MILWAUKEE – Erik Pratt scored 21 points and Elijah Jamison added 20 and the Milwaukee men's basketball team used a huge scoring run to open the second half to turn the game around in claiming an impressive 88-80 victory over Cleveland State Friday afternoon at UWM Panther Arena.
 
The Panthers (9-8, 4-2 Horizon League) scored the first 14 points after intermission and eventually put it away late against the Vikings (11-7, 4-3 Horizon League) after trailing by as many as 19 points in the first half.
 
"To start the game, they (CSU) always come out and are very physical and we didn't respond to that very well," head coach Bart Lundy said. "And then we missed some shots and didn't get stops and it kind of snowballed on us. Defensively, we weren't very good. Halftime, these guys came out really focused and with much better energy."
 
Pratt went 8-of-16 from the field for his game-high 21, adding six rebounds and four assists with no turnovers. Jamison lit it up in the second half, scoring 18 of his career-high 20 points after halftime to lead the charge as the MKE offense outscored CSU, 52-33, over the final 20 minutes.
 
Langston Wilson came up huge with his first career double-double, finishing with 13 points and 14 rebounds on 5-of-8 shooting, adding a pair of big blocks.
 
BJ Freeman rounded out the scoring leaders with a double-double of his own, finishing the afternoon with 14 points and 10 boards, adding five assists.
 
Tristan Enaruna and Tevin Smith paced the Vikes with 20 points apiece, as the visitors raced out to leads of 7-1 and 18-7 to open the contest.
 
The deficit eventually grew to as much as 19 at 37-18 before the MKE offense found its footing. Pratt scored three straight buckets to force a timeout at 37-24 and the Panthers were back within nine at the break at 47-36.
 
The second half was all Milwaukee from the get-go, tying the game with nine quick ones and making it level at 47-47 on a Jamison three at the 16:51 mark. Pratt completed an and-1 and the scoreboard was flipped with Milwaukee ahead 50-47 before the first media timeout, culminating in 17 straight points after getting the final three in the first half.
 
"For a lot of that second half, we were getting really good stops, but Jamison was dominant down the stretch," Lundy said. "Pratt hit some big shots, BJ (Freeman) was good, Langston (Wilson) was tremendous on the glass. Second half, we were really good … we have to find a way to start better. But proud of these guys and their effort in the second half."
 
Cleveland State, winners of five of six coming in, stemmed the tide and eventually regained the advantage at 57-52 by scoring 10 of the next 12 points.
 
Milwaukee was not done there, as Freeman hit a three and then his layup on the next possession made it a new game again at 57-all. Back-and-forth it went, as the next run came from the visitors and the 10-4 surge gave them a 67-61 lead with 8:00 to play.
 
The Panthers quickly regained momentum once again, using a 13-2 spree that was capped by a dunk by Darius Duffy that marked eight straight for the team and forced a Viking timeout at 74-69 with 4:40 left. The team then took care of things the rest of the way, making 5-of-6 from the line the final 82 seconds to seal the big victory, improving to 6-2 at home this season as well as 12-2 at home in league contests since Lundy took over. The 19-point comeback achieved today marks the fifth largest in program history.
 
The Panthers shot close to 60 percent in the second half to finish at 49.2 percent (31-of-63) for the game, which had the tip time moved up five hours due to the winter weather in the local area. The defense held CSU to just over 30 percent in the second half to finish at 40.6 percent (28-of-69) on the day. MKE claimed a huge advantage on the boards at 45-31, blocked six more shots, and had a 48-36 advantage in points in the paint.
 
Up next, MKE hits the road again for two games, starting with a matchup at Northern Kentucky Thursday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. CT.