OWENSBORO, Ky. – The Kentucky Wesleyan men's basketball team (10-6, 4-4 G-MAC) prevailed 69-63 over Northwood (10-6, 5-4 G-MAC) in yet another close game Saturday afternoon inside the Owensboro Sportscenter.
Wesleyan extended their series history advantage to 6-2 and have won the last six matchups between the two programs.
Like Thursday night's game, neither team could find much breathing room in the first half. The Timberwolves jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Jorge Sanchez-Ramos answered with a three and Fatih Huyuk notched a tip-in layup to set the tone for a back-and-forth first half.
The Panthers struggled mightily from the field (14-38) and from outside the arc (3-19) over the first 20 minutes, but leaned on their defense to hold Northwood to similar numbers (13-34 from the field, 3-12 from deep) as Wesleyan took a 32-30 lead into the break.
KWC extended their lead to five early in the second half after consecutive layups from Huyuk and Armandas Plintauskas. Northwood responded with a 10-0 run to flip the momentum and put the Panthers down 45-40 with 13 minutes to play.
Wesleyan then reeled off a 10-2 run, capped off by a Plintauskas three-pointer, to grab control back at 50-47. Sancez-Ramos followed with a layup and Caleb Mackrey hit his own three-pointer to extend the run to 15-2 and give KWC their largest advantage of the afternoon at 55-47.
The Panthers led by as much as 14 with under four minutes to play, but the Timberwolves had a late burst to make the game interesting. Thanks to multiple threes and a few forced turnovers, Northwood cut their deficit to as little as three with a minute and a half to go.
Wesleyan had a strong close at the free throw line, making all of their six attempts to put the game away and send the Panther faithful home happy.
Sanchez-Ramos finished with 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and four steals as the leader in the scoring column.
Both LaVonte Harris and Fatih Huyuk logged double-doubles. Harris logged 16 points, ten rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one blocked shot, and Huyuk added 12 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, and a steal.
The Panthers next head on the road to Canton, Ohio, to take on the Malone Pioneers on Thursday, January 15th. Tipoff is set for 6:30 PM and the game will be streamed live on FloCollege. Wesleyan fans can also listen on 94.7 WBIO.
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