The Owls continued their home dominance to capture win number 10.
Kennesaw State men’s basketball outpaced the Queens College Royals 80-77 on Jan. 6, 2024, to improve to 1-0 in its final Atlantic Sun Conference play season.
Coming off back-to-back losses to UNC-Asheville and Indiana, the Owls needed a victory to start its conference schedule on the right foot. Queens College made the trip down I-85 from Charlotte to be the Owls’ first victim. The Royals are the only away team to win in the Convocation Center since the 2021-22 season and they wouldn’t make it easy this time around.
Queens took advantage of Demond Robinson being held out of the Owls’ starting lineup, jumping ahead to a 5-0 lead to open the game. After Robinson checked in, the rest of the first half would be a different story. After a few lead changes, the Owls would use a 12-0 run to take a 38-34 lead to halftime.
The second half started poorly for the Owls as they found themselves in a double-digit hole after Queens opened the half on a 20-3 run.
“They really guarded us well,” Owls Head Coach Antoine Pettway said. “Their game plan was to come in and try to be more physical than us on the defensive end.”
When things seemed to be getting out of hand, the Owls would fight back on the backs of Co-Guards Simeon Cottle and Terrell Burden. The Owls’ backcourt combined for 48 of the team’s 80 points— including a career-high 28 points from 5th-year senior, Burden.
“Simeon’s my guy,” Burden said. “I talk to him about a lot of stuff, both on the offensive end and the defensive end. He let me take him under my wing, his growth from year one to year two is not surprising to me.”
The Owls finally regained the lead at the two-minute mark when Cottle converted a three-point attempt to score 76-73. From that point on, the lead would never be relinquished.
Queens would get a final opportunity after Owls guard Quincy Ademekoya stepped out of bounds with under 30 seconds to play with the Owls up 80-77. Queens guard Chris Ashby would be off the mark from three and the Royals were unable to get another shot off after an offensive rebound.
Freshman RJ Johnson provided a lift off the bench and accumulated seven points to go along with five rebounds.
“I thought we didn’t come out with our best effort to start the game and they took advantage of it, however in the second half, we guarded better and that allowed us to stay in the game,” Pettway said. “We adjusted and started to get Terrell downhill and he made some spectacular plays. Our group stayed together even when we hit adversity.”
The win improves the Owls to 10-5 overall on the season and 1-0 in the young conference season.
Things will get no easier next time the Owls take the court.
