Panthers must be 'efficient' to defeat Northern - Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Game Notes

The Kentucky Wesleyan College men's basketball team is in a taking-care-of-business mode these days, and the next business to attend to is today's Great Lakes Valley Conference encounter with always-troublesome Northern Kentucky at the Sportscenter.

"This is another high-quality team coming in," KWC head coach Todd Lee said. "They don't turn the ball over, they have a nice mix of personnel, and they cause matchup problems.

"Northern plays great defense, and they run their offense in a way that can wear you down as the game goes on. They're a well-coached, talented basketball team."

The Norse (13-4, 6-3 GLVC) are coming off an 85-74 loss at No. 2 Bellarmine (17-1, 10-0) on Thursday night

Northern is led by 6-foot-3 senior point guard Malcolm Eleby, who averages team-highs of 13.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. Other double-digit scorers for the Norse include junior forward Bobby Shannon (11.3 ppg), senior guard Josh Tabb (11.1 ppg) and senior forward Chris Knight (10.2 ppg).

Against Bellarmine, Eleby produced 13 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. Tabb scored 14 points and Shannon 13.

"Eleby is what I call a 'stat-stuffer,' in that he can hurt you with points, rebounds and assists," Lee said. "He does a little bit of everything for them, and he does it well.

"With Eleby it's hard to know what to try to take away from his game. He's a well-rounded college basketball player."

NKU is shooting 49 percent from the field, including 38 percent from 3-point range, while holding its opponents to 40 percent shooting (34 percent from 3-point range). As always, Northern is one of the league's best free-throw shooting teams at 75 percent.

Northern is outscoring the opposition by 15 points per outing and outrebounding foes by three per game.

KWC (13-3, 6-3) -- ranked 17th nationally -- is coming off a solid 87-79 win over visiting Indianapolis on Thursday night.

In that contest, the Panthers got stellar performances from junior guard Cardell McFarland (25 points, six assists), junior forward Anthony Young (23 points, nine rebounds) and senior guard Kwan Waller (18 points, three assists, three steals).

"I thought we were highly efficient against a very good basketball team," said Lee, whose team turned the ball over only eight times. "We maximized our possessions, and that's something you really must do in our league.

"We came out ready to play, and, for the most part, we played well."

Young continues to lead the way for Wesleyan with averages of 20 points and nine rebounds per game. McFarland (17 ppg, 4 apg), Waller (13 ppg, 4 rpg) and Marseilles Stewart (10 ppg, 4 rpg) round out the Panthers' double-digit scorers.

The other KWC starter is senior forward Chris Williams (9 ppg, 5 rpg).

Lee said Wesleyan will need to be at its best at both ends of the court if it expects to win tonight.

"Against Northern, you've got to guard the ball," he said. "They do a good job of penetrating and dishing to players on the perimeter who are in good position to make the 3-point shot, so you can find yourself in between defensively against them.

"At our end on offense, we've got to make good decisions with the basketball and have as few empty possessions as possible. We've come a ways in terms of being efficient, and we'll need to be very efficient against Northern Kentucky."

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