Box Score
After watching a 17-point halftime lead against Ohio Valley evaporate during the first eight minutes of the second half Saturday, Kentucky Wesleyan men's basketball coach Happy Osborne called a 30-second timeout.
There was no screaming or yelling, only encouragement as the Panthers trailed by three points.
The brief break paid off down the stretch, as KWC came out of the huddle on an 18-0 run and held the Fighting Scots scoreless for a 10 minute stretch in claiming an 81-66 victory over Ohio Valley on Senior Day at the Sportscenter. With the victory and Cedarville's win over Central State, the Panthers secured the second seed in the G-MAC Tournament, giving themselves a first-round bye in the process.
Senior forward Pat Neel, who finished with eight points and a game-high nine rebounds, credited Osborne's timeout for calming the team down in a crucial situation.
"We played with heart and pushed through," said Neel, who played his final home game after a four-year career with KWC. "We started off rocky at the beginning of the second half. Coach called that timeout, and he said we'd better focus and get this done. We've got the conference tournament coming up and if we won, we get a bye. He told us to focus and push through."
The Panthers (21-7, 10-4 G-MAC) lost the lead shortly after leading scorer Ken-Jah Bosley suffered an ankle sprain and had to be helped off the floor with 15 minutes left to play. Following Osborne's timeout, the Panthers used a Nick Riley layup and two Hikeem Stewart scores to retake the lead at 62-59.
Bosley returned to the game with 10:49 left in the second half to a huge ovation from the crowd, then immediately drew a foul and sank two free throws. Seven minutes later, he drained a 3-pointer to give KWC a 74-59 lead before the Panthers closed out the win.
Bosley led KWC with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting, and Marcus Fillyaw added 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. Stewart, also a senior, chipped in 12 points, .
Despite watching his best scorer go down and seeing his team lose a double-digit lead, Osborne said he wasn't worried as long as the Panthers kept their cool.
"I'm thinking, all we have to do is get stops, let's get stops," he said. "As a coach right there, you've got to decide how you're going to be. You can get frustrated and go crazy and lose your cool, or you can be positive and find a way. At the end of the day, I don't know that a leader should ever lose control. I don't know what that gains or the example it sets. I thought we gathered ourselves, and we came back pretty good.
"Getting some stops was key. We didn't score in forever. We had 52 at the half, what did we score in the second half, 29? We just did what we do — get stops."
The Fighting Scots (9-15, 6-8) were led by Chris Hall, who scored 21 points on 7-of-19 shooting, including 5-of-10 from long range. Darryl Walker finished with 15 points, as Ohio Valley shot 39.3 percent from the floor.
The Panthers finished at a 48.2-percent shooting clip from the field and outrebounded Ohio Valley 46-26.
On top of the advantage KWC gains in the conference tournament, Osborne said it was good to send his three seniors — Neel, Stewart and Ifeanyichukwu Ude — out with a victory.
"I'm glad for them," he said. "I appreciate everything Patrick has done for our program. I think Hikeem has really grown through some tough times here, and he's plugged, that speaks to his character. Ude is a great young man, and he'll live here in Owensboro, and he's going to be successful."
Neel, who played at Henderson County and was surrounded by friends and family after the game, said he was just glad to close out the day with a win.
"It means everything," he said of Senior Day. "I've been here four years, I worked hard all four. I feel good going out with a win, you can't ask for anything better. I would have been disappointed if we lost that game. We won, I'm happy, and it's my last time in the Sportscenter — I'm just happy to get the win."
KWC returns to action in the G-MAC Tournament second round on Friday at 4 p.m. in Philippi, West Virginia, and Neel said there's still some unfinished business left in his career.
"I'm pretty comfortable with my four years, going out," he said. "I've had some good times, and I'm happy we got this win tonight to top it off, but we've got to keep going. We've got two more games to win, and it won't be complete until we win those."
