Game Notes
The tone coming from the Kentucky Wesleyan basketball camp has undoubtedly shifted 180 degrees from what it was less than a month ago.
After starting off 14-0, the No. 23 Panthers have lost five out of their last six games.
They rose to as high as No. 3 in the Top 25, but are now looking to just build any kind of momentum they can as the regular season heads toward its final stretch.
KWC (15-5, 7-5 Great Lakes Valley Conference) will look to do just that against visiting Lewis (13-7, 7-5 GLVC) at 3:15 p.m. Saturday at the Sportscenter.
"Any win right now is very important," coach Todd Lee said. "The game (Thursday) was very important. This is a big game. We're playing in our division and we've obviously struggled."
Lewis already got KWC's number the first time around, a 75-71 win on Jan. 24 in Romeoville, Ill. The Flyers are coming off a 63-59 win at Southern Indiana on Thursday night.
The Flyers are led by Ryan Jackson (17.1 points per game) and David Bryant (11.6 points per game).
KWC did a good job on Jackson in the first meeting, holding him to just nine points. It was the role players who did damage, though.
Bryant went off for 19 points and hit four 3-pointers, and freshman forward Kyle Nelson scored 13 points. Julian Lewis also added 14.
KWC has defended their opponents' top scorers fairly well during this recent stretch of losses, but allowed other players to beat them. It's happened in just about every game that they've lost with the exception of Bellarmine.
"When you're not playing well, that happens," Lee said. "We try to take away their strengths, or the best one or two moves that they have…no matter if it's the leading scorer, second leading scorer. We try to make them take their lower percentage shots."
Lee admitted his team did a poor job defending Bryant in the first meeting. He said a big part of that was not getting through the screens that Lewis was setting for him.
He added that Dominique Dawson and Dazmond Starke will need to play better in the post this time around against Nelson.
"We've got to defend much better than we did on Thursday and better than the last time we played them," Lee said. "I would say that's the biggest thing — defending and having a sense of urgency. We need to pay attention to the scouting report. They've got some really good players."
