Box Score
While the first half of Saturday's contest served as a defensive exhibition for the Kentucky Wesleyan men's basketball team, the second half was a model of offensive efficiency.
The Panthers, who limited Michigan Tech to just 15 points on 33-percent shooting at halftime, made 70.4 percent of their shot attempts after the break in defeating the Huskies 69-51 in the KWC Classic finale at the Sportscenter.
KWC (6-1) attacked the rim with urgency in the second half, converting 19-of-27 shots and scoring 26 points in the paint. The Panthers finished with 40 paint points for the game.
The Huskies (1-2) also picked up their second-half pace, making 59 percent (13-of-22) of their attempts after halftime to finish at 46.5 percent for the game, but third-year KWC coach Happy Osborne said it's a result he can live with against such an offensive-minded team.
"You're not always going to hold a team that can score like that to 33 percent," Osborne said. "I think we had a little bit of a letdown in the second half, but I thought we really picked it up (offensively), too.
"To be honest, I didn't know we'd beat them by 18 points, but I'll take it. As much as I want to be an up-tempo team, I like 69-51. I really like 51, gosh, I like 51. The score was 25-15 at halftime, and we knew it wouldn't be 50-30, because they're too good offensively for that."
Osborne said he was pleased with most of his players' efforts, not just the scoring aspect.
"Very active, 12 rebounds speaks for itself," he said of Jacks. "I thought he was really good.
"I thought Marcus Fillyaw had his best game. At halftime, the guy he was guarding was 1-for-9. That was huge. Basil Deveaux sparked us majorly in the first half, I can't say enough about him. I thought Jermaine Morgan was good, and I thought it was Marcus Fuggins' best game since he's been here."
The Huskies were led by Kyle Monroe, who scored 23 of his game-high 26 points in the second half, and Bryan Heath, who had 11 points in spite of a 4-of-17 shooting performance.
Heath scored six consecutive points to cut KWC's lead to 34-27 nearly five minutes into the second half, but the Panthers responded with a 26-7 run over the course of the next 10 minutes. Langford's 3-pointer with 5:56 left in the game gave KWC its largest lead at 60-34, and the Huskies never recovered.
Saturday's game was the seventh in two weeks for the Panthers, and Osborne said he'll be glad to finally get in the practice gym.
"Now we get to practice and get better," he said. "We need that. There's a lot more we can fix. There's a lot more we can add. I'm looking forward to practice."
The Panthers get a chance to rest some before a Dec. 6 home matchup against Bluefield State. With it being a Sunday game, Osborne urged KWC fans to come out in bunches.
"I appreciated our fans tonight, I thought we had a good crowd and a lot of noise," he said. "Now we need our fans to get out and tell people. Next Sunday, what's going? Just pro football and us. Hopefully we can get some more people in here."
