DETROIT, Mich. - The Milwaukee men's basketball team overcame a tough afternoon from the field to hold a six point lead with 7:36 to play, only to see Green Bay respond with a scoring run that decided the contest and sent it to a 70-61 victory Sunday afternoon in the Little Caesars Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship at Joe Louis Arena.
 
"When you hear the cliché that basketball is a game of runs, that is what happened today," Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter said. "There was some good basketball played. We put together a run that put us ahead by six with about seven minutes to go and it was a barrage after that. A barrage of tipouts for layups, a few turnovers in that stretch, that really gave them the momentum."
 
Jordan Johnson scored a team-high 18 points, including six in a row that put the Panthers (20-13) ahead by a score of 52-46 with just over eight minutes to play. From there the Phoenix (21-12) responded, coming up with a scoring run of 12 points in a row that Milwaukee could not overcome.
 
The Panthers actually got back within three at 60-57 on a three-pointer from Matt Tiby with 2:10 to play, but Green Bay turned it around at the free throw line down the stretch, going 10-of-14 in the final two minutes to claim the postseason win.
 
"I give our guys a lot of credit," Jeter said. "Our guys battled, we played really hard. It was just one of those seasons where things just seemed to bounce the other way. Today's game was indicative of how our season has gone – right there and it just kind of slips through the fingers."
 
Akeem Springs added 10 of his 12 points in the second half, finishing a rebound short of a double-double with nine boards. No other player was in double-figures. A cold shooting performance from the field hurt the team's chances all contest, finishing at 30.5 percent (18-of-59) for the day after a first half where it sank less than 25 percent of its attempts.
 
Carrington Love led the Phoenix with 18 points, playing a pivotal role in the decisive scoring run, which started after a three by Turner Botz bounced on the rim five times and fell in after a loose ball scramble. Love scored or assisted the next nine points, giving Green Bay the commanding lead down the stretch.
 
"The ball bounces funny some times," Jeter said. "We had the momentum there. It was that barrage that really put us back on our heels. We cut it to three. From there it was about getting a stop, getting a rebound and they kept coming at us."
 
Down six at the half, the Panthers scored 10 of the first 14 points of the second to make it a new game at 35-35 on a layin by Brock Stull with 16:21 to play.
 
The lead went back and forth from there – changing hands 11 times in the game – and Johnson's four free throws and three-point play gave Milwaukee its biggest lead of the game at 52-46.
 
"We picked the wrong time to have a poor shooting night," Jeter said. "Some of that has to do with the defense they played, but we also had some real good opportunities. Look at the second possession of the game – we had five opportunities to put the ball in the basket and none of them went in. After four minutes, it's 2-2 and we had five more opportunities than they did. If you look at that first four minutes, it kind of sums up the game."
 
Things couldn't have gone much worse for the Panthers in the first, luckily finding themselves down by just six points at intermission after a strong defensive effort held Green Bay to under 40 percent in the period.
 
Both teams came out ice cold, combining to make just two of their first 17 combined attempts from the floor by the first media timeout stoppage, which saw the game tied at just 2-2 at the 15:13 mark.
 
Mini-spurts followed. Milwaukee ripped off a 9-0 stretch to overcome a span of six minutes without a made field goal. The Phoenix responded and held a 17-13 edge, but the game was tied again on a Springs jumper with 6:29 left. From there it was all Green Bay, scoring eight in a row at one point as part of a 14-3 run that pushed them ahead, 31-20. The Panthers made a final push back, netting the final five of the stanza to trail, 31-25, at the break.
 
Milwaukee's run in the conference tournament may have come to an end, but the possibility of playing in another postseason tournament exists, with options such as the CollegeInsider.com Tournament and the CBI still available.
 
"I would love to," Jeter said in regards to playing in the postseason. "I know it's a postseason team. The team has played well, we have some big wins. We would definitely love to keep playing."