Not even a collegiate high twenty nine points from Torre Johnson was enough to lift the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers past the undefeated Panthers from Northern Iowa.

In a game that remained close until the very end, it was the balanced attack by UNI featuring big man Jordan Eglseder that did UWM in. Eglseder finished the game with a personal best 20 points and 10 boards.

“He played great for us. He had a great game,” said his teammate, senior Eric Coleman. The first half of the game featured a very close contest, with neither team able to run away in the scoring column. UWM only shot 36.4 percent in the first twenty minutes, compared to UNI hitting on 50 percent of their shots.

However, after Johnson’s three-pointer to beat the buzzer, the Milwaukee Panthers found themselves down only 35-33.

UNI came out on a 6-0 run en route to open up the biggest lead of the game for either team, 9 points. Then, Johnson started to catch fire. He scored 13 of the next 22 Milwaukee points as the Milwaukee Panthers rallied to tie the score at 58.

“Torre is very gifted, he just turned and shot over them,” said his coach Rob Jeter. After dead-locking the game however, the Panthers from Cedar Falls never let their counterparts get any closer, and they never relinquished the lead they held for most of the game.

“We just had to bounce back on the road; it’s just another learning experience. I like how our guys handled it,” said Ben Jacobson, coach of the UNI squad.

A main for reason for faltering down the stretch after tying the contest at 58 on a Ricky Franklin bucket was the lack of scoring balance once Johnson became cold. After dropping 29 through the first 32 minutes on 12-21 shooting, he only attempted 3 more shots the entire game, failing to hit any.

Once the Oklahoma State transfer went scoreless, no black and gold player stepped up to score the crucial points.

“We have to have the guards step up. We need three guys to create opportunities. We don’t have a consistent enough ball handler or wing player that’s creating enough opportunities,” said Jeter following the game. “We have them in the locker room; we just need them to step up.”

After Johnson, only senior forward Paige Paulsen tallied double figures in scoring as he finished with 11; no one else managed above six.

UWM did not help its cause by taking 23 beyond-the-arc attempts but connecting on just 7. Northern Iowa also shot 5 more free throws and out-rebounded the home team 41-30. “Our inability to get those rebounds or attack the rim really put us on our heels,” said Coach Jeter.

UWM has its next game tomorrow, Tuesday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena against Sam Houston State.

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