JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Bryce Nze scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to spark the Milwaukee men's basketball team to a 62-52 victory over Jacksonville Tuesday night at Swisher Gym.
 
The Panthers (6-3) recovered from a slow start from the field and used a big scoring run that spanned both halves to get past the Dolphins (3-7).
 
Nze posted the third double-double of his career, adding four blocks, five assists and a steal in a complete effort on both sides of the court. His rebound (12) and assist (5) totals tied his career-highs, while the block total was a new career high.
 
Jeremiah Bell was a spark off the bench, finishing with a season-high 14 points. Brock Stull chipped in with 12 points, with all but three of them coming in the second half.
 
"JB was really good," Baldwin said. "He's been good off the bench for us the entire year, so we can count on that. He was aggressive and I was impressed with his play off the bench for us."
 
Brett Prahl added eight points and six boards, while August Haas handed out seven assists to go along with four rebounds.
 
After a 6-for-21 (28.6 percent) start from the floor, UWM shot close to 60 percent the rest of the way to claim its third true road win of the campaign – one more than all of last season.
 
"The thing that we talked about with our guys, was as poorly as we could have played at the start – to go on a run late in the first half – it was 26-26 and we were even now," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "Now it's a new half and you can flush everything out from the first half and erase it from our memories."
 
A convincing 16-2 scoring run spanning both halves decided it, with the lead eventually growing to 33-28 just into the second half, forcing a Jacksonville timeout at 18:32.
 
"The most glaring thing from that first half was the turnovers that were caused by us," Baldwin said. "We just said, 'If you take care of the basketball and make our layups, then we would be in great shape'."
 
The lead then hit 10 for the first time on a turnaround by Vance Johnson, 46-36 at the  11:48 mark, capping a stretch that saw Milwaukee score 29 of the 39 points in the game.
 
After the Dolphins pushed back, a Stull three extended UWM's lead back to 10 at 55-45 with just over four minutes left and a Bell triple to make it 60-47 put it away.
 
The first half was not a pretty one for the Panthers until the final minutes. Down by nine on a pair of occasions, Milwaukee battled back to force a 26-26 at intermission.
 
A slow start that saw the team dip below 30 percent from the floor – helped by Jacksonville making six of its first eight field goal attempts – had the Panthers trailing 19-12.
 
The deficit was nine for a second time at 26-17 with 4:26 to go and from there it was all Milwaukee. An Nze dunk, Stull 3 and Nze layup trimmed the margin and Jeremy Johnson's layup with 13 seconds left in the period made it a new game.
 
For the night, UWM finished at 44.6 percent (25-of-56) from the floor, finishing with 20 assists on 25 made field goals.
 
Up next, the Panthers head to Illinois for their next outing, taking on Western Illinois Saturday. Game time against the Leathernecks is 7 p.m.