Box Score
Bouncing back from a loss at Trevecca during the weekend, the Kentucky Wesleyan men's basketball team used quality defense and rebounding determination to shut down Central State for a 65-56 win on Thursday at the Sportscenter.
KWC held the Marauders to 33 percent shooting (19-of-57) for the game, including 28.6 percent (8-of-28) in the first half, and outrebounded Central State 42-31. Meanwhile, the Panthers shot 42.4 percent (25-of-59) for the game.
Ken-Jah Bosley, who missed the Panthers' last two practices with a sprained ligament, led KWC (16-6, 5-3 in G-MAC) with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field, including 2-of-5 from 3-point, off the bench. Basil Deveaux, who started in place of Bosley, finished with a career-high 12 points.
Point guard Marcus Fillyaw added six points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals for the Panthers.
Raheem Lemons led the Marauders (15-8, 7-2) with 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Masceo Harmon scored 17 points. Ra'Chaun Thompson chipped in 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.
Second-year KWC coach Happy Osborne credited his team's energy and effort for the victory.
"We held them to 33 percent, that's why we won," he said. "We outrebounded them by 11, and that was good.
"I thought our man-to-man worked. Masceo Harmon is hard on dribble penetration, so we went and played zone, and I thought that was really good -- our 2-2-1 press into 2-3 zone. And our kids fought, that's the main thing. We got in there and we fought. We just kept plugging, kept going, and I thought that was huge for us."
Deveaux said starting the game didn't factor into his play, but his teammates' encouragement did.
"I knew that starting, I needed to step up to help my team win, and I basically tried to do that tonight," said Deveaux, who also reeled in six rebounds in helping the Panthers' advantage on the boards. "Rebounding comes from the heart, and I take it really personally when I try to get a rebound."
KWC led 38-23 at halftime behind a 20-8 scoring advantage in the paint and 15-1 on points off turnovers, but Central State opened the second half on a 6-0 run and cut the lead to 42-36 on a Jeremy Brown layup six minutes later.
The Panthers didn't falter, however, and battled back with a 17-8 run to take its largest lead of the game at 59-44 on a Bosley jumper with 4:22 left in the game. From there, KWC had no trouble holding on for the win, which Osborne said came down to "intestinal fortitude."
"If everybody had that -- Ken-Jah's got that, Basil Deveaux's got that, Marcus Fillyaw's got that, Pat Neel's got that -- if it would be contagious, that would mean so much," Osborne said. "It was a really good bounce-back effort."
Deveaux said he could see Thursday's game as a chance to close out the schedule on a positive note.
"We know that we're a good team and we know we shouldn't have lost any game, but it is what it is," Deveaux said. "We're just going to focus on taking it one game at a time and try to finish the season strong."
