Bulldogs pull within game of KCAC lead

McPherson College's Brian Hooks gets hammered on this play here Saturday night.

By STEVE SELL, Sentinel Sports Editor

Finally, the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes found a way to stop McPherson College's Kenny Romero.

An inadvertent elbow sent the Bulldogs' leading scorer to the bench with a blood-pumper of a gash under his eye, which later required stitches.

But the injury came in the closing minute of the game here Saturday night and it was nothing like the damage Romero had inflicted on the Coyotes.

Scoring 19 of his team-high 25 points in the second half, Romero helped the Bulldogs rally for a season-saving 95-84 victory to move to 4-2 in the KCAC and pull within a game of Tabor and Friends. Tabor suffered its first KCAC loss Saturday to Ottawa, while Friends was defeating Bethany.

"That certainly was a big win, one we had to have," McPherson coach Roger Trimmell said. "We'd already lost one at home (to Friends) and in the KCAC, you have to win at home. And we beat a team we entered the night tied with. Wesleyan is a good team and they're going to beat a lot of people. They play very hard."

The Bulldogs looked like they were in their post-Tabor funk early on, trailing by as many as 10 points in the first half, only to rally for a 37-36 lead with 2:07 to go. But Wesleyan scored the final seven points of the half for a 43-37 lead.

"We just had to settle down and run the offense," Trimmell said. "We were getting the shots, but not making them."

The Bulldogs came out energized in the second half. Romero, who had 34 points and 23 rebounds against the Coyotes last year in Salina, had a personal 7-0 run and Mac turned things around to go up 64-57. The Coyotes, though, countered with a 6-0 run of its own to pull within 64-63.

It was at that point the Bulldogs took over. They were scoring at will against a Coyote team that started to show fatigue. Roy McDonald picked up where Romero left off and the Bulldogs were able to go up as many as 15 points.

Mac, now 11-4 overall, wound up scoring 58 points in the second half.

"We were able to get the ball to Kenny and when he didn't score, he was hitting the open man," Trimmell said.

Romero wound up with 25 points and 17 rebounds, while the cheetah-quick McDonald scored 18. A key was the play of reserve Jordan Carter, who made three treys and scored 16 points, while Brian Hooks scored 15.

Tim Melton almost single-handedly kept KW afloat with 31 points, but he tired down the stretch. Phil Beckner scored 17 points and Nate Spresser added 15.

The Bulldogs face major week, as they travel Thursday to Ottawa and then play in Lindsborg Saturday against Bethany.

Mac (95) -- Rierson 0 4-6 4; Cox 3 0-0 7; McDonald 8 2-5 18; Carter 5 3-3 16; Hooks 3 9-11 15; Turner 1 0-0 2; Romero 10 5-5 25; Gustafson 4 0-0 8. Totals -- 34 23-30 95. 3-point goals -- Carter 4, Cox 1.

KW (84) -- Melton 12 6-10 31; Cheeks 1 0-0 2; Brown 3 0-0 6; Weiser 3 0-0 6; Spresser 7 0-1 15; Bollers 1 1-2 3; Beckner 4 7-7 17; Sprague 1 0-0 2; Bivens 1 0-0 2. Totals -- 33 14-21 84. 3-pointers -- Beckner 2, Melton 1, Spresser 1.