MILWAUKEE - Brock Stull scored 23 points and the Milwaukee men's basketball team led by as many as 20 in cruising to a 73-56 victory over Loyola Chicago Saturday afternoon at UWM Panther Arena.
 
"Going up against Loyola, we knew we had to be prepared not only for a physical battle, but a game that we had to be able to score too, because they certainly have been able to do that," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "Give our guys a lot of credit tonight. For 40 minutes, I thought our intensity level, our togetherness and how we competed was at an all-time high."
 
The Panthers (7-5) took control from the start against the Ramblers (10-2), leading for all but 77 seconds of the day in claiming a victory over a team ranked No. 3 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll and had just beaten No. 5 Florida earlier this month.
 
"I can't speak enough about our guys and the way they played," Baldwin said. "This was a big win for us considering how we played the past few games."
 
Stull hit 4-of-8 three-pointers and added six rebounds. He also went 5-of-7 at the free throw line in his first action after missing the past two outings due to injury.
 
"To have Brock Stull come back, to give us an ability to look at different things and to play a little bit differently really helped us in this game today," Baldwin said.
 
Bryce Nze (10 points/7 rebounds/4 steals/2 blocks) and Brett Prahl (10 points/5 rebounds) were both in double-figures as well, combining to go 9-of-14 from the floor.
 
The defense limited Loyola to 38.5 percent (20-of-52) from the floor overall, and just 21.1 percent (4-of-19) from distance to a team that came in as one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country at 44.6 percent.
 
Milwaukee also held the Ramblers leading scorer – Aundre Jackson was averaging 14.1 points-per-game coming in – to just three points on a 1-for-9 shooting day from the field.
 
Up 42-25 at the half when Stull buried a three at the buzzer, the Panthers went up 19 after making the first hoop of the second half. The teams traded baskets for a few minutes, with Loyola back within 15 at 49-34. A three-pointer from Jeremiah Bell and a Stull layup sent the advantage to 20 for the first time at 54-34 with 10:33 left, forcing a Loyola timeout.
 
The Ramblers would not go quietly, getting back within 11 at 63-52 with 4:29 to play. A big three by Bryce Barnes extended Milwaukee's advantage back to 14 at 66-52 and essentially put the game away.
 
Bell finished with nine points. August Haas added a team-high six assists and did not commit a turnover. In fact, for the second game in a row, the Panthers had just eight turnovers as a team.
 
Donte Ingram paced the Ramblers, finishing with a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds.
 
UWM went up early at 16-11 and, after the contest was tied, surged ahead for good. A Stull 3 at the shot-clock buzzer made it 23-18, followed later by another deep Stull triple to get it back to 10 at 31-21. In fact, Milwaukee went on to score the final 11 points of the first half.
 
Up next, the Panthers close out the non-league portion of the schedule with a contest against Western Michigan Friday at home. Tip time is set for 7 p.m.