CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The Milwaukee men's basketball team was unable to take advantage of an impressive first-half performance, falling to Boston College by a final score of 73-53 Tuesday night in the season opener at Conte Forum.
 
The Panthers (0-1) led the Eagles (1-0) by as many as 14 in the first half and still by 10 at intermission, only to go cold from the field the rest of the way to prevent any chance at the upset.
 
"In the first half, we were making all of the right plays," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "And then in the second half, we just got stagnant. That was the killer for us and we just couldn't find the bottom of the net."
 
Darius Roy paced the MKE offense, finishing with 15 points. He added a game-high six assists and chipped in three rebounds and a steal in 29 minutes.
 
Jake Wright finished in double-figures in his Milwaukee debut, making a trio of 3's on his way to 11 points.
 
DeAndre Abram added nine points and eight rebounds, while Amir Allen posted a team-best 11 rebounds to go with eight points and four blocks.
 
"I am impressed with our guys, they played hard," Baldwin said. "Our guys played extremely hard. In the first half, we really shared the ball and got it moving. We can do some really good things."
 
Ky Bowman, who was named to the preseason watch list for the 2018-19 Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award, led the home team with 19 points after Milwaukee held him to just four in the first half. He added eight rebounds and four assists. Wynston Tabbs added 16.
 
"The ball just didn't go in the basket," Baldwin said. "Sometimes it's a good thing to try so hard and want it so badly that you want to try and make a play, but I think we did it to the detriment of our entire team by everyone holding onto the basketball when they caught it instead of driving and kicking and sharing."
 
Milwaukee came out of the gates flying; hitting a couple of early three's to lead 9-6 at the first media timeout. That was actually part of an 11-0 run, with Abram sinking a triple to force a timeout at the 12:42 mark with the Panthers up, 17-6.
 
The scoring run hit 15-3 on a pair of Carson Warren-Newsome free throws, giving MKE the 23-10 advantage. Another Abram 3 had the Panthers off to a stunner at 26-12 for what turned out to be their largest lead of the evening.
 
The defense was playing well, holding Boston College without a field goal for over six minutes at one point late in the first half. Unfortunately, the Eagles kept getting to the line, sinking 10-12 freebies in the first half.
 
Wright drilled a three-pointer coming out of halftime to extend the lead to 13 at 40-27, and then the game turned. The Panthers went ice-cold, eventually finishing at just 13.2 percent (5-of-38) from the floor in the second period.
 
A Nik Popovic three flipped the lead for the first time since early in the game at 41-40 but a Warren-Newsome dunk stopped the 14-0 run. It wasn't enough. The scoring run eventually grew to 19-2 to extend the BC lead to 46-42 and another 9-0 run a few minutes later iced it.
 
The cold shooting after halftime dropped MKE to 27.7 percent (18-of-65) for the night. After making six of their first 10 from long-range, the Panthers connected on just 2-of-17 after halftime to finish at 29.6 percent. BC picked up the pace in the second 20 minutes, making 50 percent in the period to finish at 39.3 percent (22-of-56) overall.
 
The Eagles won the rebounding battle, 49-38, and outscored Milwaukee 28-12 in the paint.
 
The Panthers return to Wisconsin to partake in Homecoming Week on campus, with the festivities culminating with their game against North Dakota Saturday night. Tip-off against the Fighting Hawks is set for 6 p.m.