COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Dominican men's basketball team suffered a 60-53 home loss to Kentucky Wesleyan Saturday afternoon.

Highlighting the performance was Alek West (Sylvania, Ohio), who led three Panthers in double figures with 14 points. West, despite picking up his fourth foul in the first five minute of the second half, added 10 assists for his fourth double-double this winter.

Zach Szul (Waterville, Ohio) and Mitch Wilkinson (Grand Rapids, Mich.) co-led ODU in rebounds, seven, while pitching in 13 and 12 points, respectively. Matt Hall (Evanston, Ill.) also corralled seven boards. Off the bench, Nate Webb (Lafayette, Ind.) posted a career high with three blocked shots.

Ohio Dominican got off to a cold shooting start, making just two of its first 12 field goal attempts and trailed 12-4 at the under-12 minute media timeout. ODU shot only 25.9 percent in the first half, but forced KWC into 9-of-28 shooting (.321) and only trailed by three points at the break.

Szul netted a triple with 29 seconds remaining in the half to close ODU's deficit to 21-18 at halftime. Szul scored seven points in the opening stanza and registered all three of his steals in the first half.

Kentucky Wesleyan (11-13, 6-10 G-MAC) never trailed in the second half, extending its advantage to as many as 14 points on four occasions, the latest at 47-33, with 9:15 remaining. The Panthers (6-16, 4-11 G-MAC) though, answered with a 13-2 scoring run, closing its deficit to 49-46, capped by a pair of free throws by Szul at the 5:00 mark.

However, ODU was held to just two made field goals the rest of the way, both in the final 45 seconds. KWC scored seven straight points following the Panther scoring run and eventually held on for a 60-53 final decision.

Ohio Dominican will now break from G-MAC action when it hosts Salem at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 9.

Contact: Tyler Jester

jestert@ohiodominican.edu