#6 Frankquon Sherman lays the ball up against Sam Houston on March 13 at Propst Arena. Photo courtesy of KSU Athletics
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Men’s basketball overcame a slow first half to advance to its first Conference USA Championship Game with a 79-73 win over Sam Houston on Friday at Propst Arena.
A poorly played first half in which Kennesaw State was outrebounded 20-9 by the Bearkats left the Owls lucky to remain within striking distance at the break, trailing 37-31 after an RJ Johnson layup fell before the halftime buzzer.
Two scoreless possessions and a layup from SHSU forward Veljko Ilic to open the second half made things even worse for KSU.
Both teams traded buckets for the next few minutes before a 7-0 Owls run tied the game at 44-44, punctuated by a Trey Simpson 3-pointer.
Just over a minute later, Frankquon Sherman gave KSU its first lead since the score was 2-0 at 48-46 on a fast-break layup. The Owls never trailed again.
Led by an offensive surge from freshman forward Amir Taylor, the KSU lead swelled to 67-60 with 6:07 remaining.
The Bearkats rallied with a 7-0 run of their own to tie the game at 67-67 with 4:46 on the clock, to which the Owls responded with a 6-0 run to put themselves back in the driver’s seat with 1:52 to play.
A 3-pointer and pair of free throws from Taylor sealed the 79-73 victory for KSU, sending the program to its first CUSA Championship Game and first conference championship appearance since the 2022-23 season.
“I’m super blessed to coach these young men, they just answer every challenge,” Owls coach Antoine Pettway said. “At halftime, we knew [in the first half] we played probably as bad as we played in a long time in that first half. I talked to them, then I told them to stand there and talk among themselves. And they did it, we saw a different team.”
One of the greatest difference-makers in the second half was KSU’s success rebounding the ball. After a poor first half on the glass, the Owls out-rebounded SHSU 23-16 in the second half.
“[The difference was] knowing that to win the game we were going to have to win that rebounding battle because the tougher team was going to win that game,” Sherman said.
Taylor led all scorers with 23 points on an impressive 8-of-11 shooting from the floor. Johnson finished with 20 points and Sherman posted 17 points to go along with seven rebounds.
The Bearkats, who were without leading scorer Po’Boigh King, were led by Jacobe Coleman, who finished with 18 points. Ilic and Jacob Walker added 17 points each.
The victory sets up a matchup with Louisiana Tech in the conference championship game. The Bulldogs defeated Missouri State earlier on Friday, 69-66, in a game that came down to the final possession.
“Yeah there’s a sense of unfinished business because we still have that taste in our mouth from last year,” Sherman said. “We wanted to get past today and get to that championship tomorrow.”
The win pushed the Owls to the 20-win milestone for just the second time in the program’s NCAA Division I history and for the first time in Pettway’s head-coaching career.
Tipoff for Saturday’s championship game is set for 8:30 p.m. EST.
