MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee men's basketball team nearly erased a nine-point deficit over the final 85 seconds, coming up one make short in a tough 63-60 loss to North Dakota Saturday evening at UWM Panther Arena.
 
The Panthers (0-2) made a furious charge late against the Fighting Hawks (2-0), nearly sending the game to overtime. They had a good look, but a potential game-tying three didn't go in with four seconds remaining.  
 
"The second half was a lot better," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "Happy for the guys to show some resiliency and able to fight back and get back into the game – and we were a three-pointer away from tying it up and going to overtime. But give North Dakota a lot of credit. They did all the things they needed to do in order to win and we need to do more things in order to win."
 
Darius Roy led the way with a game-high 18 points. He added six assists, four steals and three rebounds to fill up the stat sheet.
 
DeAndre Abram recorded his second career double-double, finishing with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
 
Vance Johnson contributed 13 points and eight boards. Carson Warren-Newsome finished with 12 points – all coming on 3's late in the game in a span of less than 90 seconds on the clock on four straight possessions – to help jumpstart the comeback effort after falling behind by as many as 15 in the second half.
 
"We do have a chance to be good, but we have to get one in the ledger on the winning side," Baldwin said. "It just takes some time to figure out and we'll get there. I love our guys – I wouldn't trade them for anyone in the world."
 
Conner Avants led the Fighting Hawks with 14 points; Cortez Seales made it to double-figures with 12, but had the MKE defense harassing him into a 4-for-18 showing from the field.
 
Milwaukee couldn't find its stroke in the first half, shooting just 20 percent from the field in the first 20 minute in falling behind, 30-17, at the break.
 
"Obviously, we all know that we didn't play as well as we wanted to in the first half, just couldn't find the basket," Baldwin said. "Had some really good looks that didn't go down for us."
 
The second half was much better, hitting close to half of their shot attempts to make it a game. The Panthers had the deficit down to seven, at 34-27, at the 15:26 mark, but North Dakota responded with a bit of a run to build the advantage back up to 15 at 50-35 with under eight to go.
 
That was when Warren-Newsome found the zone from distance, hitting triples at the 7:44, 7:18, 6:40 and 6:12 marks on the clock to get the crowd and his team back into the Homecoming contest.
 
Roy made 3-of-4 free throws with just over a minute to play and, following a stop, Abram connected on a 3 from the top of the key to make it 61-58. Following a forced turnover, Roy's leaner in the lane brought it to a one-point game at 61-60 with 16 seconds remaining. Two free UND free throws pushed it to three and the last-gasp attempt by Milwaukee went unkindly off the back iron to end it.
 
The Panthers finished at 32.8 percent (22-of-67) from the floor, but did finish with eight made three's. The Fighting Hawks were just a tick over 40 percent (24-of-58), and also won the rebounding battle, 43-40.
 
Up next, the Panthers get to put off the start of winter a few days longer, heading to Florida to take on Florida International Tuesday. Game time in the "battle of the Panthers" is set for 6 p.m. CST.