MILWAUKEE -- After Wisconsin-Milwaukee won the Horizon League tournament and an automatic bid to NCAA tournament, first-year coach Rob Jeter cut down the nets.

Then he cut loose.

"I thought we couldn't score 87 points with the swing," Jeter said, taking a good-natured swipe at critics who thought his halfcourt offense would turn last year's NCAA regional semifinalists into a walking yawnfest.

Boo Davis scored 18 points to help the Panthers beat Butler 87-71 Tuesday night, earning the league's NCAA berth for the third time in four years.

Jeter, hired after Bruce Pearl left for Tennessee, takes most of his coaching and personality cues from former boss Bo Ryan, the respected but aloof coach at Wisconsin. Jeter showed a similar buttoned-down personality for most of his first season at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but loosened up after Tuesday's victory.

Wearing remnants of the net he and the players cut down around his neck, Jeter was asked if he had any actual dance moves to show off at the so-called "big dance."

"That's how I met my wife at a party," Jeter responded. "She liked to feel my moves, I guess."

Wisconsin-Milwaukee won two of the previous three Horizon tournaments and past three regular-season titles. Then Pearl left.

"To have to accept a new coach, a new style, with their last season, I knew it was scary," Jeter said.

He inherited four returning starters from last year's team, and seems to have won them over.

"I looked at this situation with Bruce Pearl moving on as an opportunity to be coached by two great coaches," senior Adrian Tigert said.

Tigert was one of several players to step up Tuesday night after leading scorer Joah Tucker went to the bench with his fourth foul only 39 seconds into the second half.

Even without Tucker, the Panthers (21-8) continued to rely on their inside game and got key contributions from reserves Derrick Ford and Mark Pancratz.

"Just a team effort," Jeter said. "We faced some adversity there when Joah went down, and went deep in our bench."

The Panthers outscored Butler 56-24 in the paint and outrebounded the Bulldogs 40-24.

"Milwaukee tonight will beat a lot, a lot of people," Butler coach Todd Lickliter said. "They were very good."

Brandon Polk scored 27 points to lead the Bulldogs (19-12). He also got in foul trouble, picking up his fourth when he was called for an offensive foul with 13:19 remaining in the game.

After struggling from 3-point range for much of the game, Butler closed to 65-56 on back-to-back 3s by Avery Sheets and Bruce Horan.

However, Davis answered with his own 3, putting the Panthers ahead by 12 with 5:21 remaining.

"We'd make a run and they'd answer," Lickliter said. "We would have had to play almost flawless."

The Panthers sealed the victory on a breakaway dunk by Jason McCoy, as Horan was called for an intentional foul. McCoy hit two free throws, stretching the lead to 79-62 with 3:21 remaining.

Fans swarmed the court at the buzzer.

The Panthers also defeated Butler to win the 2003 Horizon tournament.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee led 40-32 at halftime despite 17 first-half points by Butler forward Brandon Polk.

Polk scored nine points in a 13-2 run that put the Bulldogs ahead 24-19 with 9:21 remaining in the first half. However, the Panthers answered with an 11-0 run, taking a 26-24 lead on Davis' rebound and putback with 2:44 remaining in the half.

The Panthers' run included an alley-oop pass from Tucker to a skying Ford for a slam-dunk and a foul. Ford hit the free-throw to complete the three-point play.