Box Score
In a battle with Bloomfield College for a half, Kentucky Wesleyan turned it up a notch over the final 20 minutes to post a 99-85 come-from-behind victory and win the championship of the John Worth Insurance/Hampton Inn Owensboro Classic on Saturday night at the Sportscenter.
The No. 15 Panthers remained undefeated (4-0) and are off until Thursday, when they hit the road for a Great Lakes Valley Conference game against unbeaten Wisconsin-Parkside.
“I was proud of our guys for hanging in there and finding a way to get it done,” said KWC head coach Todd Lee, whose team trailed the Deacons 48-43 at intermission. “You score 43 points by halftime at home and you should be up, but we found ourselves trailing, so we knew we had to apply ourselves defensively in the second half.
“We were much better at both ends of the court, really, in the second half. I thought it was a good team victory — we had several guys contribute in several different ways.”
Bloomfield (2-4), an Elite Eight participant in last season's NCAA Division II Tournament, increased its lead to seven points on a Matt Wafula jumper just 21 seconds into the second half, before Wesleyan rallied.
The Panthers didn't take the lead until
Anthony Young hit a jumper at 13:46 to push KWC in front 62-60. Over the next two minutes,
Kreig Oxley netted two 3-pointers and was fouled on the second -- completing a four-point play -- to push Wesleyan in front 72-65.
The Deacons never recovered.
“Those were big shots by Kreig, and at the same time we were really picking up our defensive pressure,” Lee said. “Brandon (Johnson) did a really nice job, and Kreig himself did a very good job against their guards in the second half.
“We made them work harder to score, and I think that made all the difference. Our defense picked up our offense, and we just sort of took off from there against a very talented Bloomfield team.”
There were stars aplenty for Kentucky Wesleyan, including tournament Most Valuable Player
Cardell McFarland, a senior guard who produced 15 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Senior forward
Anthony Young, meanwhile, had 28 points and 13 rebounds -- hitting 6-of-10 floor shots, including two 3s, and going 14-of-19 from the foul stripe.
Other double-digit scorers for KWC were Johnson (18 points, four assists, four steals), Oxley (11 points) and
Dominique Dawson (10 points, seven rebounds).
The Panthers shot 52 percent from the field, including 8-of-16 accuracy from 3-point range, and connected on 33-of-43 free throws (77 percent).
Bloomfield also placed five players in the double-figure scoring column, led by standout point guard Ahmad Harris, who had 25 points, eight assists and four rebounds.
Steve Henderson added 15 points for the Deacons, netting 5-of-9 shots from 3-point range, and Kevin Udo secured a game-best 16 rebounds.
Bloomfield was limited to 32 percent shooting in the second half, but Lee said his team must continue to improve at the defensive end.
“That's where we need the most work,” Lee said. “We've got a lot of guys who can score the ball, we've got a lot of guys who can rebound the basketball, and now we need to develop into a team that has a lot of guys who can defend the basketball. We'll continue to work at it, and we'll get there.
“It's still early, but when you talk about going on the road in the GLVC, it takes excellent defense to win. On Monday, we'll go back to work looking to improve every day in practice.”
In Saturday's opener, Missouri-St. Louis downed Clark Atlanta, 80-61.
