With just over a minute left Saturday, down by four and the momentum of 6,190 screaming Panthers behind him, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men’s basketball junior guard Avery Smith drove the lane, as he has done so many times before.

“Vo” went up with a lay-up and he and his defender crashing to the floor. While both Panthers and UW-Green Bay Phoenix players are on the hardwood, the ball knocks the rim a couple times before falling in.

A team that was down by 16 at one point in the game, UWM was then one free throw away from closing the gap to one with 60 seconds remaining.

Charge.

A team that was knocking on the door of destiny, ready to finally take its first lead and defeat its rivals from the north on national television, found itself down big.

With the entire Panthers team watching in disgusted disbelief, the officials slapped a technical on the squad, giving Mike Schactner of the Phoenix two free throws, which he gladly deposited in the bottom of the hoop. UW-Green Bay then capitalized on the offensive foul, waltzed down the court and nailed a shot.

What UWM fans perceived to be a one-point deficit had just as quickly turned into a gap that was too much to overcome, and UWGB escaped the U.S. Cellular Arena with a 73-67 victory.

Despite sinking that lay-up, the charge wiped out Smith’s bucket and left the scorer with 17 points as he fouled out. The guard finally came into his own, tallying up seven assists and four steals in a losing effort.

Kevin Massiah and Paige Paulsen controlled the paint, scoring 15 and 12 points, respectively, and snagging seven rebounds each.

Lately, Ricky Franklin has been on the upswing. Saturday afternoon, however, Franklin was 1 of 7 from the field and looked lost at times on the court, getting into foul trouble.

The real story of the game, however, was the play of former Milwaukee King standout and Phoenix recruit Troy Cotton, who played the greatest game of his young career. Cotton finished with 23 points on 6-of-6 shooting, nailing all three shots from three-point range and dropping eight of his nine free throws.

“It was great coming home, because a lot of my family members haven’t seen me play yet,” Cotton said. “It was also great getting the win here. Getting the win here was my main goal.”

The Panthers (7-16, 4-4 Horizon) return to action tonight against Cleveland State University (8-14, 27) at the Cell. Buses shuttling students to and from the game will be leaving Sandburg Hall and the Union beginning an hour and a half before the 7 p.m. tip-off.

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