NASSAU, Bahamas – The Milwaukee men's basketball team overcame a nine-point deficit to draw even in the second half and were within a basket with seven minutes to play before Rice held on to claim a 75-69 victory Friday at the Baha Mar Convention Center.
 
"We dug ourselves a hole, especially with our transition defense," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "At different times in the game we got it to two points or four points and just couldn't make the stops we needed or get the key basket that we needed."
 
In game one of the "Islands of the Bahamas Showcase", the Panthers (4-2) found themselves in a tie game at 50-50 and were within two points of the Owls (5-2) with seven minutes to play before coming up short.
 
"We had our opportunities," Baldwin said. "It's frustrating, because we are right there. But we understand we have a lot of room to improve, especially on the defensive end."
 
DeAndre Abram led the way for Milwaukee with 16 points, adding seven rebounds.
 
Darius Roy (13 points), Te'Jon Lucas (11) and Josh Thomas (10) joined Abram in double-figures.
 
Ako Adams paced Rice with a game-high 18 points.
 
Down 50-41 early in the second half, MKE surged back into the contest with nine straight, with Abram's 3 capping the spurt to make it 50-50 with 13:18 remaining.
 
Back-and-forth for a bit, the Panthers were still within a bucket at 58-56 with seven minutes to go.
 
From there, Rice connected on its next six free throws while MKE went cold, missing its next 10 from the field. The next make was a Roy jumper to make it 64-58 with 2:23 left, but they ran out of time from there.
 
A slow start didn't help, down 15-8 and 18-10 early. The team righted the ship and were back within three at 23-20. Rice surged back in front, only to see Milwaukee with an answer – Allen's dunk closed the gap with just over two minutes to play and the team had a look to go ahead on its last possession before the half, only to see a transition hoop put Rice ahead at the break, 42-38.
 
The Panthers finished the afternoon at 35.2 percent (25-of-71) from the floor, connecting on 6-of-25 from long-range. Rice sank half (21-of-42), while also ending the contest with a huge 39-21 advantage in free throw attempts.
 
It will be a quick turnaround the Panthers, who will play tomorrow morning against Morgan State, which lost to Liberty today by a final score of 89-48.
 
"We can't hang our heads and worry about what happened," Baldwin said. "We have to correct our mistakes from today and get back to the drawing board to get ready for an early game tomorrow."
 
Tip time between the Panthers and Bears is set for 10 a.m. CST.