Panthers crush Maryville - Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Box Score

After two weeks of grinding road games, Kentucky Wesleyan College was ready for a little fun on the basketball court.

The No. 16 Panthers certainly found the opportunity on Thursday night.

Shooting 3s with abandon and getting up and down the court like an NBA game, KWC rolled to a 110-76 shootout victory against Maryville.

"It was a lot of fun, but we still had to come out and play hard," said Willlie Richardson, who led the Panthers with 17 points.

Richardson had one of the most memorable shots on the night when he made a steal, and took it by himself for a tomahawk slam that had the Sportscenter crowd of 2,000 howling in approval.

"I've had plenty of those," Richardson said about his circus dunk numbers for this season.

The 6-foot-2 junior out of New Orleans also pulled down eight rebounds and wasn't the only Panther enjoying himself on the offensive end of the court. He was one of seven Panthers reaching double figures in the scoring column.

Maros Zuffa had 15 points, hitting 4-of-6 from 3-point range.

"We had a lot of fun," Zuffa said. "That was good after the road trip we just took."

The Panthers went 4-1 on that swing and are 22-3 overall and 11-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Andree' Wilson was highly productive in 18 minutes, scoring 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting before fouling out with less than three minutes left.

Desmond Stephens finished with a double-double (13 points and 11 assists), while Chris Williams also put up 13 points, six rebounds, five assists, two blocked shots, two steals and three turnovers.

Kwan Waller got the Panthers going early on the way to 12 points. Making his second start, Waller had two athletic baskets early, scoring on a hustle follow-up, then getting a reverse on the break in KWC's next possession to put it up 19-9.

Marico Stinson scored 11 points for the Panthers.

Wesleyan did a good job getting the ball to open shooters, and the Panthers finished with 28 assists.

"We were doing a good job running the break and sharing the ball," KWC coach Todd Lee said.

The Panthers shot 53 percent from the floor (41-of-77) and 44 percent from 3-point range (12-of-27).

KWC found itself in a run-and-gun matchup nearly from the start. Maryville (2-20, 0-13) didn't have the personnel to be effective in the half court, so it went with the strategy of shoot quick, get the ball back and shoot quick again.

The Saints have given up 152 points to Missouri-St. Louis and 153 to the University of Southern Indiana.

"I didn't think we played good defense, but it was almost like they turned it over or scored," Lee said. "We gambled at times, and they scored some off that. If we stayed in front of them and pressured the ball, it was going to be tough for them to score."

Even without its best defensive execution, KWC still forced 25 turnovers and collected 14 steals, with Zuffa leading that category with four.

Eric Gruenewald led Maryville with 18 points. The Saints made 48 percent from the floor (28-of-58) and 9-of-25 on 3s for 36 percent.

Maryville's shooting from the floor was 10 percentage points better than its season average.

"We'll probably be working on defense," Stephens said of today's practice. "We might run a few plays, but probably we'll work on no offense at all."

Print Friendly Version