Panthers rout Bryan - Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Box Score

Kentucky Wesleyan College got an abundance of scoring and some better defensive play to drop Bryan 80-52 on Saturday at the Sportscenter.

The margin of victory surprised and impressed KWC coach Todd Lee. The Panthers only beat Bryan 71-57 last November at the Sportscenter.

"I think they're a good team," Lee said. "They've got eight seniors, nearly everybody back from last year. I wouldn't have guessed we would beat them by that much. The guys have been picking up some defensive concepts, and it was good to see."

The Panthers saw five players scoring in double figures on the way to improving to 3-0 on the season.

Cardell McFarland led the way with 17 points, Anthony Young was next with 16, then Marseilles Stewart with 14, Kwan Waller with 13 and Jay Ivey with 12. Young recorded his second straight double-double with 10 rebounds.

"It was good to see Kwan get some baskets," Lee said. "I talked to him during the shootaround. He felt like he had missed a lot of makeable shots."

Waller was 5-of-10 from the field.

"I was knocking some shots down and trying to focus on my defense," Waller said. "If you miss some shots, you're going to get frustrated. But if you focus on your defense, you know your offense is going to come."

KWC finally faced a team in Bryan that played more of a man-to-man, half-court defensive style. That is what the Panthers will see more in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, and what they had been mainly working on in practice to get ready for GLVC play. They had been going against opponents both in exhibition games and the early regular season that were more pressing or zone defense teams.

"It was good to be able to call some things that we had been working on," Lee said. "We could settle in and run our offense."

KWC got one of its most fluid offensive stretches of the season going midway through the second half. The Panthers got better both on the defensive end and with how they were rebounding.

Waller scored on a hustle rebound, then came back two possessions later and scored on a layup off the break to put the Panthers ahead 45-34 with 13:12 to go.

A blocked shot by Andre Sharp and his outlet pass turned into another layup basket by McFarland.

That 12-0 run finished with Marseilles Stewart scoring inside off a quick pass from McFarland to put KWC up 49-36 with 11:08 remaining

The Panthers shot 62.5 percent in the second half (20-of-32) and 50.9 for the game (28-of-55). They limited Bryan to 34.6 percent from the floor for the game (18-of-52).

KWC ran off 13 straight points after Bryan scored the first basket of the game.

The Panthers were able to maintain a comfortable cushion through much of the first half, in part helped by an intentional foul and a technical on Bryan coach Don Rekoske.

The ensuing free throws lifted KWC to a 27-15 lead.

Bryan (5-3) started making a run at KWC over the last five minutes of the half.

The Lions went on a 9-0 run to close to 29-26 with 1:35 left. At the same time, the Panthers went cold over a 5:48 span where they didn't score, and they missed six straight shots.

KWC didn't score a field goal in the last 7:43 of the first half.

Despite that, the Panthers still held a 31-26 halftime lead.

Bryan was led by Lavonte Henderson's 11 points.

The game got a little chippy in different segments with a total of five technical fouls called.

The Panthers have several days off until Urbana comes in for the Owensboro Classic on Friday. The Panthers face Ferris State on Saturday.

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