Kennesaw State women’s basketball kept things interesting for a while, but ultimately fell short, as the Owls lost to Atlantic Sun Conference rival Northern Kentucky, 79-51, on Saturday.
The loss snaps a two game conference winning streak and drops the Owls to a 4-11 overall record. For the third straight game, freshman guard Deandrea Sanders led the way for KSU, leading the Owls with 17 points, including four three point shots.
The Owls were in a hole early in the contest, with NKU quickly charging to a 7-0 lead out of the gate. The Owls then put together a run of their own with six straight points from junior guard Bria Young, pulling to within one with 15:42 on the clock in the first.
The Norse rallied once again after a Sawyers three-pointer, culminating in a 20-11 lead, their largest of the half. The Owls rallied back once again behind back-to-back treys from Sawyers and a Young jumper, cutting the lead to 20-19 with 4:26 left in the half.
NKU began to pull away with five straight points, but a Young layup with 27 seconds remaining sent the Owls into halftime down 25-21.
After the intermission, the Owls continued to hang around with layups from freshman forward Gratia Brooks and junior guard Kristina Wells, keeping the deficit to one at 26-25.
The close contest would not last, however, as the Norse went on a 27-7 run over the next eight minutes.
The Owls were able to make 21 trips to the free throw line and converted on 13 of them, but they were not enough, as NKU went on to win.
Young earned her fifth straight game with double figures, scoring 11 points. Redshirt senior Lisa Capellan also added 10 points of her own, going 3-of-4 from the field and converting all four of her freethrow opportunities. Capellan also had six rebounds, while Wells and freshman forward Chloe Branch posted five.