Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

The No. 23 Panthers fell, 75-70, to visiting Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday night to suffer their fifth loss in six games.

After erasing an 11-point halftime deficit, KWC missed on a late game-tying 3-point shot and took its second loss to Parkside this season.

"We dug ourselves too big a hole in the first half," KWC coach Todd Lee said. "We never really defended great the whole game. We had stretches in the second half where we defended pretty well."

The Panthers (15-5, 7-5 Great Lakes Valley Conference) stormed all the way back after trailing Parkside (15-5, 10-2 GLVC) as many as 13 to get within one point three times in the final six minutes.

Kreig Oxley hit a long 3-pointer after a mini Parkside run to make it a 69-64 game and perhaps keep KWC within striking distance with 2:56 left to play.

KWC eventually cut it to one two times after that, but the Parkside lead went back to three after Bryant Smith made two free throws with 16 seconds left following a missed jumper by Lucas Barker.

With no timeouts left, KWC ran a play that left Donovan Johnson wide open for a 3-pointer in the corner. It was as good a look as KWC could have hoped for, but the shot bounced off the iron and was batted around.

Cornbread Walker tried to corral the ball off the ground on the wing but couldn't get a handle on it and watched it trickle out of bounds. Parkside was then able to ice the game with two free throws.

"The previous play to get an open 3, we ran it exactly how we needed to run it," Lee said. "We had the option of (Oxley) in the corner and then we turned and screened Lucas' man and it was wide open. We couldn't ask for a better look.

"With no timeouts, we were just going to set a ball screen and get a pitch and see if we could get something. It just so happened that they helped a little bit off Donovan and he got a wide open look. You've got to make shots."

Making shots is what Parkside did well on Thursday, particularly Grandstaff. The Rangers shot 55 percent from the field and made 10-of-19 3-pointers.

The scouting report on Grandstaff said not to let his statistics fool the players, that he can shoot from anywhere. He came into
Thursday's game having made 13 3s all season and went 6-of-9 against KWC. He and freshman Andy Mazurczak, who scored 13 points, stepped up in place of the GLVC's top scorer, Jeremy Saffold, who scored just seven points — all in the first half.

KWC got 20 points and six rebounds from Dazmond Starke, but went 6-of-14 on 3s as a team.

With Southern Indiana and Bellarmine both losing as well Thursday night, Parkside stands alone atop the GLVC East standings.

"We're at home and we gave up 55 percent. On the road, at their place, we held them to 40 percent," Lee said. "The disappointing thing is we had a week to prepare. We had them down cold what they were going to do…we just let (Grandstaff) and (Andy Mazurczak) beat us."