Box Score Kentucky Wesleyan was making one final push, down 67-60 with 1:56 left to play against No. 9 Southern Indiana at the PAC Arena, when everything took a turn for the worse in a matter of seconds.
Donovan Johnson was whistled for a foul, which sent first-year coach Happy Osborne into a fury on the sideline. He was given a technical foul, then a second one just moments later for continuing to yell at the referees and was ejected from the game.
The KWC bench then picked up a third technical foul. What resulted was eight consecutive free throw attempts for USI, followed by a ninth one after a lane violation.
USI's Orlando Rutledge shot all nine attempts and made just two of them, but without its coach and the momentum solely in USI's possession, KWC was never able to bounce back and lost, 80-68, to snap a six-game winning streak.
"Did I mean for that to happen? No," Osborne said of his costly and untimely ejection, which was met with a rousing applause from the USI faithful. "But I said the same words to (the referees) that I'd said all night long. But there it is. I didn't think it was deserving of a technical. They called one. I got my money's worth. I've got no regrets."
Per NCAA rules, Osborne is suspended for KWC's next game, which is on Jan. 2 at Cedarville.
That sequence was the culmination of an entire game in which KWC was never able to capitalize on any stretches of momentum.
USI (8-0) answered seemingly every KWC run and led from start to finish.
Whatever gas KWC had left in the tank was let out when the three technical fouls were called. Lonnie Hayes picked up another one about a minute later, but the game was well in hand by that point.
"When something like that happens, it's so out of the blue and it just sort of throws you off," senior forward James Herzog said. "At that point, we were just trying to get any bucket we could to get into our press and make something happen but just couldn't get it done."
Meanwhile, even after making just 2-of-9 free throw attempts that could have iced the game, USI continued to force KWC into bad shots and was able to close out the game.
"Our guys did a good job of keeping composure when the game got disrupted," USI coach Rodney Watson said.
Osborne acknowledged it was an inopportune time to pick up the technicals, but justified his displeasure with the calls officials were making.
"I felt like all night long, they touched us and we weren't getting calls," Osborne said. "I thought Lonnie (Hayes) was driving to the hole and they're calling fouls 38 feet from the goal. Call fouls going to the rim."
"I've never gotten close to this in my life," he said. "At Georgetown, I may have had three technicals in 15 years. That's how bad I thought it was."
Regardless, KWC wasn't able to stop USI as five Eagles finished in double figures, led by a double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds) from forward Aaron Nelson. The Eagles shot 55.8 percent from the field compared to 36.8 percent from KWC and won the rebounding battle, 38-25.
USI was 30-of-46 on free throws while KWC was 20-of-28. The Panthers were also just 2-of-8 on 3-point attempts.
Individually, Ken-Jah Bosley led KWC with 16 points. Lonnie Hayes added 12 points and Dominique Dawson scored 10.
USI started the game with a 9-1 run, which continued to grow. KWC never got any closer than seven points in the first half and the Eagles led by as many as 14.
The Panthers never got any closer than five in the second half.
"I think first of all, in the first half, there was a time we had a chance to assert ourselves a little more and we continually missed open shots," Osborne said. "We've got to play through contact. We got off to a slow start. We kept plugging. I thought we had the game where we wanted it."
There was a sequence midway through the second half where junior Patrick Neel blocked a Ben Jones and got the ball to bounce off of Jones out of bounds. He answered that with a 3 and it appeared KWC was gaining momentum again, down 47-42 with 9:46 left.
On the next sequence, Rutledge buried a 3 to put USI up 50-42 and, again, kill KWC's momentum.
"It was that kind of day," Herzog said. "We were able to make some big plays, we just couldn't string stops together. That's what you've got to do to do – at least three. Once you get that, you get the ball rolling but we couldn't do that."
