Posted: Jan 20, 2017
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Cleveland State tied a season-high with 13 steals – including seven from Rob Edwards, but Milwaukee's Brock Stull hit a jumper at the buzzer to give the Panthers a 63-62 win over Cleveland State on Friday night at UWM Panther Arena.
CSU fell to 6-14 overall and 2-6 in the Horizon League, while Milwaukee moved to 6-14 overall (2-5 HL).
STAT LEADERS
- Edwards – who turned 20 years old today – finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and a career-high seven steals.
- It was the most steals by a CSU player since Craig Caldwell made eight at Wright State (2/19/95).
- Bobby Word scored 18 points, hitting four three-pointers, and added three assists and four steals.
- Demonte Flannigan tallied six points and five rebounds.
- Jibri Blount finished with six points and a pair of steals.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- CSU led at halftime, 34-24, behind a strong defensive effort.
- The Vikings forced Milwaukee into 11 first half turnovers – making 10 steals – over the first 20 minutes.
- Flannigan opened the second half scoring with a jumper just over a minute in to give CSU its largest lead of the night (36-24).
- However, the Panthers used a 14-5 run over the next six minutes to slice the CSU lead to three points (41-38) with 12:42 left.
- A three-pointer from Word pushed the lead back to six points, but the Panthers found their rhythm and came back to take a 56-54 lead on a three-pointer by Jeremy Johnson with just over four minutes to play.
- A Cody Wichmann three-pointer gave the Panthers their largest lead of the night (61-56) with 2:06 to play.
- But Evan Clayborne had a tip-in and Word had a steal and layup to pull CSU within one point (61-60) with 1:33 left.
- After UWM came up empty with two possessions and the Vikings didn't score on its possession, Kasheem Thomas gave the Vikings a 62-61 lead with 11.9 seconds left with a driving lay-up down the lane.
- However, the Panthers did not call a timeout, choosing to play out the final possession and Stull hit the game-winner at the buzzer.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- The Vikings forced 15 UWM turnovers and made 13 steals.
- CSU scored 22 points off Panther turnovers.
- The Vikings won the rebounding battle, 33-27, and scored 17 second chance points thanks to 14 offensive rebounds.
- CSU finished 26-of-63 from the field, while the Panthers were 25-of-49.
- The Vikings hit 6-of-23 from three-point and UWM went 9-of-22.
- Both teams finished 4-of-6 at the free throw line as there were just 20 combined team fouls – 10 on each team.
UP NEXT
- CSU concludes its swing through Wisconsin on Monday (Jan. 23) night with a 7:00 pm ET contest at Green Bay.