MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee men's basketball team got the 2022-23 season off to an impressive start, shooting well overall while using a pair of huge scoring runs to post a lopsided 102-46 victory over MSOE Monday night at the Klotsche Center.
 
The Panthers got the "Bart Lundy Era" off to a good start, posting the third-largest margin of victory in program history with the 56-point decision.
 
A 25-2 run midway through the first half broke it open and the MKE offense closed the evening on a 27-4 run to cap off the win, shooting over 60 percent in the process to hand Coach Lundy a victory in his first game on the sidelines for the Panthers.
 
Angelo Stuart made quite a first impression, finishing with a game-high 24 points while making 8-of-11 shots from the field and 5-of-8 from three-point range. He added five assists and his point total was the most for an MKE player in a season opener since Paige Paulsen went for 27 in the opener against Radford in 2006-07.
 
The entire lineup chipped in, with 14 players seeing action and 11 of that total seeing 10-plus minutes on the court.
 
"I thought we had a lot of contributions from a lot of guys," Lundy said postgame. "We played exceptionally hard and have made progress from our scrimmages. I was really happy with our younger guys – for some of these guys it was their first college game. We were in transition a lot, so our defense definitely fueled our offense."
 
Ahmad Rand went a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor in his MKE debut, finishing with 14 points on a flurry of dunks while adding a pair of blocks in just 15 minutes of action.
 
Elijah Jamison added 12 points off the bench, hitting 5-of-8 field goals while adding three rebounds, three assists, and four steals.
 
Kentrell Pullian joined the group in double-figures with 11 points, adding a team-best eight rebounds.
 
Donovan Carter led MSOE with 11 points.
 
The game actually opened back-and-forth, with an 8-0 spurt giving Milwaukee the early 15-7 advantage. The Raiders stuck around for a bit courtesy of their three-point shooting, with four of their first six made field goals coming from downtown.
 
A Rand dunk made it 23-16 and forced a timeout by the visitors and next thing 10 straight pushed it to 27-16. The Panthers led 52-27 at the break and had the score doubled-up for the first time at 84-42 as they spent the second half pulling away.
 
The defense held MSOE in check, limiting the team to 36.4 percent (20-of-55) shooting overall. Offensively, the final field-goal percentage of 61.3 percent (38-of-62) checked in at 10^th-best all-time and the 26 assists (to just 9 turnovers) was tied for fifth-best in program history. The team went past the 100-point barrier in a game for the first time since November 12, 2019.
 
Up next, the team is set for a quick turnaround, heading immediately to Indiana to take on Purdue Tuesday. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. CST.