Game Notes
It's gotten to a point where it's imperative that Kentucky Wesleyan quickly finds a way to win games on the road.
The Panthers have lost three of their five road games this season and play four out of their final five regular season games on the road. Whatever postseason games KWC plays in will also be away from the friendly confines of the Sportscenter.
That stretch of road games starts Thursday at Saint Joseph's when KWC plays the Pumas at 5:30 p.m.
There's perhaps even more urgency than before now that the Panthers have lost six of their last seven games and slipped out of the Top 25 for the first since early November after peaking at No. 3.
"Even when we were winning, every game is so important in our league," coach Todd Lee said. "You get the losing streak, and it feels like the pressure is building to win. I think our guys understand how important it is. We've got four of five on the road. It's a tough stretch, but I know our guys understand it."
Lee said the way to win on the road is to have a tough-minded veteran team. Whether this KWC team is tough-minded is up for debate, but even Lee would admit there's not an abundance of veteran presence on this year's squad.
KWC (15-6, 7-6 Great Lakes Valley Conference) features six new faces, and its four leading scorers are all first-year players in the program.
On paper, it bodes well for the struggling Panthers to play a team like Saint Joseph's (6-14, 4-9 GLVC) that they had success against, winning 92-58 on Jan. 19 at the Sportscenter.
Lee said no matter the opponent, he looks at any road game as if his team already has an uphill climb.
"We've won the league before and went 16-2, and the way I approached a road game when we're 15-2 and 14-2 is we're going to upset somebody at home," Lee said. "It doesn't matter who it is. That's just the mindset you have to have. You're on the road, you're the underdog. It doesn't matter how good you are. You've got to go in there and you've got to scrap, claw, fight. You're not going to get as many calls. It's tough."
As if trying to snap out of a losing skid on the road wasn't enough, the Panthers may very well have to do it without the contributions of two key players.
Junior forward Donovan Johnson (9.1 points, 5.2 rebounds per game) and junior guard J.D. Danforth (7.3 points, 3.3 rebounds per game) are both questionable due to injuries. Johnson hurt his shoulder during Saturday's 67-64 loss to Lewis, while Danforth injured his back during Monday's practice when he fell during a drill.
Lee sounded more hopeful that Danforth's back would loosen up, but said Johnson was "pretty limited." Both will likely be game-time decisions.
"We need everybody to play. But if you can't play, then it's the next guy up," Lee said. "We've talked about it before. We've got other guys who have to step up. Unfortunately, right now, there's nobody that's playing great from a percentage standpoint the last six or seven games, other than maybe Dazmond (Starke). Defensively, there's some issues.
"We've got to go and play well on the road if we're going to compete, and we need everybody to step up. We'll see if those guys are healthy. If they're not, then we'll go with who is."
The Panthers face a Saint Joseph's team that Lee essentially described as pesky.
"What they do is there's not one guy on their team that you have to stop," he said. "They play hard all the time, whether they're up 20 or down 20. They push the ball. They shoot a lot of 3s. They play a lot of guys. They can compete extremely hard. They've always been extremely tough beat at their place. It's a tough place to play."
