Unable to convert on some late opportunities and keep the University of Illinois-Springfield out of the paint, the Kentucky Wesleyan women’s basketball team fell 66-63 on Tuesday.
The Panthers defense was very strong early to take a 6-0 lead with 3:40 left in the first quarter, holding UIS scoreless and forcing six turnovers with a number of them being offensive fouls.
The Prairie Stars came roaring back though, as a fastbreak bucket sparked a 9-0 run to put them out in front 9-6 going into the second quarter.
Kentucky Wesleyan came charging back halfway through the second quarter to take a 16-13 lead. Junior Tahlia Walton led the charge for the Panthers to control the game through the second quarter, going 5-5 for 10 points.
Walton’s play helped them walk into the locker room leading 26-21 at halftime with a narrow shooting edge.
The Panthers were shooting 39% from the field while struggling from deep, shooting 2-12 from three. However, they were able to hold UIS to 38% shooting from the field, while allowing no points from beyond the arc.
Kentucky Wesleyan continued to live inside early in the second half, holding on to a 34-31 lead with 4:50 left in the third quarter.
The Prairie Stars were not bowing down though, quickly finding themselves back out in front. Minutes later it was an 8-0 run for UIS that gave them a 41-36 lead after sophomore Ally Gietzel converted an and-one.
Walton was a spark once again for the Panthers to make a push for a comeback early in the fourth, scoring seven straight points to knot things up at 47-47 with 7:43 left to play.
For the next four minutes both teams battled back and forth going blow-for-blow, as the game remained tied at 58-58 with 2:17 left to play.
Emma Johnson put the Panthers up 60-58 with 1:32 left to play, sinking the two free throws after being put in the bonus.
However, Kentucky Wesleyan’s inability to connect from deep and a strong second half offensively from the Prairie Stars came back to bite them.
UIS scored to knot things up at 60-60, but Kentucky Wesleyan had an open look from deep to reclaim the lead with 1:10 left to play.
Sophomore Olivia Stephens laid the ball in to take a 62-60 lead with 39 seconds left to play and that would be the proverbial dagger after senior Leah Richardson missed her jumper with 11 seconds left and the Panthers were forced to foul.
The Prairie Stars sank all their free throws to secure the win, defeating the Panthers 66-63 after Richardson sank a three at the buzzer.
After getting off to a strong start against UIS, Kentucky Wesleyan Co-Head Coach Nicole Nieman said it felt as though the team wasn’t playing at the level they should have been.
“It just felt like we weren’t here today,” Nieman said. “I don’t know if we could’ve played any worse than what we did. Defensively we felt like our first quarter was pretty good, but after that it just felt like defensively we were not where we needed to be.”
The big momentum shift for the Panthers defensively came in the third quarter, where the Prairie Stars shot 73% from the field en route to winning the quarter 26-14.
“We just got beat,” Nieman said. “We got beat off the drive. We got beat and we didn’t have our rotations. At critical times it was just like we couldn’t get a stop when we needed a stop.”
Walton did all she could to spark Kentucky Wesleyan’s offense, shooting 10-13 from the field to lead all scorers with 23 points to go along with six boards off the bench. Nieman said it was the junior’s resiliency that led to her strong performance offensively.
“She just kept going…,” Nieman said. “That’s one thing that she’s been learning. It’s not about the first, second or third. If you’re going to be in those opportunities, you’re going to be potentially turning it over or missing baskets. That’s ok and I just felt like she just kept coming back. She didn’t give up on herself.”
Three-point shooting was a weak spot for the Panthers all night, as they finished 5-26 from beyond the arc. Nieman said that the looks they had weren’t horrible, but little movement for stretches of the game affected them negatively.
“I don’t think our threes were bad,” Nieman said. “They were threes that we needed at those moments and the right people were taking them. So we had no complaints with any of our shots that we were taking, we just got a little stagnant out there a little bit. Kind of ball-watching on offense.”
Coming off a huge win over No. 2 ranked Drury the loss is not what Kentucky Wesleyan had in mind, but Nieman is pleased with the team and hopes that this will be a teachable moment for them.
“I like where this team’s head has been as far as where we’ve been so far,” Nieman said. “I just feel like we need to get back to where we were… So hopefully we’ll learn all the lessons we need from this moment. Maybe it’s good we didn’t come out on top because maybe we wouldn’t have learned the lessons we need to learn. We really like our team. We like what they’re about, we like how they’ve competed, we like where they’re at, we just have to figure out what happened today.”
The Panthers return to action Saturday, when they look to get back in the win column when they travel to take on the University of Missouri-St. Louis at 1 p.m.
