Detroit, UW-Milwaukee To Clash in Men's Basketball Championship Game
March 7, 2005
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Championship Game Schedule
#3 Detroit (14-15) at #1 UW-Milwaukee (23-5) - 9:05 p.m. EST (8:05 p.m. CST)
Tuesday, March 8, 2005 / U.S. Cellular Arena, Milwaukee, Wis.
ESPN (Dave Strader, play-by-play / Stephen Bardo, color)
News and Notes
·Regular-season champion and #1 seed UW-Milwaukee (23-5) will host #3 Detroit (14-15) in the 2005 American Family Insurance Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship game Tuesday, March 8, at U.S. Cellular Arena (10,783/1950) in downtown Milwaukee. Tip-off is 9:05 p.m. EST (8:05 p.m. CST) on ESPN.
·The winner receives the Horizon League's automatic bid to the 2005 NCAA Championship, which begins with the play-in game Tuesday, March 15. The tournament starts in earnest Thursday, March 17.
·UW-Milwaukee earned the right to host the 2005 quarterfinals and semifinals by winning the League's regular-season title ... The Panthers get to stay at home by advancing to the championship game.
·UW-Milwaukee is playing in its third consecutive championship game, while Detroit is making its first appearance since playing in three straight from 1999-2001.
·The Panthers, who lost to UIC 65-62 in last year's final, are looking for their second League tournament title ... UWM won the 2003 crown over Butler 69-52 at U.S. Cellular Arena.
·Detroit is in its seventh League championship game and is in search of its first tournament championship since beating Butler 72-65 in the 1999 title tilt ... The Titans lost to Butler 62-43 in 2000 and again to the Bulldogs 53-38 in 2001.
·In the Panthers and Titans' most recent tournament meeting, UWM bounced Detroit from last year's championship 58-50 in the semifinals at Indianapolis.
·UW-Milwaukee enters the championship game riding an eight-game winning streak and has won 16 of its last 17 games. The only loss in that stretch was 76-72 at regular-season runner-up and in-state rival UW-Green Bay Jan. 29.
·With two wins in the tournament, Detroit has extended its winning streak to four in a row overall and five straight against League opponents. (The Titans lost a non-conference game to Ohio 66-65 Feb. 19.)
·Milwaukee is 12-1 at home this season, winning its 12 games by an average of 22.8 points per game.
·However, Detroit is the only team to beat the Panthers at Milwaukee this season, winning 76-68 Jan. 3 in the second League game of the season for both teams ... Milwaukee's Ed McCants scored a career-high 38 points in that game but Joah Tucker was held scoreless ... Detroit was led by James Thues' 19 points plus Jon Goode's 14 off the bench.
·In the teams' second meeting at Detroit Jan. 22, UW-Milwaukee came out on top 61-48 behind Tucker's game-best 20 points ... Brandon Cotton led the Titans with 14.
·The championship game should be a classic offense-vs.-defense battle as Milwaukee leads the League with 75.4 points per game, while Detroit is allowing a League-low 60.3 points per contest.
·The game also matches the League's two best field-goal percentage defenses: Milwaukee (.404, first) and Detroit (.407, second).
·Teams playing the championship game in their home city are only 2-5, including UW-Milwaukee's 65-62 loss to UIC last season at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Only twice has a team won on its home court (Dayton, 1990; UW-Milwaukee, 2003).
·This is the third straight championship game to be played at the U.S. Cellular Arena ... Last year's contest drew a League championship- and UWM-record 10,254 fans ... This past Saturday's semifinals drew 8,653 for the fourth-largest crowd in UWM history.
·Being seeded first in the Horizon League Championship has not guaranteed a tournament title in recent years. In fact, the top seed has not won the League championship since Butler did so in 2001 and '01.
·Detroit is trying to become the first #3 seed to win the tournament since Butler in 1998 ... The only team seeded lower than first or second to win the championship since then is #6 UIC, which edged #5 Loyola 76-75 in overtime in 2002.
·UW-Milwaukee's Ed McCants is the second straight League Player of the Year to play in the championship game, joining former teammate Dylan Page from a year ago. A League Player of the Year has not been on the winning team in the tournament since Detroit's Jermaine Jackson in 1999.
Semifinal Recaps (Saturday)
Brandon Cotton scored a game-high 26 points and # 3 Detroit rebounded from a seven-point halftime deficit to upset #2 UW-Green Bay 61-55 in the first semifinal. The Titans took the lead for good on a Cotton lay-in with 5:19 remaining and led 53-47 with 56 seconds remaining. The Phoenix pulled within two twice after that, the final time at 57-55 with nine seconds remaining on a Brandon Morris three-point shot. But Ethan Shaw hit two key free throws a second later and the Titans hung on for the win.
Joah Tucker's career-high 31 points powered #1 UW-Milwaukee to a 94-76 victory over #4 Loyola in the second semifinal, putting the Panthers in the championship for the third straight year. After a second-half surge pushed the Panthers' advantage to 65-48 with 12:32 remaining in the game, the Ramblers rebounded to pull within 67-60 with 8:50 left. But, UWM's lead hit 15 at 87-72 on a Chris Hill three with 3:23 remaining and the Panthers were able to empty the bench in the late going.
Quarterfinal Recaps (Friday)
Detroit pulled away late to beat #6 Wright State 61-48 in the first quarterfinal behind Brandon Cotton's game-high 19 points. The game was tied 41-all with 9 ½ minutes remaining before the Titans ended the game with a 20-7 run. Detroit shot 52 percent from the field, compared to only 35 percent for the Raiders.
Blake Schilb scored a career-high 39 points, including 31 after halftime, to lead Loyola to an 87-81 overtime victory over #4 UIC in the second quarterfinal. Two free throws by Schilb gave the Ramblers a there-point lead with 39 seconds left in overtime and a dunk and a free-throw with eight seconds remaining sealed the win.
Tournament Facts
The top four seeds advanced to the Horizon League semifinals for the first time since 2001. In fact, #3 Detroit's victory over #2 UW-Green Bay in Saturday's semifinals is the only one of the seven games played so far not to go according to seed.
Eight of the nine current Horizon League teams have participated in the NCAA Tournament in the last 20 years. Loyola owns the longest active streak since its last appearance in 1985 when the Ramblers advanced to the Regional semifinals. (Youngstown State has never played in the NCAA's Division I championship.) Other most recent appearances by League teams: Cleveland State (1986), Wright State (1993), UW-Green Bay (1996), Detroit (1999), UW-Milwaukee (2003), Butler (2003) and UIC (2004). Note that not all those appearances were when teams were Horizon League members.
Comprised of nine public and private institutions of higher learning, the Horizon League is an NCAA Division I athletics conference that sponsors 19 intercollegiate championship sports and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The League and its member institutions aspire to teach young people, through athletic competition, the value of learning, service to others and personal responsibility.
