Simeon Cottle returned to form with a 30 point night to help the Owls to a 76-69 win over Western Kentucky on Thursday night at the Convocation Center.
Cottle, who shot just 4-31 from the field in his previous two outings rebounded with one of his best performances of the season, finishing with 30 points on 10-14 shooting.
“I give credit to our staff and the circle around me, everybody just keeping my confidence up and keeping me joyful and in good spirits,” Cottle said.
Cottle’s backcourt co-star Adrian Wooley continued his stellar season, posting 23 points and 11 rebounds. Wooley, the seven time Conference USA Freshman of the Week has now scored at least 20 points in eight of his last 11 games.
Despite his offensive numbers, Wooley and the Owls have arguably been more impressive on defense, holding four of their last six opponents under 70 points.
“We knew coming off of certain losses that we had that defense was one of our things that we had to get better at,” Wooley said. “We wanted to come in this game showing teams that that’s what we finna do. We just came out today, played really well on defense and got the win.”
Kennesaw State wasted no time jumping out to a 16-2 lead in the first 5:07 of the contest, holding WKU to 0-8 from the field to start the game.
The Owls maintained a double-digit lead for a majority of the opening half, but the Hilltoppers used a 9-0 run in the final minutes to narrow the halftime deficit to 31-25.
WKU drew within one possession early in the second half thanks to a Khristian Lander layup to make the score 31-28.
Not long after, the Owls regained momentum and proceed to go on a 15-4 run to inflate their lead to 46-32 with 14:14 remaining.
The closest WKU drew in the second half was 48-42 when Lander converted a three at the 11:50 mark.
KSU maintained a tight control on the game, until the closing minutes when the Hilltoppers went on a 11-2 run to make the final score 76-69.
The Owls were without center Andre Weir, who missed the game with a foot injury, moving Rongie Gordon into the starting lineup.
“I thought our guys came out and got off to a great start,” Owls coach Antoine Pettway said. “We we’re down one of our main guys in Andre Weir, but we had a multitude of guys step up.”
Gordon made his presence felt in the paint with 11 rebounds, tying Wooley for the team high. Frankquon Sherman played a valuable role off the bench with a near-double-double of 10 points and nine rebounds.
“(Sherman) is very essential to us, he just plays the right way,” Pettway said. “Some of those finishes, he’s so solid and I know he’s going to give 100% effort every time I put him on the court.”
WKU’s Don McHenry finished with a team-high 30 points, while Lander and Braxton Bayless combined for 23 in supporting roles.
Now sitting at 6-4 in conference play, the Owls host Middle Tennessee State on Saturday with a chance to vault into CUSA’s top three.
“(This next game) is very important,” Wooley said. “I feel like each game we go into is very important due to the fact we want to come out on top in Conference USA, that’s one of our goals.”
