Box Score  • Box Score (HTML)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- It was a game of runs in the third meeting this season between Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division rivals in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament Midwest Regional. No. 18 Kentucky Wesleyan was able to withstand UIndy's early push and late comeback to advance, 91-77, in front of 1,225 at Knights Hall on Sunday evening.

The Greyhounds (20-9) were led by Reece Cheatham with 18 points. Senior Adrian Moss had 15 points and seven assists, while senior Wilbur O'Neal added 15 points and nine rebounds in their final game for the Crimson and Grey.

UIndy finished the season with their most wins since the 2003-04 season, while being ranked in the NABC/Division II Top 25 five weeks during the campaign. The Greyhounds won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 1996, while winning five games this season against Top 25 teams, including two against No. 1.


"I just want to make sure our seniors understand how thankful I am for those two guys," head coach Stan Gouard said. "Those guys have come in and in two years really helped us get back to being nationally known. I thank those guys for the ride they took us on the past couple seasons. Those are two of the best guys I've had in a while. They are great kids that come from great families and they came in with a winning attitude that helped us these past two years."

UIndy had all of the momentum in the early part of the game as they were nearly unstoppable on the offensive end and controlled the Panthers on the defensive end. The Greyhounds made eight of their first 11 shots, without a turnover, to lead by 18, 22-4, with 11:09 to go in the game after a baseline pull-up jumper by Moss. During one 15-point stretch of the run, Moss scored four points and assisted on the other 11 points.

The Greyhounds also had Kentucky Wesleyan in foul trouble with six called on the seven-seed, but things quickly changed. The officials called the next nine fouls on UIndy as in a 12-0 run after UIndy went up 22-4, KWC scored six points at the line to find their rhythm. Kentucky Wesleyan went on to end the half on a 38-10 run in the final 10:45 to turn an 18-point deficit into a 10-point halftime lead, 42-32. After making just 2-of-10 field goals to start the game, KWC finished making 12-of-21, while UIndy closed the half hitting 3-of-12 with seven turnovers.

"I know Kentucky Wesleyan and I know they are no quitting team," Gouard said. "We knew the storm was coming. It was just a matter of when it was going to come and how we prepare for it. I guess we weren't prepared for it because we had no answer. They drove us. They got second shots. They put their head down and got to the free throw line. We didn't do a good job of keeping them out of the paint and that's the bottom line."

Even when they were missing shots, KWC was also dominant on the glass with a 9-1 edge in offensive rebounds for an 11-0 lead in second-chance points in the first.

The teams traded baskets to start the second half until the Panthers were able to pull away to an 18-point lead, 65-47, with 12:09 to play. The Greyhounds weren't going to lay down, as they started a comeback of their own. UIndy scored 10 of the next 12 as part of a 20-7 run that closed the deficit to five, 72-67, with 6:15 still to play after Cheatham finished on the fast break off a slick feed from Jarrett Hamilton.

"We knew if we got stops, we knew we could score. Early in the game we got stops and then were able to get easy buckets," Gouard said. "You think about all the adversity we faced this year and it was no surprise that we made a comeback. We have a great group of tough guys on this basketball team and I knew we weren't going to quit."

The Greyhounds went cold again, however, as they missed three shots in a row with a chance to get closer and 1-of-5 with a turnover as KWC went back up by 12, 81-69, with 3:03 left behind a pair of three-pointers from little-used Travis Johnston, who was only 4-of-16 from three-point land all season.

The Panthers (23-7), led by Anthony Young and Brandon Johnson with 20 points each, were able to run out the clock from that point forward.

KWC made 29-of-61 field goals (.475), including 7-of-19 triples, while also converting 26-of-33 free throws. UIndy was only able to attempt 14 free throws, but did convert 31-of-67 field goals (.463), but only 6-of-23 from distance and just 1-of-14 in the second half.

"We couldn't get the ball inside enough because Wilbur was in foul trouble and for some reason, Joe (Daniels) doesn't draw a lot of fouls," Gouard said. "We didn't do a good job of putting pressure on the basket and we settled for threes. We talked about putting pressure on the rim late (in the shot clock) and we didn't do that and there was plenty of opportunity to get into the paint."