Kennesaw State’s men’s basketball team goes into the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament quarterfinal with a sense of purpose and momentum despite not starting the season as they would have liked.
The Owls opened their 2017-18 season with a non-conference slate in which they struggled to find consistency both offensively and defensively. In tight overtime games and blowouts alike, the team couldn’t seem to find the formula for stringing wins together en route to a 4-11 start.
Sophomore James Scott led the team in scoring through the first 15 games at 15.6 points per contest while senior Nick Masterson sat just behind him at 12.2.
It was in the back half that the Owls hit their stride, eclipsing their win total from the first slate of games as well as maintaining a four-game win streak. The team averaged more points per game than they did in the first half while managing to finish with six conference victories.
A veteran core led by an experienced senior player in Masterson helped the Owls finish out the season by winning five of their last eight games. Many inspiring individual performances helped lead the team to be the sixth-seeded team heading into the tournament.
Scott was key in the strong finish to the season for KSU as he reached the 20 point mark in six of the 14 games, breaking 30 in two of those. His scoring led to a season scoring average of 17 points, earning best on the team as well as third in the conference.
Both Hooker and Masterson achieved career highs in points scored at 23 and 30 respectively, and Masterson shot 54.7 percent from three-point range on the season to lead both the team and conference.
Masterson’s shooting from deep, as well as inside the arc and at the free throw line, resulted in an overall shooting percentage of 70.7 percent — good for sixth-best in all of college basketball.
Masterson earned postseason accolades within the conference as he was named to the all-ASUN second team. Masterson, who shot at a rate of 54.7 percent from deep — second only to his own conference record — while averaging just under 16 points a game, is the third KSU player to be named to an all-conference team in the past two years. He also led the Owls in assists and three-point shots.
In addition to that recognition, Masterson was named the conference’s Scholar-Athlete of the year. He was a unanimous vote on the all-academic team as he boasts a 3.47 GPA while pursuing a mechanical engineering degree.
The Owls will open tournament contention at Jacksonville on Monday, Feb. 26. The number 3 seeded Dolphins head into the game having lost four of their last six and sat at 14-17 overall.
