Box Score
Kentucky Wesleyan received a balanced scoring attack and, despite giving up a high field goal percentage, was able to defeat visiting Davis & Elkins, 98-75, Thursday night at the Sportscenter.
It was KWC's third win in a row and kept the Panthers' perfect record in Great Midwest Athletic Conference play intact.
"I felt like we could have finished it off earlier," Osborne said, whose team led by just four midway through the first half. "That part disappoints me. I think you can kind of see how I want to play and we're just not there yet in our traps and our gaps and that's just something we can improve in.
"But I thought there were several bright spots. Dominique (Dawson) was really good passing the ball. We ran a lot of things to him. I thought Lonnie had his best game in about a month."
Six players finished in double figures for the Panthers (10-6, 5-0 G-MAC), led by Dawson's 15 points and six rebounds.
Hayes added 14 points while Ken-Jah Bosley and Lucas Barker both added 13 apiece.
Lead 16-12, KWC went on an 11-3 run midway through the first half to take a 27-15 lead. They never looked back.
A 15-point halftime lead stretched to 23 after Ken-Jah Bosley buried back-to-back 3s to put the Panthers up, 72-49, with 11:40 left to play.
KWC eventually led by as many as 30.
Osborne remarked after the game that the Senators (8-6, 1-2 G-MAC) were a lot better than the score indicated and said he isn't looking forward to playing them at their place on Feb. 20.
A big reason for that was the 61.9 percent shooting clip that the Senators posted along with hitting six 3-pointers. Still, KWC forced 21 turnovers and turned them into 26 points.
"I hate that," Osborne said of Davis & Elkins' shooting percentage, "but we also got a lot of turnovers, too."
On the flip side of that was a sound offensive performance from the Panthers. On top of the four aforementioned players, sophomore Devin Langford added 12 points in 22 minutes and Donovan Johnson scored 11.
As a team, the Panthers shot 58.9 percent from the field and converted 25 of 35 free throws. The Panther bench outscored the Davis & Elkins bench, 40-21.
The stat that stood out to Osborne, however, was the rebounding. The Panthers won that battle, 29-21.
"They're one of the better rebounding teams in the league," Osborne said. "So winning the rebounding battle is good."
The win was No. 499 all-time for Osborne as a head coach. He'll be looking for his milestone 500th win at 3:15 p.m. Saturday against Alderson Broaddus, the only other team aside from KWC that's still unbeaten in G-MAC play.
"Alderson Broaddus, I think, has a tremendous coach," Osborne said of Battlers coach Greg Zimmerman. "We're going to be tested."
