Panthers take on motivated Northern - Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Kentucky Wesleyan College will be facing an inspired Northern Kentucky team when they meet tonight in the semifinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament at Illinois-Springfield.

The No. 3 Panthers hammered Northern Kentucky 80-60 in their last regular season meeting on Feb. 13 at the Sportscenter. That was after NKU beat KWC 67-62 on Jan. 21 in Highland Heights.

"We just beat them by 20, so they've got a lot of motivation," KWC coach Todd Lee said earlier this week. "This is going to be a very tough game."

The winner tonight will face the winner of the second semifinal between Bellarmine and Drury at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

The Panthers (28-3) made some great defensive strides from the first to the second matchup with NKU, which helped fuel that second victory.

KWC did a much better job on outside shooter Dennis Gagai at the Sportscenter, limiting him to just three points in 22 minutes. Center David Palmer, a 6-foot-9 senior transfer, still got 15 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots, but it did not do significant damage.

Gagai went off for 15 points, on 5-of-7 3-point shooting, in the NKU victory. Gagai had been ineligible before that matchup. The Norse also got 15 points from Palmer and 13 from Scott Bibbins.

"It was a big difference playing against Palmer in the middle when you surround him with shooters," Lee said.

Palmer is the only NKU player averaging in double figures at 17 points. Gagai and Chris Knight each are scoring nearly 10 points a game.

NKU (17-12) has had significant success against KWC under Coach Dave Bezold. KWC broke a 12-game winning streak Bezold and the Norse had with the victory in their last meeting.

KWC will have to concentrate heavily on Palmer this time while not letting Gagai and NKU's other outside shooters get going.

"Northern runs their offense deep into the shot clock, they don't take back shots and they don't turn it over," Lee said. "It's going to be interesting."

Another huge difference for the Panthers in the second game was the scoring of Willie Richardson, who went 7-of-10 from the floor for 19 points. That was the last game that Richardson, a 6-2 junior, didn't start for the Panthers.

He has hit double figures in three of the last four games for KWC, the top-ranked team in the region.

Few teams have been able to slow down the Panthers' ultra-quick offense. Their shooting percentage has not been that great overall (46) but they have have been scoring a lot of points (83 a game), which is second in the GLVC. The Panthers also have the second-best defense in the league, holding opponents to 65 points a game. That scoring margin of plus-17.6 is sixth best in NCAA Division II. Their work on the glass has been outstanding as they have outrebounded opponents by 7.7 a game, which is tops in the GLVC and 12th best in Division II.

KWC point guard Desmond Stephens has scored 17.7 points a game and is first in the conference in both assist average (6.6 a game) and steal average (2.2).

Panther forward Chris Williams is averaging 11 points a game.

"We want to win the conference tournament," Richardson said. "But that's not our main goal. All of our minds are on winning the (NCAA Division II) championship."

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