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Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

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KWC plays tough in loss
Brandon Johnson drives to the basket for two of his 12 points at No. 10 Pittsburgh on Monday night. Photo by Pete Madia. University of Pittsburgh Photo Services.

KWC plays tough in loss

Box Score
Kentucky Wesleyan College showed Monday night that it can play with a lot of NCAA Division I men's basketball teams.

The NCAA Division II Panthers played well against the Big East Panthers, but No. 10 Pitt prevailed 76-67 at Pitt's Petersen Events Center.

KWC trailed 67-48 earlier in the second half, but put together a strong run to make the game competitive over the last five minutes. KWC cut the lead to seven (74-67) inside the final minute on a traditional 3-point play by Cardell McFarland.

“To come into this environment, and come back and cut it to seven, it says a lot for our team,” KWC coach Todd Lee said. “They were still playing their top eight.”

That top eight was led by Lamar Patterson with 22 points. Ashton Gibbs, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, was tough for KWC to handle on the way to 20 points and four assists in 29 minutes.

“We played really well in the first half,” Lee said. “We controlled a good portion of it. We lost track of Gibbs a couple of times at the end of the half and he made a couple of 3s. Gibbs is a very smart player. He makes shots. He plays at his own pace and he understands the game.”

KWC struggled shooting against the bigger Pitt team. KWC made 22-of-56 from the floor for 39 percent. KWC was 5-of-19 on 3-pointers for 26 percent.

“We missed a lot of open 3s,” Lee said.

McFarland led KWC with 16 points and was 8-of-11 from the free-throw line. Brandon Johnson had a strong all-around game with 12 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.

“Brandon played extremely hard and he hustled,” Lee said. KWC is ranked No. 15 in Division II.

Lee and Pitt coach Jamie Dixon have been friends since their days as assistant coaches at Northern Arizona (Dixon) and UC-Irvine (Lee).

“We went up against a team that was very hungry,” Dixon said. “They played very hard and I think we got something out of it. They are a team that we knew was good. They were experienced and Kentucky Wesleyan basketball has a lot of history, and we know we played a very good team.”

Lee thought KWC played better against Pitt than it did in its first exhibition at South Carolina.

“Pitt will be one of the best teams in the Big East,” Lee said. “We can run offense against Pitt. They will guard you, but you can still run your offense and get shots for your guys.”

KWC opens the regular season on Nov. 19 against Asbury at 3:15 p.m. at the Sportscenter.

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