Box Score
There was plenty of hype surrounding Thursday's game between No. 5 Indianapolis and No. 4 Kentucky Wesleyan.
In the end, it was the Panthers who answered the bell.
KWC (13-0, 5-0 Great Lakes Valley Conference) put together arguably its best performance of the year in what was certainly its toughest test of the season to defeat the Greyhounds (12-1, 4-1 GLVC), 79-69, at the Sportscenter.
The Panthers never trailed the entire game and held Indy's leading scorer, Reece Cheatham, scoreless in the first half as they built a lead.
"I thought we defended in the first half," coach Todd Lee said. "To hold them to 32 percent shooting (in the first half)…that was one of our better halves defensively."
KWC didn't have any particularly big runs but was able to limit the amount of Indy runs. It also helped that the Panthers were able to win the rebounding battle 37-25. The Greyhounds went on a 10-2 run to bring the game within six with 4:54 left to play, but KWC never let it get any closer.
The Panthers were able to fend off Indy at the free throw line late as Rico Ferguson, who played perhaps his best game of the season with 19 points and five rebounds, hit two free throws to put KWC up 77-67 with under a minute to play. That put the game on ice as Indy elected not to foul.
The Greyhounds got within seven several times in the final few minutes, but KWC was able to maintain its lead.
Lucas Barker hit two free throws to give KWC a 72-63 with 2:55 left, but Cheatham answered with a long 3-pointer on the other end for Indy to make it 72-66 just seconds later. Cheatham finished with 21 points, all of which came in the second half.
KWC's J.D. Danforth then traveled after receiving the in-bounds pass, keeping the momentum with Indy. But the Greyhounds spoiled the chance and weren't able to score. Barker was fouled and made one free throw to make it 73-66, then Donovan Johnson buried two free throws later to make 75-66 in favor of KWC with 1:40 left to play to essentially seal the win.
Ferguson seemed to be the spark for the Panthers any time they needed a basket. He was able to get into the lane, create shots and draw fouls. He scored nine points in the first half and 10 in the second to provide KWC with a lift off the bench in both halves.
"Rico is one of the guys that can go get you a basket," Lee said. "He's getting better. Sometimes you need a guy who, if everything breaks down, can just take his man and go get in the lane. I thought he played well tonight."
Ferguson was happy with his offensive performance, but he said the main theme on Thursday for him and the team was dominating on defense.
"Our whole focus tonight was defense," he said. "A couple times we didn't score like four times in a row, but we stopped them on defense. So that really worked out for us. Our offense tonight was just a plus…but for the majority of the game, we did good on defense."
Lee talked after Tuesday's practice and said he was concerned about his teams' mentality heading into Thursday's game and was worried about the success affecting him. Ferguson said the team had a really good practice on Wednesday, but Lee said he was still surprised with how stingy his team played on defense against a good offensive team.
"Every group's different," Lee said. "The one thing that I like about this group is that they are competitive. But, we still need to grow in our preparation. We still need to get better handling success and getting to work. A lot of it's the new guys, it's not the returners, which you'd expect. It's not that they're doing anything real wrong, it's just that they're not as tight as you'd like them to be."
Lee maintained that he and his team would acknowledge Thursday's win as a quality win, but would leave it at that, not trying to get too high or too low based on one game. With that, he said, the focus is now on Saturday's game against St. Joseph's, which lost at No. 15 Southern Indiana on Thursday night, 90-81.
"We talked about (in the locker room) after the game that's one out of three for the homestand," Lee said. "Obviously we've got to come back (Friday) for practice and be focused and do a good job of taking care of the process and getting ready to play."
