Mason Wittner—Staff Writer
In spite of Nigel Pruitt’s hot hands producing 32 points, Kennesaw State was handed their first loss in the Atlantic Sun Conference play as they fell 68-65 to USC Upstate on the road Saturday.
“Nigel is our second leading scorer and he’s had a couple big games,” KSU head coach Jimmy Lallathin said. “He’s a talented scorer and he plays with a confidence. If he plays well, we’re going to be in games and we’re going to win our share of games.”
In addition to Pruitt, Damien Wilson had 9 points and 10 rebounds while Yonel Brown finished with 10 points and 7 assists.
“Wilson just got kind of into the mix and he’s just going to get better and better for us,” said coach Lallathin. “YB [Brown] has been pretty much our constant leader in scoring and a playmaker for us all season, so we usually expect that from him.”
The largest statistical difference between KSU and USC Upstate came in capitalization of turnovers. The Owls and Spartans each turned the ball over 14 times, but Upstate accounted for 23 points off of turnovers to KSU’s 10.
“There are two types of turnovers,” coach Lallathin said. “There are live ball turnovers and dead ball turnovers, and I thought we gave up too many live ball turnovers. Those are just turnovers that they can turn over into points. They [Upstate] are scoring the ball as well or better than anybody right now especially in transition.”
KSU excelled early on in the game as they found themselves with a 17-12 lead with 7:35 left in the first half. After trailing 23-22 with 3:12 left, the Spartans sparked an 8-0 run.
KSU countered by closing out the half with 4 straight points, all coming from free throws by Yonel Brown and Delbert Love respectively due to a Ty Greene technical with 0:07 remaining in the half. The Owls took a 29-26 deficit into halftime.
The Owls and Spartans balanced each other out for the start of the second half as neither team capitalized on the other’s miscues and pulled away.
KSU, however, found themselves in a battle late in the second half after trailing 53-43 with just over nine minutes to play. Pruitt single-handedly led the Owls on a 9-0 run to bring the KSU deficit to 53-52 with 7:31 remaining.
After falling behind 66-62 with 0:48 left, a Pruitt three followed by a drawn charge gave KSU the ball with a one point deficit with 0:33 remaining and no shot clock.
After holding, Pruitt opted to drive to the lane and was rejected by Michael Buchannan of Upstate and the Spartans took possession. A-Sun leading scorer Ty Greene, averaging 17.5 points a game, knocked down his final two points of his 18-point performance from the free throw line. KSU had one last possession down 68-65 with 0:13 to go.
The Owls put themselves in prime position to push the Spartans into overtime, but a miss by Orlando Coleman from beyond the arc brought the game to a close.
“We’re going to move forward and grow from this one,” Lallathin said. “Just as we can grow from every game if we do the right things as a coaching staff to perpetuate us to where we want to be at the end of the season. I thought our guys’ effort was great. I thought their tenacity and their mental toughness was phenomenal. I thought they showed some maturity, in terms of their continuing to fight. It’s something that we can build off of.”
KSU will travel to Northern Kentucky next Wednesday, Jan. 14 to take on the Norse before beginning a three game home stand starting Saturday Jan. 17 against Lipscomb.
