Coyote rally falls short at Friends
By: David Toelle, KWU Sports Information

WICHITA – Kansas Wesleyan rallied from an eight point deficit in the second half, but could not get over the hump as the Coyotes fell to Friends 65-58 on Thursday night at the Garvey Center.

Wesleyan falls into a four-way tie for second in the KCAC standings at 11-6 along with Southwestern, Sterling and Friends, making Saturday’s games extremely vital to the seeding of next week’s KCAC Post-Season Tournament, which begins Thursday at the home sites of the higher seeded teams.

The Coyotes took an early 6-2 lead on six straight points from Romero Hood, but the Falcons would fight back, tying things up at 6-all on free throws from Justin Rone with 14:11 to go in the first.

Mychal Henderson gave Wesleyan a 9-6 lead with 13:38 left on a three, but the Falcons took control, pulling out to a 17-13 lead with 8:23 left on a bucket from Donte Rogers.

Henderson answered with a three to cut the lead to one, and Trey Sims’ triple with 7:09 left tied things back up at 19-all.

Justin Speer’s triple with 6:01 to go in the half would break a 21-all tie, and spark a 7-0 Friends run that saw the Falcons take a 28-21 lead with 4:18 to go in the half on free throws from Drew Kangiesser.

Rogers would score with 30 seconds left in the half to send Friends to the locker room with a 35-28 lead.

A rebound and put back from Sims with 15:47 left saw Wesleyan cut Friends’ lead to just three at 39-36, but the Falcons would answer back taking an eight-point lead with 12:23 left on a bucket from Speer.

Wesleyan (13-13, 11-6) got back within three on a score from Sims with 8:49 to go, but the Falcons would push their lead back out to seven, the last time coming at the 4:33 mark on free throws from Rogers.

Six straight Wesleyan points would cut the Friends lead to just one, 55-54 with 3:04 left on a bucket from Eric Hammond, and Tony Boone would miss a wide open shot at the rim with 2:02 left that would have given the Coyotes the lead.

Instead the Falcons got a three from Rone, and pushed their lead out to as many as five with 36 seconds left.

A pair of free throws from Boone would get the Wesleyan within three with 32 seconds left, but Friends would convert all their foul shots at the end to come away with the 65-58 win.

Sims had 16 to lead the Coyotes, while Hood added 14 and Henderson 12 as Wesleyan was 24-of-64 from the field for 37.5 percent, including a dismal 4-for-20 from long range. Sims also added ten rebounds to lead the Coyotes while Willie McCarty and Henderson each had five.

Friends (15-11, 11-6) was led by Rone who recorded a double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds as the Falcons were 22-of-50 from the field for 44 percent. Kangiesser added seven boards as the Falcons outrebounded Wesleyan 40-32.

Wesleyan wraps up the regular season at home against Tabor at 7 p.m. inside Muir Gym before heading into next week’s KCAC Post-Season Tournament.

-- KWU SI --