Box Score
Kentucky Wesleyan coach Happy Osborne issued a challenge to his team at halftime.
Coming off of a one-point loss on the road at Trevecca Nazarene, the No. 18 Panthers let struggling Salem International hang around until intermission. KWC players took the message to heart, however, and after the break blew open their three-point halftime lead to an eventual 99-66 victory over the Fighting Tigers on Thursday night at the Sportscenter.
"I talked to them about, 'Is this what you want it to be? Are you going to settle for this?'" Osborne said. "We've had 60 minutes of bad basketball, now you've got 20 minutes to get it right. And it got much better."
The Panthers (16-3, 4-1 in G-MAC) began clicking on all cylinders as they converted 60 percent of their shots from the field after the break while also holding SIU to just 34.5 percent. More aggressiveness on both sides of the ball led to easier opportunities, and KWC capitalized on its chances.
"We had to get after it," Osborne said. "Jermaine (Morgan) got to banging, (Marcus) Fillyaw was good early, Basil coming in helped. And I thought Devin went to work. I really thought Devin had a whole lot to do with that."
For its effort, KWC finished the game with a 45-29 rebounding edge after trailing 17-16 in that category at the half. The Panthers also led in assists (21-8), second-chance points (18-6), fast-break scoring (20-6), points in the paint (63-30) and points off turnovers (15-10).
The Fighting Tigers (3-14, 0-4) were led by Gerard Tarin, who finished with 18 points after scoring 16 in the first half. Tyler Bell added 17 points, and Jerry Sipple III chipped in 13.
KWC opened up its first double-digit lead on Deveaux's conventional three-point play four minutes into the second half, and a pair of Morgan buckets pushed the advantage to 59-45 shortly after.
A monster one-handed putback dunk by Deveaux a few minutes later then sparked a KWC 28-5 run, giving the Panthers an 89-53 lead with 7:18 left in the game. From there, KWC cruised to victory.
The negative from Thursday's game, Osborne noted, was big man Marcus Fuggins -- playing in his first game back from a shin injury that had him sidelined since late Neovember -- receiving two technical fouls during a scuffle with Salem International's Tyler Bell just as the Panthers went ahead by 20 points. Now, he'll miss Saturday's game against Ohio Valley.
"You can't give them confidence, you can't let them get going," Osborne said. "It's getting to that time of the year where there's people that have a chance and people that don't. Sometimes the teams that don't, there's an extra elbow, there's a cheapshot here or a cheapshot there -- I'm not saying Salem did that, I love (Salem coach) Randy Unger -- but you can't fall in to what Fuggins fell into.
"Their deal, it's only going so far. We've got a chance to do something. We finally got him back, and I can't think of the words to describe how I feel. That's crushing to me."
But the Panthers don't have much time to think about who they're missing for Saturday's game, and Osborne said he's seeking even more improvement from his squad after Thursday's second-half performance.
"Things like communicating on defense, taking a charge, getting into our spots, screening -- if we can improve our team six percent to 10 percent, we'll have a nice team in March," he said. "As bad as we were for those 60 minutes, we're still close to being pretty good. There's so many little things that we have to improve on. If we can just get that improvement, six-to-10 percent, we'll be a better team."
