KSU men’s basketball team traveled to Macon Friday night to take on the in-state rival Mercer Bears, but a barrage of first half turnovers ended the game early for KSU as they dropped the game 83-46.
KSU committed 20 turnovers in a game where Mercer nearly set a record for ball security as they only coughed up the ball two times throughout the entire contest. The Owls led the game for the first 10 minutes, before falling behind and never reclaiming the lead.
The Owls had success scoring inside early despite the absence of Nate Rucker. Rucker sat out against Mercer due to technical fouls picked up in the USC Upstate win last Monday. KSU had seven turnovers, with only one field goal made in the final 10 minutes of the first half. During that same stretch, Mercer went on a 22-to-three scoring run and capitalized off of every KSU turnover. The half ended 33-14 in the Bears favor.
“We didn’t get the physicality we were looking for and that stymied us early,” KSU interim head coach Jimmy Lallathin said.
KSU came out stagnate on defense and allowed Mercer to extend its lead to 42 in the second half. Offensive play didn’t strain the Owls as much as their turnovers did, as KSU shot 43 percent from the field compared to Mercer’s 45. Mercer finished with 33 points off of turnovers.
The battle in the paint was relatively close with Mercer scoring 24 inside and KSU scoring 20. However, the free- throw numbers were sub-par with the Owls only sinking 10/17 attempted.
A silver lining for KSU was the productive minutes put in by Ivory Coast native and Auburn transfer Willy Kouassi. The 6’10”center put in six points in the second half along with two blocks. Junior Delbert Love was the team’s leading scorer with 11.
The Owls fell to 1-3 in the A-Sun conference, while the Bears moved to 4-1 in the league and improved their undefeated home record to 10- 0. KSU will get another shot at Mercer when the Bears come to the Convocation Center Feb. 7.
