It was a walk in the park for KSU’s men’s basketball team on Thursday night, as it defeated Piedmont College 82-43 in an exhibition game at the Convocation Center.
KSU took control of the game from the start and never looked back, scoring 46 of its 82 points in the paint. Senior all-conference guard Markeith Cummings led the Owls with 23 total points and even had three fast-break dunks. To Cummings, it was a solid team effort.
“I think we came out and played well as a team,” Cummings said. “Everyone just came in and played hard.”
KSU head coach Lewis Preston felt it was a nice start to a new season. Coach Preston was pleased with the intensity in the second half and pleased with his player’s ability to rebound the ball.
“I think it was a great way for us to show as I would like to call a new team and new beginning and a new journey for us,” Preston said.
Among the Owl’s veterans were some new faces as well, including freshman Yonel Brown. This was Brown’s first collegiate game as an Owl. He was not far behind Cummings with 16 points. Brown mentioned the pace was very different from high school, but seemed to get a lot out of the experience after getting over the pre-game nerves.
“I just wanted to contribute in a few different ways, try to take a couple of charges, get a couple of steals, and try to do the little things to give us some energy and give us an extra push,” Brown said.
As far as meeting expectations, coach Preston does not want to base Brown’s performance off of just one game. Preston’s goal was to make sure Brown was incorporated with the offense. “He is going to have an opportunity in a variety of different ways to help us, in regards to giving us another threat on the perimeter,” Preston said. “He made four out of our five three’s tonight.”
The big factor for the Owls in this game was their performance on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the second half. The Owls had 14 steals, forced 24 turnovers, and had 22 defensive rebounds for the game. The Black and Gold were able to generate 28 points off of turnovers as well.
Coach Preston was pleased with the defensive effort of his players, but is also looking to improve in other areas in the near future.
“I think our defensive intensity has got to pick up from the beginning of the game, and we can’t start slow and think we can ease our way in,” Preston said. “I do like the fact that we had 14 steals and we caused them to have 24 turnovers, but I do not like the fact we shot 5-for-22 from the three-point range.”
Piedmont College’s status as a Division III school was clearly displayed. Piedmont only shot a field goal percentage of 31.4 and only scored 12 points in the paint. Despite a blow-out victory, Brown believes this win should not determine their entire season.
“We can’t base our season on tonight,” Brown said. “We know we are going to face better opponents, so we just have to continually get better at practice and push each other every day.”
The Owls open up their season against the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on November 9th.