NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Amanze Egekeze scored a career-high 32 points to lead Belmont to an 82-63 victory over the Milwaukee men's basketball team Wednesday night at Curb Event Center.
 
The Panthers (6-5) had the game tied late in the first, but a 12-2 scoring run by the Bruins (6-5) spanning both halves gave the home team some separation.
 
"These last two games have been very disappointing how we've covered the three-point line," Milwaukee head coach Pat Baldwin said. "They are a really good team; they are well-coached. When you come in here, you have to execute on both sides of the basketball and we didn't do a good job of that tonight."
 
Milwaukee drew back within six points in the second half, but could get no closer.
 
Jeremiah Bell led the offense for the third game in a row, finishing with 20 points.
 
"We felt good about the first half," Baldwin said. "We were down six, but could have easily been tied or ahead with some plays. We just have to be smarter to finish out halves."
 
Bryce Barnes and Brett Prahl each had nine. Bryce Nze chipped in seven points and added a team-best eight rebounds.
 
Egekeze added 11 rebounds for a double-double, helping Belmont improve to 95-7 in its last 102 games at home. Dylan Windler went for 17 points and 11 boards as well.
 
"Unfortunately, we didn't execute how we wanted to defensively and allowed him (Egekeze) to get going," Baldwin said. "Give them credit, they have a very good point guard that puts you in a lot of different positions with his ability to pass and make plays. We were just in the wrong spots and he found those spots that we weren't."
 
Holding a six-point lead at halftime, the Bruins scored eight of the first 10 points of the second to extend their advantage to 40-28 within the first three minutes.
 
The 12-2 scoring run helped push the lead to 14 at 48-34 with just over 15 minutes to play. As usual, the Panthers had no quit, using eight points in a row to get back within six with plenty of time remaining.
 
A layup by Prahl, two jumpers from August Haas and a layup from Bell made it 48-42 with 12 minutes remaining. Belmont had an answer, however, going 8-0 themselves to take back control of the contest before adding on from there.
 
Milwaukee did bounce back from a slow start from the floor. The team found itself down 8-2 and 17-8 early after making just one of its first 10 shots from the floor.
 
The Panthers righted the ship and started buckling down on defense, using some Bell jumpers and Nze post moves to spur a 13-4 scoring run that ended up getting capped by, what else, Prahl's first career three-pointer that made it a new game at 21-21 at the 5:23 mark.
 
Belmont answered with a 3, which was then answered by another triple by Nze to knot the game at 24-24. The Bruins then scored eight of the final 10 points of the period to grab a 32-26 lead at intermission.
 
UWM finished under 40 percent from the floor for the game (38.5, 25-of-65), hitting 27.3 percent (6-of-22) of its 3's. Belmont finished at 50 percent (25-of-50), making 14 three-pointers while winning the rebounding battle, 39-29.
 
Up next, the stretch of five of six away from home has finally ended, sending UWM off to a four-game homestand starting with Loyola December 16. Tip time for the contest, set to be televised on FOX Sports Wisconsin, is 1 p.m.