The Kennesaw State women’s basketball team suffered a tough loss on Saturday to the Jacksonville Dolphins.
It was the second game in the Owls’ three-game home stand. The game featured low percentile shooting on the part of the Owls, as the team only scored 42 in a 42-67 defeat. The loss now puts the Owls at 9-16 on the season, and 4-6 in conference play.
It was the Dolphins (15-10, 7-3 in A-Sun) who managed to get a lead starting the game. Aside from the beginning of the game, the Dolphins controlled the lead for the entire game.
The Owls failed gain a lead in the first two periods. The Owls shot for 26.1 percent (6-23 FG) and 12.5 percent on three pointers (1-8) in the first two periods. The Owls leading scorer by halftime was freshman forward, Tayler Smith, with six points.
“It was a disappointing performance,” said Owl’s head coach Nitra Perry, “I thought the first quarter we talked about coming out in a pretty decent start. We just talked about getting up and being competitive. They just homed us on the boards today.”
The shooting struggles continued into the third period, the Owls were outscored 9-17. The Dolphins continued to control the lead throughout the third period. The Owls top scorer in the third period was redshirt-sophomore, Clara Young, with eight points. Young would finish with 10 points.
Entering the fourth period, the Owls found themselves in too deep of a deficit. At one point in the fourth, the lead was as much as 31 by the Dolphins. The Owls were outscored in the fourth 16-19.
In previous games, the Owls have been able to find success scoring from down under; however, the game plan surrounding that failed.
“We always focus on getting the ball in and out,” said coach Perry, “It’s whoever has the mismatch. We were played by turnovers. The game plan really was not to turn the ball over and not get out-rebounded.”
The Owls hope the rebound for the next game, which is a home matchup, on Monday Feb. 15 at 7:00 p.m. versus North Florida.
“We’ve played North Florida before,” said coach Perry, “It’s going to be a tuff matchup for us, but we’re going to come in here and play harder then we played today and hopefully get the victory.”
The Monday night game is also senior night for the Owls. The two seniors are Karly Frye and Jasmine McAllister.
“Jasmine and Karly
have been really big for us,” said coach Perry, “They’ve provided leaderships
for us. Jasmine has been a force down low, and Karly has been an assist leader
for us. Both of them have led the team pretty well their entire career.”
