BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Carson Warren-Newsome scored a career-high 26 points, but a late scoring run provided the difference as Buffalo claimed a 96-77 victory over the Milwaukee men's basketball team Friday morning in the Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic at the SSE Arena.
 
The Panthers (2-5) were within four points of the Bulls (6-0), who came in ranked No. 21 by the Associated Press and No. 20 by USA Today, on several occasions as the game got late.
 
"It's an unfortunate loss for us," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "We came in with the expectation of winning and showing our worth as a team. We just didn't do enough of the winning things in order to get this one today. Give them (Buffalo) credit, but also give credit to our guys for their battle and fight."
 
The final time came at 67-63 with 8:45 remaining, with a pair of Warren-Newsome free throws helping Milwaukee battle nearly all the way back to even after trailing by as many as 16. That would be as close as the Panthers would get the rest of the way, however, as a 14-2 scoring run by Buffalo sealed the victory.
 
"When you are fighting an uphill battle against a very good team, you have to have very good possessions, you have to have good shots," Baldwin said. "And I think that we went away from that a little bit."
 
Warren-Newsome finished with a game-high 26 points, eclipsing his former career-best of 21 set just two games ago against LIU Brooklyn. He finished 9-of-18 from the field and 6-of-6 from the line, adding four rebounds and a pair of steals.
 
Vance Johnson made 5-of-6 field goals to finish with 12 points, grabbing five rebounds. DeAndre Abram added 11 points and eight rebounds, while Jake Wright chipped in nine.
 
Jeremy Harris led the Bulls with 21 points. Teammate Nick Perkins poured in 20 in just 23 minutes off the bench.
 
Down 11 at intermission, the deficit hung right around the double-figure mark for a few minutes, with an Abram 3 at the 16:31 mark making it 50-42. Buffalo made its first run at that point, scoring 10 of the next 12 to force an MKE timeout down, 60-44.
 
The tide quickly changed, with Warren-Newsome leading the charge. His dunk on a fastbreak had it back to nine at the 13:11 mark, part of a 15-3 run by the Panthers. Johnson's rebound and tip-in made it 63-59 and the lead was again down to four at 67-63 on those Warren-Newsome free throws before Buffalo took control.
 
The Bulls gained first-half separation early, with a Panther scoring spurt bringing it right back to even. Milwaukee led, 6-5, before a 7-0 Buffalo run made it 12-6. Undaunted, nine MKE points in a row quickly made it a new game, with Amir Allen tying it at 12-12 on a jumper in the paint and a Warren-Newsome triple pushing the Panthers ahead, 15-12, on the next possession.
 
Back-and-forth from there, Milwaukee was still within two points at the 3:43 mark, with a fastbreak layup from Wright making it 29-27 at the time. Buffalo took over a bit from there, scoring 14 of the final 19 points of the first half to lead, 43-32, at intermission.
 
The Panthers ended up shooting 40.6 percent (28-of-69) from the floor for the day, hitting 15-of-18 (83.3 percent) from the line. Buffalo finished at an even 50 percent (35-of-70), edging out the rebounding battle, 43-38.
 
Up next, the Panthers return to The SSE Arena tomorrow for the consolation game of the Goliath Bracket, taking on Stephen F. Austin at 1 p.m. local time, which means a tip-off of 7 a.m. CST back in Milwaukee. The contest will air live on CBS Sports Network.