Game Notes
The Kentucky Wesleyan men's basketball team will close out its regular season on the road when the No. 10 Panthers take on struggling Salem International in a conference matchup on Saturday.
KWC (24-3, 10-1 in G-MAC) enters coming off a 76-70 victory at Ohio Valley on Thursday in which the Panthers survived a 16-point comeback late in the game to seal the outright regular-season conference title.
"It's a tough place to play, a fun place to play," KWC coach Happy Osborne said after the game. "Deal the cards. We talked about it, we warned them — our practice defensive intensity was not as good this week. It was OK, though."
Osborne will look for a better performance from his squad when they square off against the Tigers (4-21, 1-10), who have lost five games in a row and 15 of their last 16 contests. Salem International is coming off of a 102-82 loss to Trevecca on Thursday, and the Tigers — seventh in the league standings — are the only team that won't advance to next week's G-MAC Tournament.
In the teams' first meeting this season, then-No. 18 KWC defeated Salem International 99-66 on Jan. 28 in Owensboro. That victory began the Panthers' current nine-game winning streak.
Despite the Tigers' woes, Osborne knows how dangerous a team with nothing to lose can be.
"We've got one more to go, we've got to go to Salem," he said. "If you think that's going to be easy, it's their last game ever in the history of this league. It's senior day. It's a tough environment, just like Ohio Valley is."
KWC expected starters include 6-foot-1 guard Ken-Jah Bosley, whose minutes may be limited to due to nagging injuries. Bosley came off the bench to score 18 points against Ohio Valley.
"Just a kid with a lot of guts, what I want Kentucky Wesleyan to be about," Osborne said of Bosley's toughness. "We had to have Ken-Jah (to win)."
Bosley leads the team with 16.7 points per game and will be joined in the starting lineup by 6-5 guard Jordan Jacks (14.1 points, 8.7 rebounds), 6-5 forward C.J. Blackwell (13.3 points), 6-7 forward Devin Langford (13.0 points, 5.0 rebounds) and 6-1 point guard Marcus Fillyaw (7.3 points, 3.8 assists).
Expected starters for Salem International are 6-8 forward Gerard Tarin (14.5 points, 7.0 rebounds), 6-3 wing Jerry Sipple III (11.3 points), 6-3 wing Tyler Bell (11.1 points), 6-5 guard Saquan Epps (7.5 points) and 6-6 forward Lamonte Fields (8.1 points).
Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. following the Kentucky Wesleyan women (15-9, 8-5) against Salem International (4-23, 1-12) at 1 p.m.
