MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee men's basketball team used a strong first half to build a big lead and then led by double-figures the final 16 minutes of the night in claiming an important 88-75 victory over Youngstown State Saturday night at UWM Panther Arena.
 
BJ Freeman led the Panthers (14-6, 8-2 Horizon League) with another huge outing, this time posting a double-double with career-highs of 30 points and 11 assists to top the Penguins (15-6, 7-3 Horizon League) and snap what was a four-game losing streak in the series.
 
"BJ hit a couple of tough three's early and kind of opened the basket for us," head coach Bart Lundy said. "We knew that our offense had to help our defense tonight, because that's a heck of an offensive team on the other side. And our guys had 14 assists in the first half and we made 10 three's. We were getting looks that we were sharing the ball with, and if you hit 10 three's, you get off to a pretty good start."
 
The highly-anticipated battle between the two first-place teams was exciting from start to finish, seeing MKE hit a dozen three-pointers on the night while holding off any push that YSU made the entire second half. The victory improves the Panthers to 8-2 in league play, its best 10-game start in conference play since the 2005-06 campaign (9-1 that season).
 
"I thought they made some runs," Lundy said of YSU. "They are really talented and well-coached. And then our guys showed some resiliency and toughness down the stretch and never had it (the lead) below 10 – but it felt closer … it felt much closer. Proud of our maturity at the end-game."
 
Freeman continues to ride his hot streak, scoring 20-plus for the fourth game in a row as well as the fifth in his last six outings. In pouring in the 30 points, he became the first Panther to record 20-plus points in four straight games since Joah Tucker did so back in January of 2006.
 
Freeman went 12-of-20 from the floor, making 5-of-11 from downtown while giving a triple-double a run with six rebounds.
 
Kentrell Pullian finished with 17 points and six rebounds, while Ahmad Rand contributed 12 points and five boards, and Markeith Browning II was in double-figures again with 11 points, while adding eight rebounds.
 
Moses Bol continues to produce, recording a statline of 8 points/5 rebounds/3 blocks in 19 minutes of action.
 
YSU came into the game in the Top 10 nationally in scoring (86.0 ppg) and field-goal percentage (.501) and was led by Brandon Rush with 19 and Malek Green with a double-double of 17 points and 11 boards.
 
The MKE defense showed up again. They held the potent Penguin offense to 41.3 percent (26-of-63) from the floor as well as just 19.0 percent (4-of-21) from three-point range. Meanwhile, the offense was cooking all night, finishing at 54.0 percent (34-of-63) from the field and 48.0 percent (12-of-25) from downtown. MKE also earned the rebound edge, 37-35.
 
The Panthers were up 12-6 early on a Pullian three, only to see YSU forge ahead. An impressive four-point play from Freeman tied the game at 21-21 and was part of a 10-0 run that pushed the advantage to 27-21 and forced a timeout by the visitors.
 
The three helped build the lead, with another by Pullian giving the home team the 43-33 lead at the break. The Penguins were back within eight early in the second half but Freeman's jumper with 15:22 to play made it 52-42 and it would never get closer.
 
Browning swished a triple to make it 55-42 on the next possession and Rand's alley-oop on a pass from Freeman made it 67-52 and really got the crowd going.
 
Up next, the Panthers have now closed out the homestand and hit the road for three straight, beginning with a rematch against Wright State Jan. 26. Tip time that night is set for 6 p.m. CST in Dayton.