MILWAUKEE – A balanced team effort sent the Milwaukee men's basketball team past North Dakota by a final score of 79-70 Tuesday night at UWM Panther Arena.
 
"We knew this was our last home game for a while, so we wanted to go out with a win," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "Give credit to our guys. They played extremely hard, they played together."
 
The Panthers (4-1) built a second-half lead to as many as 15 against the Fighting Hawks (1-3) and then held on down the stretch.
 
Milwaukee finished with five players in double-figures, led by 21 points from Darius Roy, who added four assists and three rebounds.
 
"We had a lot of guys step up in crucial points in the game and really did some great things," Baldwin said. "Give North Dakota credit -- they came in and fought us extremely hard and made it very difficult. We're very fortunate to come out with a win."
 
Te'Jon Lucas added 15 points, five assists and three steals. Amir Allen just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine boards and Josh Thomas chipped in 11 points off the bench.
 
DeAndre Abram rounded out the list with 10 points, while grabbing seven rebounds.
 
Filip Rebraca paced North Dakota with a near-triple-double, finishing the night with a game-high 24 points while adding 10 rebounds and eight blocks.
 
Back-and-forth early, Milwaukee led by as many as six before falling behind at 29-28 at the 5:55 mark. A Thomas layup gave MKE the lead back and opened up a strong finish to the half. It was 39-36 on a corner three from Courtney Brown Jr. and a fastbreak layup by Lucas beat the buzzer and gave the home team a 41-36 lead at the break.
 
The Panthers slowly built the margin, hitting 10 for the first time on a Roy layup at 52-42 with 12:28 remaining. Roy played a big role again, hitting a three to force a North Dakota timeout at 63-48, giving MKE its biggest lead of the evening.
 
Following a push from the Fighting Hawks, a Lucas leaner in the paint set the advantage back to 11 at 69-58 and then Roy put an exclamation point on it with a long triple to make it 76-64 with just under two minutes remaining. A 3-for-7 showing from the line made it interesting the rest of the way, but the lead never got below seven.
 
Milwaukee finished the night at 43.8 percent (28-of-64) from the floor, with UND at 43.4 percent (23-of-53). The Panthers defense forced 20 turnovers and limited the Hawks to under 40 percent from the floor in the second half and just 14.3 percent (2-of-14) from long-distance after intermission.
 
Up next, the Panthers are off to Nassau for a three-game stop at the "Islands of the Bahamas Showcase". First game will see Milwaukee battle Rice Thursday, set for a 1 p.m. CST tip.