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MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Ed McCants scored 22 points and Joah Tucker 21 Wednesday night as Wisconsin-ilwaukee defeated Butler 64-53 to win its second straight Horizon League regular season championship.
Milwaukee improved to 20-5 overall and 13-2 in the conference by winning for the 13th time in its last 14 games. With only one league game remaining for the Panthers, the victory means second-place Wisconsin-Green Bay, which is two games back, cannot catch Milwaukee.
The Bulldogs (10-14, 5-9) were led by Brandon Crone with 14 points, Brandon Polk with 13 and Bruce Horan, who had 12.
Adrian Tigert's basket 12 seconds into the second half gave the Panthers their first lead of the game at 28-27 and McCants followed that with Milwaukee's first 3-point goal to boost the advantage to four points.
The Bulldogs pulled within two at 42-40 on a basket by Brandon Polk, but the Panthers got two free throws from James Wright and a field goal by Tucker to lead by six points and the Bulldogs never got that close again.
The Panthers missed their first nine shots and 15 of their first 17 field goal attempts and trailed 17-6 after a basket by Brian Ligon with 10:37 remaining. But Tucker scored 10 points to lead a comeback and Milwaukee pulled within a point at the half at 27-26 on a pair of free throws by James Wright with 48.6 seconds left.
Before the game, the Panthers honored three seniors who played their last regular season home game _ McCants, James Wright and Rob Sanders.
