#11 RJ Johnson poses after scoring in a game on Feb. 26 at VyStar Arena. Photo by: Jackson Louneoubonh
For the first time since 2023’s ASUN championship game, men’s basketball toppled first-place Liberty 74-65 at VyStar Arena on Thursday to win its third straight.
RJ Johnson and Frankquon Sherman, members of coach Antoine Pettway’s first recruiting class at Kennesaw State, put their abilities on full display in front of a crowd of over 2,000 fans on Thursday night.
Johnson finished the evening with 25 points, his seventh game with at least 20 points since Jan. 14, hitting 5-of-6 three-pointers while Sherman added 18 points of his own to go along with nine rebounds.
“It’s so special,” Pettway said. “Those guys are great human beings, and so again you just feel like you got it right. So, very rewarding to see those dudes play like they’re playing.”
Defense, which had been a point of concern until last Saturday’s win over Louisiana Tech in which KSU held the Bulldogs to just 55 points, showed an obvious improvement in the first half as the Owls held the Flames to just 29 points, taking a 32-29 lead into the locker room.
“The breakthrough [defensively] is really just communication and just knowing that defense is going to win those games because we know the offense is going to come,” Sherman said.
KSU never trailed in the second half, growing its lead to as large as 66-55 late in the period.
“It just adds to our fire that we’re starting to play with,” Johnson said. “We’re not starting to look at anything as having it as an excuse anymore, I feel like that we kind of did that for a little bit. Now, we realize what we’ve got in the room and that’s all we need. So, I feel like that’s going to give us the fire that we need for the tournament.”
No other Owl finished in double-figure scoring, but bench guard Jaden Harris scored eight points on an efficient 3-of-5 shooting from the field.
For the Flames, who entered the game 15-1 in Conference USA play and 23-5 overall, Brett Decker Jr. led all scorers with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
JJ Harper scored 14 points, Collin Porter had 11 points despite a poor 2-of-8 mark from the field and Zach Cleveland had 10 points.
With the win, KSU holds onto sole possession of fourth place in the CUSA standings and remains just a game out of third place, currently held by a Western Kentucky team the Owls hold a tiebreaker over.
“It gives you confidence,” Pettway said. Like reap your hearts. That’s a team [that will] be a number one seed and they deserve it. We just went toe-to-toe with them and we came out on top. When we go to Huntsville, we’re right up the street. We’re going to bring the fans, we’re going to bring the black and gold, we’re going to be deep in there. It gives you a tremendous amount of confidence knowing that if we play the style of ball we play and we defend the way we’re capable to defend, we can beat anybody in this league.”
