KSU’s women’s basketball team came into Hawkins Arena and put themselves in position to pull the upset, but after battling their way back they ultimately fell to arch rival Mercer 64-59 on Saturday afternoon.
To start the game, KSU (4-16, 2-7) was once again plagued by a poor start. Mercer opened the game on a 10-3 run in large part due to seven early KSU turnovers. Mercer (11-9, 4-5) had built its largest lead of the half at 16-3 with 9:35 remaining until intermission.
From there, KSU showed a lot of resiliency and was able to claw back into the game once again led by the stellar play of junior guard Kristinia Wells, who notched her 10th double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
For the rest of the half, KSU battled back into the game. Down 19-8, the Owls put together a nice 10-2 run over a four minute span to trim the bears lead to 21-18 which was ignited by five different Owls scoring during the run. The Owls scored 12 of their final 14 points of the first half in the paint to cut a once 13-point deficit down to five at intermission. Twice in the first half the Owls were able to cut the bears lead to three, and trailed 25-20 going into halftime. KSU shot 34.8 percent in the first half compared to 37 percent for Mercer. KSU went into the half out-rebounding the Bears 21-15.
Coming out of the locker room to start the second half, the Owls were right in position to win as they had built momentum. Unfortunately slow starts have been one of the team’s biggest problems, and that continued again to open the second half as Mercer scored the first six points of the half and led by 11 at 31-20 with 17:20 left to play.
KSU would not go away as they went on a 9-4 run over the next four minutes, and with a traditional three point play by Wells, the score was now 35-29 with 13:30 remaining. Over the next five minutes, the Mercer advantage remained close throughout until the Bears capped off a 6-0 run which gave them a 12 point lead at 47-35 with 7:12 to go.
As this rivalry game unfolded, as one team went on a scoring run, the other team had an answer and KSU made sure that trend continued as they came out of the timeout focused and quickly responded with a 7-0 run to make the score 47-42 with 5:17 left.
After a timeout by Mercer, Bears guard Kendra Grant scored the next seven points for the Bears as they built a 54- 46 lead with 3:15 to go which pretty much sealed the game. The Bears were led by Briana Williams, who had 24 points and 5 rebounds as well as Kendra Grant who had 19 points and 5 boards.
The Owls tried to make one last rally, but could not cut into the six or seven points they needed to win. Along with Wells who scored 12 of her 16 in the second half, freshman guard Deandrea Sawyers added 12 points, all of which coming in the second half, while freshman forward Aareon Smith posted 11.
KSU finished the game out-rebounding Mercer 41-28, and with a 34-20 advantage in points in the paint. Costly turnovers proved to be the difference in this game as the Owls committed 20 turnovers which led to 16 points for the Bears.
“We are still trying to put together a 40-minute game,” said head coach Nitra Perry. We are taking some baby steps every game, but I definitely saw improvement and I thought they battled.
The Owls next game is Thursday, February 6th at 7 in the Convocation Center as the team prepares to take on Lipscomb as the second round of Atlantic Sun Conference play begins.
