When it rains it pours, and the Kentucky Wesleyan basketball team is enduring a shower to start the 2013-14 season.
The No. 12 Panthers, amid player suspensions and a mysterious absence of starting point guard
Freddie Young, suffered a 78-71 road loss on Saturday at Young Harris.
KWC's second straight loss drops the Panthers to 1-2 this season and under .500 in the regular season for the first time since 2009.
"I hurt for them," first-year coach Happy Osborne said after the game. "We've just got to keep plugging. We've got to be more physical on the glass. We talked about transition all week. We gave up 28 points in transition and we gave up 14 offensive rebounds which converted into 20 more points."
The Panthers led by two points on two occasions, but otherwise trailed the entire game. Young Harris (2-0) led by as many as 11 points.
KWC got into foul trouble early and was whistled for 10 fouls before the first half was even halfway done, and by the end of the game the Panthers sent the Mountain Lions to the line 41 times. Young Harris converted just 20 of those attempts, but KWC was never able to capitalize.
The Panthers shot a frigid 35.9 percent from the field and were just 3-of-23 (13 percent) on 3-point attempts.
Meanwhile, Young Harris shot 44 percent and had four players score in double figures.
KWC responded from a 37-31 halftime deficit to tie the game at 46-46 with 15:15 left to play, but Young Harris responded with a 12-4 run which became a 15-5 run after a KWC turnover followed by a 3 from Herdie Lawrence.
Lawrence led Young Harris with 26 points and hit five of the team's six 3-pointers.
That sequence put Young Harris up, 61-51, with 8:18 and the Mountain Lions stretched it to 64-53 with 6:54 left to play after a three-point play from Kevin Altidor. Altidor scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.
KWC was only able to cut the lead as slim as five points after that, and that came with 25 seconds left to play.
Senior Lonnie Hayes, fresh off a school-record 57 points, was back at it?again with 29 to lead KWC. He was the only scorer in double figures for KWC, though. Rico Ferguson, who earned the start with the Young's absence, scored nine points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Senior Dominique Dawson scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds. Junior Jake Jenkins, who made his first career start at KWC, scored three points. Senior James Herzog scored eight points and freshman Ken-Jah Bosley had seven.
Osborne remarked that he needs more scoring from those two and others for the Panthers, who are trying to absorb the loss of three starters and the likely sixth man. Seniors Alex Brown and Donovan Johnson and sophomore Devin Langford did not make the trip along with Young as they're still serving an indefinite suspenspion for an undisclosed violation of institutional policy.
Due to the defections, Osborne pulled the redshirt from freshman Logan O'Bryan, a former Daviess County High School standout. O'Bryan made his KWC debut on Saturday, scoring four points and grabbing two rebounds in 13 minutes of action.
"Logan O'Bryan, I hated to take the redshirt off of him but you see why we did it," Osborne said. "We need his speed and his athleticism. Logan O'Bryan has had four days of offense. He's been on defense for two months."
O'Bryan said his workload in practice started ramping up on Monday and he officially found out on Thursday that he'd be playing Saturday.
"I was just happy," O'Bryan said. "I thank God that I was able to play because I'm a basketball player and it's hard to sit out and all that."
KWC now faces the task of hosting No. 18 Southern Indiana on Tuesday in the first non-conference game between the two long-time rivals.
The Panthers will do so ready to curb the adversity that's hit them to begin the season.
"I walk out of that locker room and Lonnie (Hayes) is like, 'I don't want to lose, coach. I'm so tired of losing,'" Osborne said. "I look at Ken-Jah and Ken-Jah's got tears in his eyes. These kids, they deserve better. They've got to keep plugging and know they're guys who have done the right things.
"They haven't given up. They haven't quit on anybody. They just need to persevere through. All I know right now is to be as supportive of them as I can be. They're my kids and I'm going to hang in there with them."
