Box Score
Kentucky Wesleyan College had to play to the final buzzer to pull out a 78-77 win over Kentucky State on Tuesday night in Frankfort.
The Panthers' Lucas Barker rebounded a missed free throw by Devan Crain with one second left, and the buzzer went off before any Kentucky State players could get to him.
The win lifted KWC to 20-8, and this was the 28th season that KWC has reached the magic 20-win mark.
In a lot of ways, the victory exemplified how the Panthers have had to fight through this entire season, according to KWC coach Happy Osborne.
"This is one of the most enduring season's I've been a part of," Osborne said on his postgame radio show with Joel Utley. "These dudes are growing on me. We've got to grind, we've got to work, and we've got to plug. They've just been resilient."
Lonnie Hayes led the way for KWC with a game-high 26 points, and he was extremely efficient from the free-throw line with 10-of-12 shooting. Hayes scored 21 points in the first half, and played 39 minutes.
KWC made 22-of-30 free throws as a team.
Dominique Dawson was the only other double-figure scorer for KWC with 12 points.
This was a game where neither team got much more than a fingertip away from each other. There were 12 ties and 16 lead changes in the contest.
KWC's largest lead was eight points and that was with 2:13 left in regulation. K-State closed the gap with a 6-0 run that left it 78-76 with seven seconds to play.
Rico Ferguson missed two free throws with six seconds to go, but Crain could only convert 1-of-2 free throws for the final score.
KWC made 27-of-50 shots from the floor for 54 percent in the game.
Antonio Sullivan scored 24 points to lead K-State (13-13).
The Panthers will now have a little more than a week off to prepare for the G-MAC Tournament.
