The Milwaukee Panthers maintained their undefeated home record, advancing to 9-0 after a decisive victory over Youngstown State, with a final score of 79-64. The game took place at the UWM Panther Arena on Friday night.
Faizon Fields played a pivotal role for the Panthers, matching his career-high with 21 points and achieving a season-high of nine rebounds. The Panthers, now standing at 13-6 overall and 6-2 in the Horizon League, built an early lead against the Penguins and maintained control as the game progressed.
Fields’ performance was marked by an impressive conversion rate, hitting 9-of-10 shots from the field. He also contributed two blocks to the team’s defensive efforts. His scoring was part of Milwaukee’s dominant presence in the paint, where they outscored Youngstown State 62-28. Despite struggles from the free throw line and not making any three-pointers—a first for Milwaukee in over a decade—the team secured a solid win.
Head coach Bart Lundy commented on the game: “I don’t know if that was the most aesthetically-pleasing game ever,” he said. “But I thought our first 24 minutes of defense was about as good as we have played.”
Fields was supported by teammates Themus Fulks with 18 points, Jamichael Stillwell with ten points and ten rebounds marking his twelfth double-double this season, and Danilo Jovanovich who scored ten points alongside a career-high seven rebounds.
The Panthers dominated on rebounds with a margin of 43-28 and limited their turnovers to eight throughout the match. Defensively, they restricted Youngstown State to just under 40% shooting overall and only slightly above 20% from beyond the arc.
Lundy acknowledged their effective strategy during postgame comments: “Sometimes you have to go with what’s going well – we only turned it over eight times, outrebounded them by 15.”
For Youngstown State, Chris Carroll and Jason Nelson each scored fourteen points but could not steer their team back into contention after falling behind by seventeen points during parts of the second half.
Milwaukee aims to continue their successful streak as they prepare for their next home game against Robert Morris on Sunday at 2 p.m.
