MILWAUKEE - Jeremiah Bell and Bryce Nze each had 17 points and the Milwaukee men's basketball team used a season-best defensive effort to help take control late in claiming a 66-55 victory over Youngstown State Thursday night at UWM Panther Arena.
 
"Proud of our guys and their effort," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "To me this was two straight games where we came with a lot of energy, fought really hard and played together."
 
The Panthers (11-12, 4-6 Horizon League) held the Penguins (6-16, 4-5 Horizon League) to 31.7 percent shooting from the floor and put the game away late with a large scoring run after the contest was tied, 42-42, with 10 minutes to play.
 
The victory is the 11^th of the campaign for Milwaukee, matching the total number of victories from all of last season.
 
"Many different forms that you can win in and, obviously, you want to play very good basketball and not have many mistakes," Baldwin said. "But tonight was an ugly game where we turned the ball over 18 times, missed 14 free throws and still found a way to win. I think that is a testament to our guys, to their will to win, their effort and unwillingness to let a game like this slip away."
 
Bell went off in the second half, scoring 15 of his 17 points after intermission. He hit numerous big shots, including five points in a row after that 42-all deadlock to return the momentum to the home team.
 
Nze put together a nice stat line, tying his season high with those 17 points. He added six rebounds, three blocks and a pair of assists, finishing a tidy 7-of-8 from the field on the night.
 
Brock Stull chipped in with nine points, seven rebounds and tied his career-best with seven assists. Milwaukee finished the night at 55.6 percent (24-of-45) overall from the floor and had 17 assists on 25 made baskets.
 
Garrett Covington paced YSU with 15 points. Naz Bohannon was the only other player in double-figures at 13. The Panthers held Cameron Morse and Braun Hartfield to 16 total points (6-16 FG), after the pair came in combining for 35 points a game in league play.
 
The Panthers took a slim lead at the break before Youngstown went ahead, 34-33. A Bell three shifted it back to UWM's side at 36-34, part of a 9-0 run that forced a YSU timeout at 12:48 with the score 42-34.
 
Whatever was said in that huddle worked, with the Penguins responding with nine straight themselves to knot the contest at 42-42.
 
Bell hit a pair of free throws and a huge 3 to start a new Milwaukee scoring run and it was 9-0 on an Nze lay in with about three minutes to play. The scoring run grew to 14-0, as the Panthers took their largest lead of the night at 63-48 before closing it out down the stretch.
 
Youngstown State started the night with the first five points before Milwaukee got down to business. The Panthers answered with eight in a row of their own, part of a 13-2 run that put the team up, 13-7. The defense buckled down, limiting YSU to 20 percent shooting and no points over a five-minute span up to that point.
 
An alley-oop from Nze to Vance Johnson made it 17-13 and a 6-0 spurt capped by a transition layup from Stull forced a Penguin timeout with just over five minutes to play and the UWM lead at 26-18.
 
Youngstown State battled all the way back to even, using an 8-2 run to get back in it before eventually making it a new game at 29-29. Milwaukee held a 31-29 lead at intermission, shooting over 50 percent from the floor (13-of-25), finishing the first half with no made 3's (just two attempts).
 
Milwaukee dominated points in the paint to the tune of 42-24 and were just as impressive on the glass at 39-29.
 
Up next, the squad plays its fourth game in a row at home, welcoming Cleveland State Saturday. The matinee against the Vikings, set to be televised on FOX Sports Wisconsin, will get underway at 1 p.m.