MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee men's basketball team erased a 14-point second half deficit to lead on a pair of occasions in the closing minutes, only to see Wright State escape with a 65-62 victory Saturday night at UWM Panther Arena.
 
"First of all, congratulations to Wright State. They earned a tough, hard-fought win tonight," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "My first thoughts are with our seniors – Vance and Jake – who have done an exceptional job from the time that they stepped on campus in representing Milwaukee the right way. We are going to miss those two guys because they were vital to what we are trying to do here. We're building a real good foundation – you don't see it in the numbers right now – but you can see it in the character of our kids and how hard they work."
 
The Panthers (9-22, 4-14 Horizon League) never gave up against the league-champion Raiders (19-12, 13-5 Horizon League), missing a final shot at the buzzer that could have forced overtime despite playing without their leading scorer for the second game in a row.
 
"It's bitter because we had the ball in our hands with the opportunity to win," Baldwin said. "Unfortunately, we turned the ball over and didn't get a shot up on the goal. It's always crushing and hard to take when you don't finish out a game like this where you crawl back in it."
 
Vance Johnson led the way with 18 points, adding four rebounds.
 
Bryce Barnes added 13 points and DeAndre Abram chipped in 11.
 
Jake Wright hit a milestone on "Senior Night", netting the 1,000^th point of his collegiate career.
 
Loudon Love led WSU with 13 points, as the Raiders won their first league title since 2007. The series between the two teams continues to be tight, as 11 of the past 13 games between the two have now been decided by six points or less.
 
Milwaukee shot 64 percent (16-of-25) in the second half to get back into it, using a 10-0 run to get back within four at 52-48 on a Barnes free throw at the 7:09 mark, with Wright's 1000^th coming from the corner during the stretch.
 
Down by five, Barnes layup made it a one-possession game at 56-54 and it was down to one on Wright's coast-to-coast steal and layup with just under four minutes to play.
 
The teams would trade leads twice, with MKE's final advantage coming with 53.3 seconds remaining on a pair of Abram free throws. From there, the Raiders hit 4-of-6 free throws and forced a pair of turnovers to seal the victory.
 
Both teams came out playing strong defense, with the contest knotted up at 5-5 six minutes into the contest. Back-and-forth for a bit, the Panthers went ahead on a Johnson three with about 11 minutes left in the period.
 
From there, WSU pushed back, reeling off eight in a row to take a 19-12 advantage and force an MKE timeout with 5:58 left. Milwaukee had its own answer, and back-to-back baskets from Amir Allen had the team back within a point at 19-18. The team also limited WSU to under 40 percent from the floor in the opening half, including 13.3 percent (2-of-15) on three-pointers.
 
Milwaukee finished the night at an even 50 percent (24-of-48) from the floor.
 
The contest concludes the 2018-19 campaign for the Panthers.