The Kennesaw State men’s basketball team fell to the Queens University Royals in their last home game of the season on Saturday, Feb. 18, ending with a final score of 83-76.
The senior night loss tarnished the Owls’ hopes of maintaining a perfectly undefeated home record.
Chris Youngblood led the way for the Owls with 21 points shooting 6-14 from the field and 3-7 from three-point range. Senior Forward, Demond Robinson contributed along the way by supplying the Owls with 16 points, playing just 19 minutes due to foul trouble.
Foul trouble played a huge role in this game, as four of the Kennesaw State Owls players had at least four fouls or more.
It was a back-and-forth game throughout the first half of the game, as the game was all tied up 35-35 with 20 seconds left in the first half. Youngblood made a three-pointer with 1 second left giving the Owls a 38-35 lead heading into halftime.
The Royals eventually ended up tying the game up 40-40 with an AJ McKee layup with 17:55 left in the game.
Ball security played a huge role in KSU’s fate as the Owls turned the ball over 15 times. Senior Guard Terrell Burden led the Owls with five turnovers.
The game continued to be a back-and-forth game with no team having complete control of the game as the game was tied up 45-45 with 15:45 left in the game.
But the Owls went on a 6-0 in less than a minute off of an and one by Spencer Rodgers and Youngblood’s three-pointer giving them a 51-45 lead with 14:07 left in the game forcing Queens University to call a timeout.
KSU kept toggling between a four and six-point lead for about a five-minute span until Queens University came within one after a Chris Ashby three-pointer decreasing the Owls lead to 56-55 with 9:28 left in the game.
The Owls then kept a three to four-point window for a little under three minutes until the Royals tied the game 61-61 with a Kenny Dye three-pointer with 6:23 left in the game.
The Royals ended up taking major control of this game as they went on a 13-2 run giving them an eight-point lead of 71-63 with just under four minutes left in the game.
The game eventually got out of reach when the Royals took their first double-digit lead of the game with just over two minutes left in the game, taking the score to 75-65.
The Owls ended up losing the game 83-76 making the race to the number one seed in the ASUN Conference a lot tighter. The Owls are tied for first place with Liberty in the ASUN Conference.
The Owls hold the tiebreaker after their victory versus Liberty 88-81 last Thursday.
The Owls will travel to Alabama to face the North Alabama Lions on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. as their race for first place in the ASUN conference continues.
