MILWAUKEE – A big scoring run to end the first half set the tone and the Milwaukee men's basketball team came up with a big defensive stop on Oakland's final possession to pick up a huge 71-66 victory Thursday night at UWM Panther Arena.
 
The Panthers (20-10, 13-6 Horizon League) scored 17 of the final 18 points of the first half and then outlasted the Golden Grizzlies (13-17, 10-9 Horizon League) in the final minutes to move into a tie for second place in the conference standings with one game remaining in the regular season.
 
"Give Oakland and (Greg) Kampe a lot of credit," head coach Bart Lundy said. "They are playing really high-level basketball and they came in with confidence today. We were down eight [in the first half] and we had prepped a couple of different presses for them. I thought our pressure in that first half really got to them."
 
The victory marks a third-straight 20-win season – all under Lundy – the first of its kind for the program since four consecutive from 2002-06.
 
AJ McKee led the way with 15 points, joined in double-figures by Kentrell Pullian and Faizon Fields with 12 apiece. Fields just missed a double-double, finishing with nine rebounds.
 
Themus Fulks and Erik Pratt chipped in nine points each, while Jamichael Stillwell added a game-high 13 rebounds and tied his season-high with five steals.
 
Leading by as many as 16 points early in the second half, MKE kept Oakland at arm's length for much of the second, but a late rally saw the visitors with the ball in the final seconds down just three. The defense stood tough, with McKee contesting a three-pointer that missed everything and then Fulks hit a pair of free throws with 1.0 on the clock to ice it.
 
"We had a chance to put them away and I think our group kind of lost focus," Lundy said. "Gave them a couple of run-outs, a three and then a four-point play back-to-back and then from that point on it was just a knock-down, drag-out brawl. A lot of foul calls, a lot of reviews, just a long, long game. It was exhausting for both teams but a great game to watch. So give credit to both teams, I thought they both played exceptionally hard."
 
Jayson Woodrich led OU with 14 points; DQ Cole added 11 points and nine assists.
 
Down 33-25 with 5:24 left in the opening period, the MKE offense put on a show until the halftime horn hit. They scored 17 consecutive points to flip the scoreboard around, with a free throw with 0.2 on the clock the only points that the Grizz scored in that span.
 
Milwaukee forced seven turnovers and held the visitors without a made field goal over the final five-plus minutes to lead, 42-34, at the break. Fields scored five in the span which was highlighted by dunks from Darius Duffy and John Lovelace Jr.
 
The overall run hit 25-1 as the Panthers scored the first eight of the second to lead by as many as 16 at 50-34 with 17:54 remaining. Oakland made it a game the rest of the way, but Milwaukee made enough big shots when needed to pull out the big win despite ending the game shooting under 40 percent overall.
 
On the night, MKE wrapped up at 37.9 percent (22-of-58) from the floor overall, hitting on 15.0 percent (3-of-20) from deep. They countered that by getting to the line 33 times (making 24/.727) compared to just 18 for OU (11-18/.611). The Golden Grizzlies finished the contest at 43.4 percent (23-of-53) overall and connected on 37.5 percent (9-of-24) from downtown.
 
The Panthers won the rebounding battle, 39-33, and finished with just 10 turnovers compared to forcing 20.
 
Up next, the team closes out the regular season Saturday afternoon when it hosts Detroit Mercy, set to tip off at 3 p.m. The game will also serve as "Senior Day" for the program.