Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

"We did a better job in the second half of playing defense, they wear down," KWC coach Todd Lee said. "They're not real deep. We tried to rotate guys in during the first half. If you look at their scores, they don't have a very good record, but they were playing people close at home. Even being down one at half, I didn't feel that bad, we just needed to put pressure on them defensively."

The Panthers got balanced scoring production from three players in Lebanon, Ill.

Dazmond Starke and Kreig Oxley each scored 17 points to lead the Panthers, who are 18-6, 10-6 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Starke came off the bench to go 7-for13 from the floor in a busy 18 minutes.

Oxley was 6-of-11 from the floor including 2-of-6 on 3-point shots in 29 minutes. KWC struggled from long range, hitting just 3-for-13 on 3-pointers.

Dominique Dawson was very good inside for KWC, scoring 15 points and making 7-of-11 shots from the field, while pulling down six rebounds. Dawson was 5-for-5 in the second half.

Rico Ferguson was the fourth double-figure scorer for KWC with 10 points. Ferguson made all four of his floor shots.

KWC was facing a team that has now lost 14 straight games, but McKendree (7-19, 1-15) had plenty of fight early in this game. KWC trailed much of the first half until Starke scored on a layup at the 8:17 mark. It was back and forth between the teams to the end of the half.

A Lucas Barker 3-point shot at the halftime buzzer cut McKendree's lead to 36-35.

The final 10 minutes belonged to KWC, which shot 63 percent in the second half (22-of-35) and 53.7 percent for the game (36-of-67).

"We did a good job, especially in the second half, of post players finishing inside," Lee said. "The biggest thing was keeping up the defensive intensity."

The Panthers wait for No. 15 Bellarmine on Saturday in a key Great Lakes Valley Conference game.

"This was more of a game you have to win, you can't go on the road and lose to a team without a good record," Lee said. "This makes Saturday and next Thursday (at Southern Indiana) more important."