The Beeghly Center on the campus of Youngstown State was packed to the gills.
But by the time AJ McKee dribbled out the final seconds of the clock, the Milwaukee Panthers had cleared the place out.
The Panthers, in arguably their biggest game of the season, delivered one of their best performances yet Friday night in Youngstown, Ohio.
In a rowdy environment, Themus Fulks had 21 points and 10 assists, AJ McKee added 20 points and Milwaukee used a furious second-half push to cruise past Youngstown State, 84-74, and position itself to still have a chance at winning the regular season conference title.
BOX SCORE: UWM 84, Youngstown State 74
“It was packed. The whole town was there,” Panthers head coach Bart Lundy said. “They got the biggest building in Youngstown and it was lit up red. The fans were falling out of the rafters. It was a hostile environment.”
With three games to play before the Horizon tournament, the Panthers (19-9, 12-5) trail first-place Cleveland State by just one game. That meant that they needed to sweep a challenging road trip this weekend against the Penguins (18-11, 12-6) and second-place Robert Morris.
“We talked about it a little bit after the game,” Lundy said. “We control some of our destiny if we can win out. We need a little help, but not a lot.”
Step one is complete – thanks in large part to two of Milwaukee’s veteran leaders.
Themus Fulks was in complete control
The second half was the Fulks show.
After a three-point prayer from Youngstown State’s Nico Galette was answered at the first-half buzzer to send the teams to the locker room tied at 44, Fulks played the role of point guard maestro to turn the game in the visitors’ favor.
Fulks spurred a 6-0 run to give Milwaukee a 51-45 lead with a fastbreak layup off a defensive rebound followed by two crisp dimes leading to Darius Duffy dunks against the Penguins’ zone.
A scoop shot through a foul made it a 10-point lead for the Panthers at 62-52, capping an 11-0 run, then a pull-up jumper as the shot clock buzzer sounded to push the lead to 15 with 8:03 to play seemed like a dagger at the time.
While that didn’t end up being the case due to a Penguins rally late, Fulks fittingly did play a role in putting the game away. With Youngstown State within six points and a shade over two minutes to play, Fulks made a nifty pass out of a double team to Faizon Fields under the hoop for an easy basket to stem the tide.
Fulks, who never subbed out, recorded his second 20-point double-double in the past three games and third double-double overall in his past five contests.
“He was everything for us,” Lundy said. “They threw every defender at him and were really handsy with him. He kept his poise. There were a couple of turnovers there down the stretch, but he made huge plays and played 40 minutes. We rode him the whole way.”
AJ McKee rounding into form
Since transferring to Milwaukee, the scoring hasn’t always matched up to the bar McKee set for himself at Queens University. Entering play Friday, the graduate senior was averaging 10.9 points this season, down from 18.8 with Queens last year.
Yet there have been more games where McKee has looked his best self on offense of late, and the best may have come against the Penguins.
McKee shot 6 of 8 from the field and made all four of his attempts from three to record his first 20-point game since November 23 against Wofford.
“I think we tweaked a few things offensively for him,” Lundy said of the change in McKee’s play. “He’s more comfortable offensively with what we’re doing. It gets him opportunities with what he’s good at, both in the corners shooting and at the rim.
“And then, just, he’s a gamer. It’s near the end of the season, he understood how to play in this atmosphere, how to win big games.”
McKee scored 14 of the Panthers’ first 24 points, each of them critical as Milwaukee had to fight through a tough road environment in a packed house.
Dealing with Gabe Dynes
As is always the case going up against the Penguins, minimizing the impact of 7-foot-3 center Gabe Dynes was a focal point for Milwaukee.
In 21 minutes, the nation’s second-leading shot blocker certainly made an impact, filling out the stat sheet with 10 points, six rebounds and five blocks.
Yet the Panthers, largely as a result of Fulks’ command of the offense, still found plenty of success on offense.
Milwaukee outscored Youngstown State, 40-30, in the paint, grabbed 13 offensive rebounds, won the total rebound battle by 13 and scored 10 more second chance points. Much of that success came with Dynes, who was a plus-16 when on the court, sitting on the bench, but the Panthers also did their job of getting him into foul trouble.
Dynes picked up two fouls in a span of three seconds with 5 ½ minutes to go in the first half, which sent him to the bench with the Penguins up by three. With Dynes off the floor, the Panthers scored 20 points the rest of the half after logging only 24 to that point.
“For us, it’s trying to seal him and get him out of the play or go right at him,” Lundy said. “He blocks a lot of shots against us, but we have to go at him. That’s just the way we play. If we were a team that shot a bunch of threes, it would be different.”
Dynes picked up his fourth personal foul with 9:10 left in the game after he missed a layup and reached in against Jamichael Stillwell, who had 11 total rebounds and four assists. Dynes then slammed the scorer’s table in frustration, which easily could have been a technical foul, which would have fouled him out of the game.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UWM picks up impressive road win at Youngstown State
