CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Milwaukee men's basketball team led by 10 points late in the game before holding off Cleveland State in claiming a 67-63 victory at the Wolstein Center Saturday afternoon.
 
"Happy to come away with the win and impressed with our guys because they really responded from our loss on Thursday," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "We talked to our guys about defense being our identity. And if we were going to win this game, we had to establish ourselves on the defensive end and did a great job in the first half."
 
The Panthers (9-8, 2-2 Horizon League) finished strong to get the road victory against the Vikings (4-12, 1-2 Horizon League), making five of six free throws in the final 41 seconds to put the game away. The team now has more regular-season victories than it did all of last year.
 
Jeremiah Bell led the way with a game-high 19 points, the third outing in a row he has led the team in scoring. He sank five 3's, tied his UWM-high with six rebounds and hit back-to-back triples to help Milwaukee to its biggest lead of the second half.
 
"It was good, especially to end the way we did it," Baldwin said. "We started the second half and gave up an eight-point lead and ended up being down one. We got the lead back, pushed it to five and then ultimately to 10 and then we really had to work."
 
Brett Prahl had 12 points, sinking an efficient 6-of-7 shot from the floor, while Brock Stull and Vance Johnson each finished with 11. For Johnson, the point total was a season high and he nearly had a double-double, collecting a game-high eight rebounds.
 
"Very proud of Vance," Baldwin said. "He is one of those guys that brings the energy and plays as hard as he can. He did that early, he was a catalyst for us starting out (the game)."
 
Kenny Carpenter paced CSU with 17 points, with 13 of it coming in the second half. The Milwaukee defense held its opponent to 40 percent shooting (24-of-60) on the afternoon and won the rebounding battle, 34-25.
 
Up eight at the break, the second half got off to an ugly start for the Panthers. The Vikings came out a ball of fire, tying the game in the first 87 seconds before a 10-0 blur in less than two minutes had them ahead, 31-29.
 
Milwaukee went back ahead on a transition layup by Bell at 33-31 and a 7-0 spurt – five from Bell – forced a CSU timeout at 36-31.
 
Tied again at 36-all, a dunk by Prahl got the advantage back to five at 43-38. From there the Panthers could get no further separation, holding a lead of between one and five until Bell took over again.
 
His three-pointer made it 57-50, forcing another timeout. On the next possession, with the shot clock nearing zero, Bell fired from the top of the key and sank another trifecta to get the Panthers up 10 at 60-50 with 4:16 to play.
 
Cleveland State would then trail by 12 before making it interesting, but a 5-of-6 showing from the line in the final 41 seconds sealed the win.
 
The defense was the star of the show in the first half, holding CSU to 31 percent shooting – just 2-of-11 on 3's – and without a field goal over the last 4:46 of the frame.
 
Milwaukee hit half of its 22 attempts, but eight turnovers hampered what could have been a larger lead, which was 29-21 at the break.
 
After holding the Vikings without a point for the first four and a half minutes, a cold start prevented UWM from jumping out, up early at 10-7. Cleveland State found its way back ahead, but a Stull 3 switched the lead again at 13-11 at the 8:09 mark.
 
A Stull three-point play capped a 9-2 spurt to make it 22-15 with just over five minutes to play and a final surge gave Milwaukee its biggest lead of the period. Seven points in a row pushed the advantage to 11 at 29-18 on a layup by Bryce Nze to force a timeout by the home squad. The 21 points marked a season-best for the UWM defense for an opponent low at intermission.
 
Milwaukee extended its streak of winning when leading at halftime to a perfect 7-0, shooting 51.2 percent (22-of-43) from the floor overall on the afternoon. Nze added nine points, with his free throw with 8.9 seconds extending the lead to four before a final CSU possession came up empty. August Haas chipped in five points, three rebounds and a game-high seven assists.
 
The Panthers remain on the road, traveling to take on Horizon League newcomer IUPUI Wednesday evening for game three of this five-game road set. Tip time is set for 6 p.m. CST.