Box Score
There was plenty of talk about Devin Langford's potential from the day he signed with Kentucky Wesleyan.
The 6-foot-7 sophomore forward who transferred from the University of Illinois over the summer validated that talk Thursday night. Langford scored a game and career-high 25 points to go along with eight rebounds, leading KWC to a 78-66 road win over Cedarville without coach Happy Osborne on the sideline.
sborne was suspended for Thursday's game as a result of his ejection from a Dec. 21 game at Southern Indiana.
"We've always known that Devin had that in him," said associate head coach George Hemmingsen, who filled in for Osborne Thursday night. "Like we talked about earlier today, just that week of preparation with two-a-days for Devin to learn our system and get comfortable with everything — once he's comfortable, I think the sky's the limit. You saw what he can do night in and night out."
A 24-6 run late in the second half was what put the Panthers ahead for good. KWC improved to 8-6 with the win and moved to 3-0 in Great Midwest Athletic Conference play. It was also the first road win of the year for the Panthers.
Despite the double-digit margin in the final score, KWC didn't have its way with the Yellow Jackets (1-11, 0-1 G-MAC) until midway through the second half.
Cedarville actually took a 42-40 lead with 15:28 left to play — it's only lead of the game. That was when KWC started to hit the gas pedal.
An alley-oop from Ken-Jah Bosley to Langford capped an 8-0 run to put KWC up, 48-42, with 13:13 left to play, but Cedarville responded with a 6-2 run of its own.
But KWC's defensive pressure and fast break offense was too much for an inexperienced Cedarville team.
The Panthers went on their 24-6 run after falling behind, 42-40, over an eight-minute stretch the ended with a Lonnie Hayes layup that put KWC up, 64-48, with 7:33 left to play. There was also a 14-0 run inside of that larger run.
Langford keyed that run with several inside buckets and dunks. He was 11-of-15 the field and also had two steals, two assists and a block in 30 minutes of action. It was also his first start of the season.
"We got up and down and pressed and that's really my style of game – up and running," Langford said. "It was real good. We shared the ball good. Going in to the game, Coach talked to us about playing our style of game."
Hemmingsen attributed the close margin for the first 30 minutes to a but of rustiness following the team's long break between games.
"In the second half, (Cedarville) got that two-point lead and we regrouped," he said. "We had a great lineup in with Donovan Johnson, Devin Langford, Dominique Dawson, Lucas Barker and Ken-Jah Bosley. That's when we made a real big run. You can't speak highly enough about how Devin came out today offensively and defensively."
It wasn't just Langford doing the damage, though. Bosley scored 19 points and had three steals while Lonnie Hayes scored 17 points. The Panthers shot 47.3 percent from the field and dominated in the paint, outscoring Cedarville, 36-12 near the rim.
KWC also forced the Yellow Jackets into 15 turnovers while committing just 10.
Now the Panthers look to make it two-in-a-row on the road with a game on Saturday just down the road at Central State. Osborne spent his one-game suspension at the Marauders' game against Trevecca Nazarene Thursday to scout them in advance.
"It was a good, overall team win," Hemmingsen said. "Give a lot of credit to coach Happy Osborne. He prepared us. We still need our leader. He prepared us – our staff and our team for today. When we walked out of that hotel, he had complete confidence in us to get the job done today."
