Horizon League Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 3)
Milwaukee 83, Northern Iowa 72
MILWAUKEE -- Matt Tiby and Jordan Aaron scored 19 points apiece and Milwaukee used a 30-5 run to turn the game around en route to an impressive 83-72 win over Northern Iowa Tuesday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena.
Milwaukee (8-2) has now already equaled its win total from a season ago and have their second four-game winning streak of the season.
The Panthers looked like they might be in trouble when it fell into a 42-31 hole early in the second half. But Milwaukee responded with the next 17 points and eventually led 61-47 with 9:52 left before hanging on down the stretch.
Steve McWhorter added 16 points and six rebounds for Milwaukee, which also got 11 points from Austin Arians and nine points plus nine rebounds from Kyle Kelm.
As a team, UWM was solid across the board, shooting 45 percent overall, making 10 three-pointers, going 19-of-25 from the line, committing just 11 turnovers and outrebounding UNI, 42-33.
Deon Mitchell scored 19 points to lead Northern Iowa.
Milwaukee's final 18 minutes of basketball were stellar. UWM wound up outscoring UNI, 52-34, in the second half while recording a 26-13 edge on the backboards.
Milwaukee struggled to find traction in the first 20 minutes. Northern Iowa jumped out to an early 13-5 lead and UWM wound up fighting uphill the rest of the way. Milwaukee pulled to within 13-10 on a McWhorter three with 14:05 left and then crawled within 21-20 on an Arians three.
The back and forth stretch continued for a while, with UNI rebuilding a seven-point lead before Milwaukee pulled to within 27-26 on a J.J. Panoske basket. Northern Iowa finally started to expand the gap in the final minutes of the half, with a single free throw from Mitchell making it 38-31 at the break.
UNI then scored the first four points of the second half to claim a 42-31 advantage. But the game turned completely around from there.
Panoske started the run with a three and moments later a three from Tiby had the contest tied at 42-apiece. Tiby added two layups after a layin from Aaron and the Milwaukee advantage was 48-42.
But the Panthers were far from done. Another three from Tiby pushed the lead to 54-45 and a runner from McWhorter made it 59-47. Arians added a jumper with 9:52 left, and all of a sudden the Panthers were up 61-47.
From there, Milwaukee had an answer every time UNI tried to mount a charge. A three from McWhorter restored a 70-62 lead with five minutes left before Arians scored on a runout 30 seconds later for a 72-62 advantage. UWM then made 9-of-12 from the line to close out the win.
