OWENSBORO, Ky. – The Kentucky Wesleyan men's basketball team was defeated 95-83 by the 22nd-ranked Walsh Cavaliers Saturday afternoon inside the Owensboro Sportscenter.
Wesleyan is now tied with Findlay for the 5th spot in the Great Midwest standings. The Panthers are 1.5 games back of Ohio Dominican in fourth place.
Coming out of the under-12 timeout after a competitive first eight minutes, the Cavaliers took their largest lead at 20-14. The Panthers responded with consecutive threes by Jorge Sanchez-Ramos and Gavin Reed to tie the game at 20.
Later, with the game tied at 27, Walsh reeled off a quick 7-0 burst to take a 34-27 lead. Wesleyan pulled within two after free throws by Armandas Plintauskas and a three-pointer by Ke'Andre Jones, but the Cavaliers reeled off yet another run, this time an 8-0 surge, to take a 42-32 advantage into the locker room.
Walsh dominated the second half in the early going, leaning on their offensive rebounding prowess to build a 20-point lead at 66-46 with just under 14 minutes to play.
The Panthers wouldn't go down without a fight. KWC scored the next 13 points, highlighted by a Jones fastbreak slam and capped off by a Reed three-pointer, to force a 30-second timeout by Walsh with 10 and a half minutes remaining and Wesleyan down just six at 66-59.
The timeout proved to be a good decision. The Cavaliers pulled themselves together and never allowed KWC to get any closer than six. A 12-0 run beginning at the 7:20 mark proved to be the decider as the Panthers couldn't quite recover.
Jones had a stellar outing with 19 points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals while shooting 5-5 from outside the arc. Plintauskas tallied 18 points, five rebounds, three assists, and a blocked shot, and Sanchez-Ramos had another strong game with 16 points, three rebounds, seven assists, and a blocked shot.
Huyuk added 14 points, six rebounds, and a steal on the afternoon. Tavion Williams (seven points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a blocked shot) and Reed (six points and two three-pointers) had quality performances off the bench to help offset a few injuries in the rotation.
The Panthers celebrated their six seniors prior to the game: Carter Bischoff, Fatih Huyuk, Caleb Mackrey, Armandas Plintauskas, LaVonte Harris (did not play due to injury), and Jorge Sanchez-Ramos.
Wesleyan next heads to Hillsdale, Michigan, for a matchup against the Chargers on Thursday, February 19th. Tipoff is set for 6:30 PM. Fans can watch live on FloCollege or listen on 94.3 WBIO.
Visit kwcpanthers.com/give today to make a gift to Kentucky Wesleyan Athletics! Gifts can be directed to general athletics, our athletic endowment, or any of our 14 NCAA Division II programs.
Stay up to date on all your Panther news by following @KWCPanthers on X and Instagram and by liking the "Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics" Facebook page. Also, the Panthers Mobile App is available on iTunes and Android featuring real-time news alerts, schedules, exclusive multimedia content, gameday details and more.
