MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee men's basketball team turned around an early 11-point deficit and kept its foot on the gas pedal the rest of the afternoon, running away with a 92-70 victory over Northern Kentucky Sunday at UWM Panther Arena.
 
"Give Northern Kentucky some credit, they are a good team and they really came ready to play," head coach Bart Lundy said about the start of the contest. "I thought we were guarding them pretty well; they were just making really tough shots."
 
The Panthers (18-9, 11-5 Horizon League) overcame that hot start by the Norse (12-15, 7-9 Horizon League) and never looked back, closing the first half on a 13-2 run and then scoring 50 more second-half points to defeat NKU for the sixth time in the past seven meetings between the two programs.
 
"We eventually started getting some stops," Lundy said. "The thing I am really proud of is we were able to handle the zone. Part of what they do is turn you over and get easy baskets. And only turning it over 10 times, we will aways have a shot to win the game."
 
On a day where the department celebrated the 20-year anniversary of the run to the "Sweet 16" in the 2005 NCAA Tournament, the Panthers got a huge effort off their bench and a team-high 15 points from both Jamichael Stillwell and Erik Pratt.
 
Also of note was MKE winning the rebounding battle, 43-to-19, including a dominant performance on the offensive glass. In fact, Milwaukee grabbed 21 offensive rebounds on its 31 missed shots on the day, good for the highest single-game offensive rebounding percentage (.667) in all of NCAA Division I basketball this season (topping the prior high-water mark of .625 by Saint Mary's at San Diego). [courtesy of Curt Hogg from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
 
Stillwell led the charge, finishing with his 14^th double-double of the season to extend his school record in that category by adding a game-high 13 rebounds (9 offensive) to his 15-point night. The last board he grabbed was also significant, giving him 281 on the season to break yet another program mark – edging past the former top spot of 280 in a single season set by Bryce Nze back in 2017-18.
 
Pratt was fantastic off the bench, scoring his 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting in just 21 minutes of action, making 4-of-5 free throws while adding three rebounds and three assists. He finished an impressive +30 on the stat sheet in his outing.
 
Danilo Jovanovich was an efficient 6-of-7 from the floor for a season-best 12 points, grabbing four rebounds in 16 minutes of play.
 
Kentrell Pullian joined them in double-figures with 11, chipping in four rebounds and three assists. Aaron Franklin had another great statline of 6 points/5 rebounds/3 blocks and John Lovelace Jr. chipped in nine points and four rebounds, making all four of his field goal attempts.
 
In all, that led to a 49-19 advantage by the home team in bench points, the highest total of the season against an NCAA DI opponent.
 
"You can't say enough about our bench at 49-19," Lundy said. "Just a lot of contributions down that bench. Those guys, buying into their roles and performing the way that they did, is something that could be the thing that propels us over the top and gives us a real chance every night."
 
Trey Robinson led the visitors – who came into tonight having won three of four – with a game-high 21 points and added eight rebounds.
 
It was the Norse that came out red-hot, making their first six field goals to jump out ahead 14-7 on their way to their largest lead of the night at 26-15.
 
From there it was all Milwaukee. Lovelace finished an impressive and-1 to cap a 7-0 spurt and it was a new game at 33-33 on a pair of Pratt free throws at the 3:37 mark before Milwaukee went ahead to stay on a huge three-pointer from Pullian in the corner a few possessions later.
 
The lead grew to seven at the break at 42-35. The team kept the Norse at arm's length in the opening minutes of the second half and then started to open things up. The lead hit 10 at 56-46 on a Pratt bucket and stayed near that until an 8-0 run put the game away at 80-60 with 4:19 remaining.
 
For the game, the MKE offense finished at 54.2 percent (32-of-59) from the floor overall, 36.8 percent (7-of-19) from three, and 77.8 percent (21-of-27) from the free throw line. NKU was at 44.4 percent (24-of-54) overall, 31.8 percent (7-of-22) from deep, and 75.0 percent (15-of-20) from the line.
 
The "Sweet 16" 20-year anniversary featured a halftime ceremony honoring the roster, with appearances by numerous members of the team: #2 Chris Hill, #13 Joah Tucker, #14 Derrick Wimmer, #20 Miles McKay, #21 Jason McCoy, #22 Ed McCants, #23 James Wright, #24 Boo Davis, #33 Nick Hansen, #40 Michael Bendall, #42 Rob Sanders, #44 Adrian Tigert, and #50 Derrick Ford.
 
Up next, the Panthers embark on their final road trip of the regular season, starting with a visit to Youngstown State Friday. The game, which was recently flexed to be shown on ESPNU, will now tip off at 8 p.m. CT.