Box Score
The Kentucky Wesleyan men's basketball team experienced a setback in its quest for a conference regular-season title with a 71-58 loss to Alderson Broaddus on Thursday night in Philippi, West Virginia.
The Panthers (18-7, 7-4 in G-MAC) made just 18-of-59 shots from the floor for a 30.5 shooting percentage and just 4-of-20 from 3-point range for 20 percent. Meanwhile, the conference-leading Battlers (18-7, 9-3) shot 22-of-44 from the field for 50 percent and 5-of-11 from beyond the arc for 45.5 percent.
KWC won the opening tip but promptly turned the ball over, which set the tone for the rest of the contest. Alderson Broaddus scored the game's opening basket on a layup by Ali Bilal, sparking the Battlers to an 18-4 advantage in the first seven minutes. The Panthers never led in the game.
"Give credit to Alderson Broaddus," said second-year KWC coach Happy Osborne. "They came in, they out-toughed us, and that's pretty much the end of it. The toughest team won tonight. What we have to decide now is how we're going to finish this thing. I shook the Alderson Broaddus players' hands and I told them, 'You got one and we got one, hopefully there will be a third.'"
Ken-Jah Bosley led KWC with a game-high 23 points on 5-of-9 shooting and knocked down 12-of-15 from the free throw line. C.J. Blackwell, who came off the bench after suffering a minor back injury in practice during the week, chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds.
Malcolm Tatum scored 21 points for the Battlers, and Thylas Perkins added 14 points. Richard Lemon and Bilal chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively. Bilal also had nine rebounds.
KWC trailed 41-25 at halftime but cut the advantage to 47-37 on a Marcus Fillyaw 3-pointer with 15 minutes left in the game. Alderson Broaddus responded with a 12-4 run, however, and eventually took its largest lead of the game on an Angelo Cugini free throw with 1:30 remaining for a 70-49 lead.
"They whipped our butts, the worst we've been whipped all season," Osborne said. "They were more disciplined, they attacked us, they outplayed us — they whipped our tail."
According to Osborne, the Panthers lacked discipline all game, evidenced by Devin Langford's ejection after picking up his second technical with just minutes left to play.
"We didn't attack the rim at all the first half," he said. "We had a glazed look in our eye, and that part's disappointing.
"We didn't attack. We settled for jump shots. We got zero out of our inside guys. Zero. We were bigger and stronger in there, but we've got to be better at attacking
