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Panthers heading into opener at less than full strength
Head coach Todd Lee speaks with Panthers during time-out.

Panthers heading into opener at less than full strength

Kentucky Wesleyan College hits the floor for real tonight when it hosts King College in the men's basketball season-opener for both teams.

Tipoff is 7 p.m. at the Sportscenter.

The Panthers will have had about 48 hours to recover from a 96-54 pasting by the University of Louisville in their final exhibition game at the KFC Yum! Center.

That capped a grueling exhibition season for the Panthers, who also suffered losses to South Carolina and Evansville.

The Panthers played well against South Carolina and were beaten on a last-second basket by Evansville. However, they played their first two exhibition games with a very short bench because of injuries, and that amount of minutes caught up with them against the Cardinals, despite adding James Herzog, Keith Biggers and Andre Sharp to the rotation.

Biggers, who suffered a knee injury in the first week of practice, didn't return to the court until this past week. He played nine minutes against Louisville.

Sharp, a Brescia transfer, was on the floor for 20 minutes against the Cardinals and scored nine points.

"Andre can do some things to help us," KWC coach Todd Lee said.

Sharp is available tonight, which is the key point for KWC, which has dealt with a rash of injuries since practice began that's limited the team's development.

"The problem was that these guys are all new," Lee said. "They all got hurt within the first week of practice, and they still don't know anything about what they're supposed to do or how they're supposed to play for us."

Cardell McFarland (16 points per game) and Anthony Young (13 ppg) have done most of the scoring for the Panthers in the exhibition games.

King, out of Bristol, Tenn., won its only exhibition game and went 24-6 a season ago in reaching the National Christian College Athletic Association Division I national championship game.

This is the first season King is playing in NCAA Division II.

The Tornado return three players who started at least 16 games last season. Mark Dockery led the team with 13.1 ppg, and Clarence Smith averaged 10.7 ppg and blocked 32 shots. Jason Seymore pulled down 6.4 rebounds a game.

Brian Hewitt, from Lexington, led King in a 97-56 exhibition victory Tuesday at Bluefield (Va.) College. Hewitt scored 22 points, including five 3-pointers. Smith posted a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Dockery poured in 17 points, and freshman Michael Fortune added 10 points.
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