HILLSDALE, Mich. – The Kentucky Wesleyan men's basketball team suffered a 79-68 loss against the Chargers of Hillsdale Thursday evening.
The Panthers are now tied for the fifth spot in the G-MAC. Wesleyan currently sits a full 2.5 games back of Ohio Dominican in fourth.
The first 13 minutes of the game were a back-and-forth affair. Over that stretch, Fatih Huyuk poured in eight points and Ke'Andre Jones added seven to lead the offensive attack.
A Huyuk hook shot put the Panthers down just two at 29-27, but that's when the Chargers (10-15, 7-10 G-MAC) earned some breathing room. Hillsdale reeled off an 8-2 run to increase their lead to 37-29 with three minutes to play in the first half.
Wesleyan was able to close the gap to five by halftime, 41-36, thanks to a late LaVonte Harris three-pointer off an assist by Jorge Sanchez-Ramos.
A 5-0 burst to open the second half put the home team up 10 at 46-36, but the Panthers weren't ready to quit battling. KWC scored the next nine points, featuring a slam by Jones and a three-pointer by Armandas Plintauskas, to pull within one at 46-45.
A fastbreak slam by Caleb Mackrey later gave the Panthers their first lead in quite some time at 53-52 with 11 minutes remaining. Just a short period later, another Harris three-pointer gave Wesleyan their largest lead at 60-56 right at the nine-minute mark.
From there, it was all Hillsdale. A 14-4 run put the Chargers back on top, 70-64, and the Panthers couldn't recover. From the time KWC held that four-point lead, Hillsdale closed on an overall 23-8 run and prevailed 79-68.
Huyuk had a big night with a 22-point, 10-rebound double-double on 11-16 shooting from the field.
Sanchez-Ramos tallied 17 points and five assists, and Harris rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points and three rebounds.
The Panthers will next head to Midland, Michigan, for a matchup versus Northwood on Saturday, February 21st, at 2:00 PM. Fans can watch live on FloCollege and listen on 94.3 WBIO.
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