Panthers stun No. 7 Hillsdale

Jan. 20—Beezy Fernandez and Jordan Roland scored 16 points apiece, and the Kentucky Wesleyan College men's basketball team came up with three crucial defensive stops in the final seconds to capture a 72-71 upset victory over No. 7 Hillsdale in front of a raucous crowd Thursday night at the Sportscenter.

The win was KWC's first triumph over a ranked opponent since a 67-62 victory over No. 15 Bellarmine on Feb. 23, 2013 — when the Panthers were still part of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

"This is an old-school Kentucky Wesleyan basketball game," said KWC head coach Drew Cooper, who was an assistant on the Bellarmine coaching staff in 2012. "It was a lot of fun. The students were tremendous.

"Defensively, Hillsdale had some shots they didn't make. Our guys challenged as best as they could, and the gods were on our side tonight."

Eddie Jones Jr. drilled a 3-pointer to put KWC (8-9, 4-5 G-MAC) ahead 71-70 with 1:37 to play, and after a Hillsdale turnover, Jordan Roland split a pair of foul shots to give Wesleyan a two-point edge.

The Chargers' Kyle Goessler missed a go-ahead 3 with 21 seconds remaining, but Fernandez missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw to give Hillsdale another chance. Joe Reuter missed a potential game-tying jump shot, and after grabbing the defensive rebound, Ben Sisson also missed the front end of a 1-and-1 situation.

Hillsdale (16-2, 9-2) got one final chance at the buzzer, but Reuter's shot attempt from the left wing came up short.

"It comes down to making plays," Cooper said of his squad's resiliency. "Eddie Jones made a huge play, and there's no substitute for guys making plays. There's no hocus pocus, no Xs and Os — sometimes you've just got to have dudes that make plays."

Jones finished with 13 points, Antonio Thomas added 12 points with a game-high six assists, and Ben Sisson posted 12 points with eight rebounds. Roland dished five assists, as well. The Panthers shot 57.4% from the floor, including 8-of-16 from 3-point range (50%), and sank 10-of-15 free throws (66.7%) with 11 turnovers leading to 16 points for the Chargers.

"When we have everyone show up, we're really good," Cooper said. "When we don't have two or three people show up, we can lose to anybody. We're not good enough to beat anyone in the country if we think we're just going to show up and play the game. We have to have an edge, a focus, to us, and it can't just be four, five, six guys. It's got to be everybody, and we got something out of everybody tonight."

KWC trailed 39-36 at halftime but used a 7-0 run sparked by a short jump shot by Fernandez to establish a 43-39 edge with 18:41 remaining. The Chargers fought back behind the efforts of a 6-0 run, capped off by Goessler's 3 that gave Hillsdale a 63-55 advantage with 10:31 left to play.

Reuter's jump shot pushed the Chargers to a 71-67 lead with 1:51 to go, but Wesleyan scored the last five points of the game to seal the victory.

Reuter finished with 18 points and six rebounds for Hillsdale, which shot 46.6% from the field, including 10-of-25 from beyond the arc (40%), and converted 7-of-10 foul shots (70%) with 10 turnovers leading to 14 KWC points. Peter Kalthoff and Charles Woodhams added 13 points apiece as the Chargers claimed a 29-27 rebounding edge leading to a 12-6 advantage in second-chance scoring.

"I'm proud of our guys," said Cooper, whose team played without leading scorer Markel Aune, who's serving a one-week team suspension. "It's unfortunate that we don't have a complete team here tonight, but it says a lot about this group. This didn't start tonight. We've had a tremendous week of basketball, so hopefully we can step up in here Saturday and validate that we can be a very good basketball season for the rest of the season."

Wesleyan returns to action Saturday with a home conference game against Northwood at 2:15 p.m.

HILLSDALE 39 32 — 71

KENTUCKY WESLEYAN 36 36 — 72

Hillsdale (71) — Reuter 18, Kalthoff 13, Woodhams 13, Janowski 8, Applegate 6, Gohlke 6, Goessler 5, Nau 2.

Kentucky Wesleyan (72) — Fernandez 16, Roland 16, Jones 13, Thomas 12, Sisson 12, Miles 3.