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Panthers fall short against Knights
Junior guard Cardell McFarland scores a game-high 27 points for the Panthers.

Panthers fall short against Knights

Box Score

Kentucky Wesleyan College couldn't control Bellarmine guard Jeremy Kendle when it counted most Thursday night.

Kendle, a 6-foot-1 senior, scored 14 of Bellarmine's last 15 points, and the No. 2 Knights pulled out a 78-75 win in front of 2,800 at the Sportscenter. Kendle finished with a team-high 26 points.

"We have a tough time guarding him, he's a very physical player, one of the best players in our league and one of the best players in the country," KWC coach Todd Lee said.

Kendle put Bellarmine ahead for good, 65-63, on a jumper in the lane with 4:38 to go, then hit free throws, made a reverse layup and buried a deep 3-pointer to hold off the No. 11 Panthers in the Great Lakes Valley Conference opener for both teams.

KWC kept drawing within a point or a basket during that stretch, but couldn't get the lead back.

"We stayed with what we were trying to do and showed a lot of heart in the second half," Kendle said.

Bellarmine was up 72-69 when KWC had its best chance to manage a tie and called timeout to set up a play with 1:02 to go. The Panthers were looking for a 3-pointer in the corner from Chris Williams, and he got an open shot with about 55 seconds to play, but it was off the rim and Bellarmine rebounded.

"We got the shot we wanted, got a great pass and a great screen," Lee said.

Bellarmine worked the clock down to 20 seconds, with four seconds on the shot clock when it called timeout. The Knights got the ball inbounds and to Kendle, who nailed a 3 from 25 feet with 17 seconds to go, putting them up 75-69.

KWC answered with a long 3 of its own from Cardell McFarland with 11 seconds to go, cutting the advantage to 75-72, but Kendle made two free throws to push Bellarmine back out to a 77-72 lead with 7.9 seconds left.

Another 3 from about 28 feet from McFarland made it a 2-point game, 77-75, with 2.6 seconds left. Braydon Hobbs made 1-of-2 free throws for a 78-75 lead with one second to go, and Kwan Waller's desperation heave was off the mark at the horn.

"What I was most proud of was our poise to get the win," Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport said.

The Knights improved to 4-0.

KWC, which lost for the first time in six games, got 27 points from McFarland, but after scoring 14 straight himself to push KWC to a 56-48 advantage with 12:34 left, he didn't get another point until the pair of late 3-pointers.

Bellarmine didn't do anything special on McFarland during the last 12 minutes, and he blamed himself for not being more productive down the stretch.

"I just wasn't aggressive enough," McFarland said. "I tried to get my teammates going."

KWC got 17 points from Anthony Young and 14 from Waller. The Panthers shot 52 percent from the field (25-of-48) and made 19-of-20 free throws.

Bellarmine made 7-of-11 from 3-point range in the second half and hit 8-of-18 for the game. The Knights were 28-of-50 from the floor for 56 percent.

KWC takes on Mid-Continent a week from Saturday.
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