KWC looks to regroup tonight - Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Game Notes

Kentucky Wesleyan College now finds out how it handles the first loss of the regular season.

The No. 1 Panthers rolled to Jan. 15 without a defeat in 14 games, but they had a tough time several phases and fell at the University of Southern Indiana 72-59.

KWC coach Todd Lee admitted he was curious to see how the Panthers would respond tonight when Saint Joseph's comes to the Sportscenter for a 7:30 p.m. game.

“You look for patterns from a team, and we have never had this before,” Lee said of being undefeated this deep into the season. “I don't know how they will react. We tried to make sure they understood why we lost.”

Mainly, KWC went away from its offensive basics against a Screaming Eagle defense that was tough to drive against.

“Southern Indiana a very good defensive team,” Lee said. “But we didn't play the right way against their defense. We didn't run our offense, we didn't share the ball.

“It wasn't anything really technical, but it was more of an approach we took. The guys seemed to understand, and they admitted they didn't play the right way.”

KWC's offense became so 1-on-1 oriented that Lee didn't recognize how the team was playing at times.

“When you're not doing the fundamentals correctly … you have to do the fundamentals to even have the opportunity to compete,” Lee said. “Part of it was guys going off on their own, but the main thing is we need to move the ball.”

KWC charted possession time of its team and USI from film, and USI had 24 minutes of possessions to 16 for KWC.

“That's eight minutes we were playing defense longer than they were, and that's what it felt like,” Lee said.

St. Joe's comes in 8-9 and 1-6 in the GLVC. Dayvon Sloan has shown great shooting ability in the Sportscenter before. As a freshman, Sloan scored 45 points in St. Joe's 104-103 triple overtime victory against Quincy in the 2010 Midwest Region championship game at the Sportscenter.

The junior guard averages 16.7 points a game.

Phillip Collins averages 14.9 points a game for the Pumas.

• Ironically, KWC came off the loss at USI to find itself ranked No. 1 in the sixth weekly National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 men's basketball poll.

The ranking criteria for this week's poll went through last Sunday's games and didn't include the USI result. The Panthers were 14-0 and the last unbeaten team in Division II heading into the USI game.

This is the 52nd week, a Division II record, the Panthers have earned the No. 1 spot and the 323rd time in the Top 25 since the rankings started in 1961. KWC's last time at No. 1 was March 4, 2003.

Following KWC in the poll are Great Lakes Valley Conference foes No. 2 Bellarmine, No. 7 Southern Indiana, No. 9 Northern Kentucky plus fellow Midwest Region member No. 14 Hillsdale. Records and previous rankings are through Jan. 15 games.

KWC hosts Indianapolis (12-3, 5-2) on Saturday at 3:15.

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