t knock it down.

"I’ll trust Darius with a shot like that to tie a game or help us win."

With so many new players trying to acclimate themselves, getting everyone on the same page is going to take some time for the Panthers.

"The second half was a lot better.," said Baldwin. "Our guys had some resiliency and were able to fight back and get back into the game. We were a three-pointer away from tying it up and going to overtime. But give North Dakota a lot of credit – they did all the things they needed to do in order to win.

"We need to do more things in order to win. We’re just back to the drawing board and as we continue to get our new guys acclimated to our system and what we’re trying to do, we do have a chance to be good. But we have to get in the ledger on the winning side."