CLEVELAND, Ohio - Leading by as many as 18 points in the second half, the Milwaukee men's basketball team had to withstand a late scoring run and make a defensive stop on the final possession to grind out a 65-62 victory over Cleveland State Saturday afternoon at the Wolstein Center.
 
"It's always that way in Cleveland," Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter said. "Gary Waters is one of the better coaches in this league because he's tough, his teams are tough and they play you to 40 minutes. That is what happened tonight."
 
The Panthers (12-5, 3-1 Horizon League) led the Vikings (5-12, 0-4 Horizon League) by 12 points at halftime and were seemingly in control when they went ahead, 53-35, with just under 15 minutes to play.
 
Austin Arians led the offense with 13 points, making 5-of-7 shots from the field. J.J. Panoske added 12 points, a team-high seven boards and a pair of blocks and Matt Tiby was also in double figures with 11. The team shot 54.3 percent (25-of-46) from the floor and turned the ball over just five times – one off the school record.
 
Andre Yates led the Vikings with 15. Demonte Flannigan and Rob Edwards each had 14.
 
"I was pleased that we were able to come in here and not turn the ball over," Jeter said. "Gary's teams usually force a lot of turnovers and we had five. However, a lot of those came in those crucial minutes where we could have put the game away but allowed them to stay within range to win the game. But I will take the effort. Maybe it's a little fatigue. Anytime you can win two games on the road in this league, it's always special."
 
Cleveland State turned the game around with a 21-7 second-half scoring run that included 10 points in a row to make it a game. At the end, Milwaukee held a three-point advantage with just 8.0 seconds on the clock, forcing a turnover on the game's final possession to improve to 3-1 in conference play for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign.
 
"It was great defense by our guys," Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter said. "We stayed disciplined. It was designed where it looked like they were going to try and pitch it back and our guys stayed home. I was really pleased with that."
 
The Panthers led by a dozen at intermission and gradually built the lead to 18 on a three-pointer by Tiby to make it 53-35 with 14:28 to play. From there it was mostly Cleveland State. Panoske's triple at the 9:35 mark made it 60-46 and Milwaukee would make just one more field goal the rest of the way.
 
With the lead trimmed to 63-60 after a pair of free throws, the CSU defense forced the Panthers to burn back-to-back timeouts with 32.2 seconds remaining. Jordan Johnson's pair of free throws with 22.8 left made it 65-60. The home team sank two from the charity stripe to draw within a possession and, after a miss on the front end of a bonus from the line by UWM, Cleveland State had the ball for one final shot.
 
Coming out of the final timeout with 8.0 seconds left, Johnson knocked the ball loose along the baseline, JayQuan McCloud grabbed the deflection and the clock ran out to secure the victory.
 
"Our guys come in on the road again and shot well, coming in and playing with confidence has been big," Jeter said. "I think some of those early road games that we played – some of those tough games that we lost – really helped us tonight. I thought tonight, down the stretch, we were a lot more poised."
 
It was back-to-back impressive first halves of basketball for the Panthers on the road trip, eventually holding a 39-27 advantage at the halftime horn.
 
They came out red hot, especially from long range, making their first five shots from the field – four of them triples – to jump out to an 11-4 lead and force a CSU timeout. The margin quickly grew to 14-4 on an Arians' three at the 16:13 mark before Milwaukee finally missed.
 
The Vikings did make a dent, but the lead was back to 11 on another Arians three and Tiby layup and was as high as 27-13 at the 9:30 mark on a three-pointer from the wing by Cody Wichmann. At that point, all six players to appear on the court for the Panthers had sank at least one three-pointer on the day.
 
No lead is safe, and a Cleveland State run of 10-2 had it back within six at 29-23, only to see Tiby hit one of UWM's nine first-half trifectas to take back momentum in eventually holding the comfortable lead at intermission. The Panthers shot 55.6 percent (15-of-27) in the first half and did not commit a turnover.
 
Up next, the Panthers continue a four-game road trip with a contest at Valparaiso, the Horizon League preseason poll favorite. Tip off against the Crusaders is set for 7 p.m. Thursday.