BURN THE HORSE
A week ago it looked like an opportunity. Now it looks a
whole lot tougher.
 |
UW-Milwaukee at UALR7 p.m. MondayJack Stephens Center |
UALR returns home at 7 p.m. Monday with a visit from
Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the Jack Stephens Center. The game is part of the Hoops
for Hope Classic.
The potential opportunity was the chance to play a couple of home games to build some momentum before heading to Mexico. And more importantly, to build some momentum before starting Sun Belt Conference play the following week.
So, what’s happened in the past week?
UALR was soundly beaten at Louisiana Tech and completely
destroyed at Ole Miss. And Wisconsin-Milwaukee took South Carolina to overtime
before beating always tough Davidson.
On Saturday night, Wisconsin-Milwaukee rallied from a
halftime deficit to win. Jordan Aaron had a game-high 21 points for the
Panthers. You might remember Wisconsin-Milwaukee from last season when they
visited the Stephens Center and won.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee used nine players on Saturday, but
primarily uses seven in their rotation. They played quite a few more players in
their game against South Carolina. The Panthers possess all the experience (4
seniors, 3 juniors in rotation vs. Davidson) that UALR doesn’t have. And the
Panthers have more than enough size to match up with UALR.
They start 6-7 senior Demetrius Harris (Jacksonville, Ark.),
6-7 senior James Haarsma and 6-9 senior Christian Wolf on the front line. The
backcourt is 5-10 junior Jordan Aaron and 6-1 junior Thierno Niang. Off the
bench are 6-9 junior Kyle Kelm and 6-8 senior Ryan Haggarty.
Aaron’s kind of a do it all scoring point guard and Niang is
a quick slasher. But what makes Wisconsin-Milwaukee unique are its bigs. First,
they’ve got a bunch of them. Second, they’ll try to spread you out and hit
threes.
The guards break down their defender off the dribble. Then
kick it back out to the forwards stationed around the three-point line. At
times against South Carolina, they had all three bigs outside the arc.
None of that will come as a surprise for those who attended
last year’s game. Wisconsin-Milwaukee made 12 of 24 three-pointers in a 59-54
victory over the Trojans. UALR held a seven-point lead with 13 minutes to play
and still led 50-49 with 2:37 left.
Haarsma scored on a three-point play to give the Panthers a
lead and then scored on a layup after Chuck Guy missed a three-pointer at the
other end. That put UWM up 54-50 in the final minute. And after a Will
Neighbour turnover, Haarsma scored on another layup to put the game out of
reach.
Haarsma had 17 points, including those seven points with the
game on the line. UALR was led by Neighbour’s 15 points and 8 rebounds.
