DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Boo Davis grabbed a loose ball in front of teammate Joah Tucker.

Tigert, Panthers
on prowl

This was one time when size didn't matter.

Quickness and energy did, though, as visiting Wisconsin-Milwaukee beat Hawaii 87-81 in the ESPN Bracket Busters game at the Stan Sheriff Center yesterday afternoon.

Despite being shorter at every position, the Panthers outrebounded the Rainbow Warriors 37-32 and pulled down 18 offensive caroms.

"If you're quick and you can jump, that makes up for size," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said.

Wallace also said the Rainbows lost because the Panthers dictated the pace of the game, which was, in a word, frenetic.

"They got us playing more their game than we did getting them to play ours," he said.

Hawaii can play up-tempo and win, but to do so it must control the boards, as it did against Southern Illinois earlier this season. In that game, also at the Sheriff Center, UH outrebounded SIU 37-28 and won 66-64. The Salukis were a pressing crew like the Panthers, and the Rainbows turned the ball over 21 times in both games.

Another difference is that SIU didn't have a career shooting game from a role player. UWM junior forward Adrian Tigert scored 19 points, making everything he put up except for one free throw.

"It's been a while," Tigert said, when asked about the last time he had such a hot shooting game. "Particularly with 3-pointers. I was feeling like I hadn't hit a shot since December."

Tigert scored 12 points in the first half. He was far from done.

His trey, layup and two free throws accounted for the first seven points of the second half and gave the visitors a 41-32 lead.

Ed McCants, UWM's leading scorer, then took over after Julian Sensley's layup and Jake Sottos' 3-pointer closed the margin.

McCants popped three consecutive 3-pointers, and the Panthers led 50-37.

Hawaii made a game of it, though, closing to 69-66 with 6:37 left, even after UWM had gone up by 14.

Did the Panthers -- who had lost their previous two Bracket Busters games in heartbreaking fashion -- get nervous?

"Our history (in Bracket Busters)? I didn't think about it much," UWM coach Bruce Pearl said. "I knew going in that not too many home teams were losing. We just looked at it as an opportunity."

Hawaii took a 23-17 lead at 5:50 of the first half on Matt Gibson's 3-pointer. Pearl called timeout, and the Panthers went on a 12-2 run.

Pearl said he didn't impart any special wisdom during the timeout, nor at halftime, after which UWM made a 16-5 run.

"Sometimes I think it's by accident," Pearl said. "You just try to get them focused. I don't think my visits had much to do with it."

But the UH coach said the first few minutes after intermission might have made the difference.

"The start of the second half did us in," Wallace said. "We came out flat after halftime and they came out really motivated."

The victory might have taken some of the pressure off the Panthers to win the league tournament and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament that goes with it, Pearl said.

"We were on the bubble and needed another big win to get us over the top," he said. "This may have helped."

That remains to be seen. The NCAA is rarely in a hurry to select more than one team from the Horizon League for March Madness.

Winning a 10th road game in one season yesterday certainly didn't hurt the Panthers' case should they falter in their conference tournament. But if they keep playing like this, they won't need to worry about it anyway.