#13 Braedan Lue dunks in a dominant win over Point at VyStar Arena on Nov. 12. Photo by: Jackson Louneounbonh
Kennesaw State men’s basketball cruised past Point, 111-60 Wednesday night at VyStar Arena to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2004.
The Owls weren’t as dominant as they were in their season opener against Paine College, but they came close — especially in the second half.
KSU jumped out to an 8-0 lead just over a minute and a half into the game, then a 23-9 lead and a 27-11 lead in the opening minutes of the first half.
Point showed fight midway through the first half, going on an 8-1 run behind buckets from Tanner Higgins and Kenton Steele run to draw back within single figures at 36-27.
Following a brief surge of momentum for the Owls, the Skyhawks drew back within 11 points for a final time in the contest thanks to a pair of free throws from Cahlib Edwards.
A Simeon Cottle three-pointer gave the Owls a 52-36 edge heading into halftime, where KSU coach Antoine Pettway said he addressed his team with a ‘nice halftime speech’.
“I was not pleased with the first half so we had a nice halftime speech,” Pettway said. “There’s a lot of things we can take away from that game where we know we need to get better.”
Any struggle the Owls had in the opening half evaporated in the second half.
KSU outscored the Skyhawks 59-24 in the period, with freshman Darius Washington III scoring 14 of his team-high tying 16 points in the period to finish off a 111-60 win.
“[Washington III] is so talented,” Pettway said. “We’re telling him to just believe in himself because he works extremely hard. Yesterday, I came out passing donuts out on campus, I came into the gym and I hear a ball bouncing — it’s Darius Washington. When you work that hard, I keep telling him you deserve success. It was so good to see him just settle in and go be the player he’s capable of being.”
Washington III’s 16 points tied Cottle for the most on the team, while fellow freshman Trey Simpson finished with 15 points.
Braedan Lue finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds after reappearing in the starting lineup after coming off the bench against Florida A&M and guard RJ Johnson finished with 13 points.
Starting forward Ramone Seals played just 11 minutes, something Pettway said was just the way things aligned.
“[Seals] has been good for us, I was about to put him back in late but we were up 40 points and I looked at him and [Cottle] and said ‘y’all are done for the night’,” he said. “I wanted to get some of those other guys some minutes and then [Cottle] started calling my name saying put [Charles Stone] in, so it kind of killed Ramone’s minutes towards the end of the game, but he’s been really, really good for us.”
The Owls move to 3-0 for the first time since the 2004-05 season, the program’s final season before making the transition to NCAA Division I.
KSU’s first real test awaits this week, when the Owls take on South Florida at VyStar Arena on Sunday in the ‘Love Wins Classic’ to honor the late Amir Abdur-Rahim, who coached at both schools.
“The guys in the locker room, I ain’t got to get them ready, they know how good the team we’re about to face is,” Pettway said. “I know we played Rutgers last year, this team is just as talented or more.”
