UWM shoots down 'Bama

The Horizon League champions topped the Crimson Tide, 83-73.
VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
CLEVELAND -- Playing on the home court of a league rival, it seemed like just another win for Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Except on Thursday, the nation was watching as the Panthers, champions of the Horizon League, notched the first upset of the NCAA Tournament, defeating fifth-seed Alabama 83-73 at the Wolstein Center.
The Panthers (25-5), the 12th seed, will play fourth-seed Boston College on Saturday. The Eagles defeated Pennsylvania 85-65 in Thursday's second game.
"We came in expecting to win," UWM's Adrian Tigert said.
And the Panthers certainly played like it, using a 23-6 run for a lead they would never relinquish.
"That was the whole game right there," said Alabama coach Mark Gottfried, whose team advanced to the Elite Eight last year. "From about the 15-minute mark to the about-[one]-minute mark, they shot the lights out."
Finding the range
Milwaukee was 10-of-16 from 3-point range in the first half in building a 45-32 lead. Five of those came in the key run.
"They haven't guarded the ball screen well," said Milwaukee guard Ed McCants, the Horizon player of the year, "and we ran a lot of plays to capitalize."
That was the game plan run to perfection for Milwaukee coach Bruce Pearl.
"We felt the closer we got to the basket, the more formidable Alabama's defense would be," Pearl said. "From the perimeter, we thought we could exploit some things.
"You live by the three, you die by the three and we lived by the three pretty well in the first half."
The score was 9-all after Alabama's Kennedy Winston converted a three-point play with 16:13 remaining in the first half.
Tigert made a layup to start a 13-0 Milwaukee run, and Derrick Ford's basket with 9:00 to go gave the Panthers a 32-15 lead.
"They had five good shooters," Winston said, "but we just didn't defend nearly as good as we're capable of."
Second half comeback
Still, the Crimson Tide (24-8) made a game of it in the second half, scoring the first eight points to close to 45-40.
It was still a five-point game (57-52) with 13 minutes to play, but Alabama went 6 1/2 minutes without a basket as the Panthers extended their lead back to double figures, 65-54.
"We had to take away the 3-point line," Gottfried said, "but then we didn't guard them very well off the dribble [in the second half]."
McCants finished with 21 points, despite playing only 28 minutes because of foul trouble. Joah Tucker also scored 21 -- 15 came in the second half when the Tide's extended defense opened the area around the basket.
"We had some errors defensively, didn't guard them nearly as well as we would have liked to guard them," Gottfried said.
Winston led Alabama with 20 points and Ronald Steele scored 16.
"I wasn't sure how much we could press Alabama," Pearl said. "But the combination of our pressure and our patience wore them out."