By Chris Raimondi, Sports Editor
Kennesaw State held a 42-41 lead over Florida Gulf Coast with 5:25 to play when Damien Wilson hit a jump shot from the elbow. It would be the last lead the Owls would see.
After a tightly contested game that featured 15 lead changes and four ties, KSU (6-15, 1-4) dropped a golden opportunity to snub the darling of the Atlantic Sun FGCU (14-7, 4-1) during Saturday’s home game, losing 54-48.
“I thought we got out of character offensively,” KSU head coach Jimmy Lallathin said. “That’s something we have to do a better job of in an emotional game with the preseason top team in the conference coming in.”
Jamail Jones tied the game on FGCU’s next possession with a free throw. A Wilson miss on the Owls’ ensuing possession was taken the other way for a fast break layup by the Eagles’ senior point guard Brett Comer, which was his first bucket of the day. Nate Hicks added another jumper for FGCU to extend their lead to four with just under two minutes to go at 46-42.
Yonel Brown was fouled on a layup and converted the free throw to make it a one point game with 1:56 to play. However, the experience of the Eagles came through in the final minutes with perfect free throw shooting from Comer, Hicks and Julian Debose to ice the game.
Brown made a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left which made it a four point game and led to Wilson stealing FGCU’s inbounds pass. But Comer intercepted Wilson’s next pass and took it the other way for a foul and two free throws to extend the Eagles’ lead to six and the final of 54-48
The 2013-14 NIT and 2012-13 NCAA Tournament program came up big in the game’s brightest moments to seal the deal.
“The guys were focused on making a statement,” Lallathin said of his team. “It got us out of character offensively. It’s about finishing games, but it’s also about putting yourself in a position to finish the game from ahead. It’s always tough when you’re going against a veteran team to try and scrape back from behind.”
KSU started on an 11-4 run highlighted by an Orlando Coleman fast break dunk assisted by Brown which gave the Owls their biggest lead of the game and forced the Eagles to call a timeout at the 12 minute mark.
Neither team had an outstanding offensive performance in the first half as each side shot 25 percent and was a collective 1-18 from the 3-point line.
FGCU climbed back into the game slowly after the Owls’ run and tied things at 17 on a Jones fast break layup with 4 minutes to go. Jones was the highest scorer in the first half with 7. KSU grabbed one more layup and FGCU sunk three free throws to make the halftime score 20-19 in favor of the visitors.
Brown provided all of the Owls’ offense with four second-half 3-pointers, he finished as the game’s leading scorer with 19 points.
Willy Kouassi made back-to-back jump hooks in the paint to start the second half and give KSU a three point lead, but Jones equaled the Ivory Coast native with a pair of layups to regain a one point lead.
Kouassi made two free throws with 14 minutes left in the second half to hand the edge back to KSU and Brown made a 3-pointer on the Owls’ next possession to go up by four. KSU held a lead until inside of nine minutes to play when each side traded the lead seven times before FGCU hung on going in front with five minutes to go.
Kouassi scored seven points and grabbed eight rebounds. Wilson, after averaging over 25 points a game in his last three contests, finished with nine points and seven rebounds.
The Owls will head to Jacksonville, Florida to take on the top team in the A-Sun North Florida (13-9, 5-0) Thursday before playing Jacksonville (7-15, 1-4) Saturday.
