OWENSBORO, Ky. – The Trevecca Nazarene University Men's Basketball team (16-15) lost in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championship Finals, 78-69, to No. 9 Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers (27-3) at the Owensboro Sportscenter on Saturday.

It is Trevecca's second appearance in the G-MAC championship game, the first time since the inaugural championship in 2013. Trevecca fell to Cedarville University, the regular season and top seed, in the 2013 Final.

The Panthers won the G-MAC regular season and were the host and top seed at these 2016 championships. Trevecca was the third seed after finishing in a second place tie in the G-MAC regular season race, but lost the tiebreaker with Alderson Broaddus University for the second seed.

KWC is now 6-2 vs. Trevecca in the all-time series and have won the last two meetings, both at the Sportscenter.

Matt Gamberoni (SR/Mulhouse, France), who scored the first eight points for Trevecca, led the team with 17 points and had four rebounds. Percy Blade (JR/Louisville, KY) and Mac Walden (SR/Versailles, KY) each scored 15. Blade added seven rebounds and three assists. Jalen Palm (SR/Louisville, KY) led Trevecca with eight rebounds and chipped in six points and two assists. Byron Sanford (SR/Louisville, KY) scored nine points and added six rebounds and had two steals.

As a team Trevecca had 19 turnovers and balanced that with a 37-30 edge in rebounding. Trevecca shot 43% (24-56) from the field, 28% (5-18) from three-point range, and 94% (16-17) from the foul line.

Matt Gameroni hit the opening basket of the game just 23 seconds in and then hit his third with 18:26 left in the half for a 6-2 Trojan lead. Gamberoni hit his fourth basket and owned all eight Trojan points at the 17:02 mark, giving the Trojans a 8-7 lead. The hosts returned fire and took a 17-10 lead at the 13:47 mark with a 10-2 run. Trevecca turned the table with a 11-1 run and owned a 21-18 lead at the 10:37 mark. Trevecca built on the lead and were up 34-26 with 4:14 remaining in the half.

That's when the biggest shift in the game began. The Panthers scored the last 14 points of the half and led 40-34 at the break. Then made it a 20-0 run with the first six points of the second half for a 46-34 lead.

With 7:17 remaining the Panther lead reached 14 (65-51) and appeared they regular season champs were about to put the game away and the third game in three days might be hitting the Trojan legs. The Trojans had one more run starting with a Mac Walden three. After a KWC basket, Walden followed with four straight free throws. Another KWC basket was followed by two more Walden free throws. Byron Sanford joined the scoring bing with a three and Percy Blade hit four free throws that cut the Panther lead to three (70-67) with 2:33 remaining.

Unfortunately that is where the Trojan rally ended. The only points the Trojans recorded before the final buzzer came on a Tyrell Corlew (SR/Louisville, KY) basket with :13 second remaining.  

Kentucky Wesleyan outscored Trevecca 38-35 in the second half for a 78-69 win.

KWC extended their winning streak to 12 in a row. Their last loss was to Trevecca at the Trojan Fieldhouse. The Panthers are 19-0 at the Owensboro Sportscenter this year.

Byron Sanford, the 2016 G-MAC Player of the Year, ended his career with 1379 career points with 544 rebounds, 328 assists, and 182 steals. His career scoring average is 16.4 points per game and this year his average topped out at 18.4 ppg.