MILWAUKEE -- Joah Tucker scored a career-high 31 points and Boo Davis 21 as Wisconsin-Milwaukee defeated Loyola-Chicago 94-76 Saturday in a Horizon League Championship semifinal game.
The Panthers (23-5), who won their eighth consecutive game and 16th in their last 17, will host Detroit on Tuesday for the tournament title and the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Detroit, which beat Wisconsin-Green Bay 61-55 in the semifinal earlier Saturday night, was one of only two conference teams to beat the Panthers, who won the regular-season title for the second consecutive year with a 14-2 record.
Detroit won the first meeting between the teams 76-68 but lost the second 61-48.
Ed McCants, the Horizon League player of the year, added 14 points and Chris Hill 11 for Milwaukee.
Tucker's previous career high was 26 points against Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 5.
Loyola (13-17) finished the season strong, winning six consecutive games and seven of its last eight including an 87-81 overtime victory over Illinois-Chicago in a quarterfinal.
The Ramblers were led by DaJuan Gouard with 29 points. Blake Schilb, who had a career-high 39 points Friday night, had 12 points.
Milwaukee led 65-48 on a basket by Adrian Tigert midway through the period.
But led by Gouard, the Ramblers closed the gap, pulling to 75-67 on a basket by Gouard with 6:37 left. Tucker responded with a basket of his own and Davis a 3-pointer for an 80-67 lead and the Ramblers never got that close again.
The Panthers hit a half-dozen 3-pointers to lead 42-34 at the half.
Milwaukee came out strong and went ahead 20-11 on a 3-pointer by Davis with 13:22 left. The Ramblers came back hard themselves, closing to within 25-27 on a 3-pointer by Majak Kou with 7:38 remaining before the Panthers pulled away again the rest of the period.
The Panthers on Tuesday will be trying to return to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons. They won the championship in 2003 to make their first Division I NCAA appearance, only to lose to Notre Dame 70-69.
Last season they lost the title game to Illinois-Chicago 65-62 and went to the National Invitation Tournament.
