Kennesaw State is still seeking its first road victory of the season as the Owls lost their first two Atlantic Sun Conference road games to Jacksonville and North Florida respectively, falling to 0-11 away from home.
“We have to execute better than what we did if we want to win on the road,” Kennesaw State head coach Al Skinner said. “You have to defend well, you have to execute well. We did that the first 20 minutes [against North Florida], but because of our foul situation we didn’t stay as aggressive as we needed to.”
The Owls (5-14) lost 83-70 to the Dolphins on Thursday and were unable to hold on to an early lead on Saturday as they were defeated by the Ospreys, 93-78.
Redshirt junior Kendrick Ray led the Owls offensively in both games, scoring 25 points against Jacksonville and 21 points against North Florida. Senior Yonel Brown contributed 16 points Thursday and added another 17 points against the Ospreys.
The Owls led early and often in the opening half against North Florida on Saturday.
With the score knotted up at 5-5 fewer than two minutes into the game, KSU outscored the Ospreys 20-6 to take a 25-11 lead with 13:15 left in the first half.
KSU possessed all of the momentum for the majority of the first half. The Owls and Ospreys continued to match blows for the next nine minutes of game play and the gap remained 14 points with KSU leading 45-31 with 4:52 left in the half.
The Ospreys began cutting into the lead, however, ending the first half on an 11-2 run to leave the Owls clinging to a 47-42 lead heading into the locker room.
“The fact of the matter is that we were in tremendous foul trouble,” Skinner said. “And because of that, our guys became really passive and weren’t able to continue to exert themselves in the second half. That’s really the difference in the ballgame. We only shot one free throw the whole second half and we thought there was as much contact on our end of the floor as there was on the other end.”
Four players – Brown, Pruitt, Bernard Morena, and Jordan Jones – compiled four personal fouls apiece over the course of the game.
Kennesaw State led by seven with 18:55 left in the game, but North Florida continued to claw its way back into the game. The Ospreys outscored the Owls 16-2 over the next five minutes, taking a 60-53 lead with 14:04 to go in the second half.
After a Brown three cut the Owls’ deficit to 66-63, North Florida scored 7 unanswered points to extend its lead to 73-63 with 7:27 left to play.
Jacksonville set the tone with its first possession of the game on Thursday.
Following a missed shot from Nick Masterson, the Dolphins grabbed the defensive rebound and advanced the ball down the court. Jacksonville proceeded to miss back-to-back field goals, grabbing the offensive board after each, before Darius Dawkins connected on a three-point shot to give the Dolphins a 3-0 lead with 18:45 remaining in the opening half.
Jacksonville would not trail at any point in the game and the Dolphins out-rebounded the Owls 52-35.
The Dolphins extended their lead to 21-13 with 10:33 left to play in the first half. KSU strung together three consecutive three pointers – Pruitt, Brown, and Pruitt again – to pull within 26-25 with 7:18 to go.
Ray tied the game at 30-apiece with a three point shot of his own at the 3:54 mark. Jacksonville outscored the Owls 13-7 to close out the half with a 43-37 lead.
The Dolphins opened up with second half with a 14-6 run, opening up their lead to 57-43 with 14:29 left in the game. Jacksonville managed to keep the Owls in check for the remainder of the game, never seeing its lead dilute to single digits.
The Owls will return home, where they boast a 5-3 record, to face Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday Jan. 16 at 7 p.m.
