Tony Meier made two free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining to give Milwaukee an 86-84 victory against Cleveland State on Tuesday night.
Meier, who scored 15 points, was fouled on a 3-point attempt. He made the first two shots but missed the third for the Panthers (16-12, 9-7 Horizon League).
James Haarsma had 25 points and made five 3-point shots for Milwaukee. Paris Gulley added 17 points, Kyle Kelm 13 and Kaylon Williams 12.
Trevon Harmon scored 27 points and Jeremy Montgomery 15 for the Vikings (20-7, 10-5), who rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit but could not prevent their conference regular-season title hopes from taking a hit.
Valparaiso (19-9, 12-4) defeated Illinois-Chicago on Tuesday and holds the tiebreaker over Cleveland State. The Crusaders can clinch first place by beating Loyola Chicago on Feb. 21.
Milwaukee made 33 of 40 free-throw attempts; Cleveland State was 20 of 24.
Charlie Lee had 14 points and Anton Grady 10 for the Vikings, who shot 28 of 46 (60.9 percent) from the field.
