After a thrilling conference-opening win against Lipscomb, the Kennesaw State women’s basketball team continued its winning ways on Saturday with a convincing win over North Florida.
The Owls were hot from the start in Jacksonville, hitting six three-pointers and outscoring the Ospreys of North Florida 24-6 in the first quarter.
Kelly Dulkoski and Aareon Smith paced the Owls early scoring 25 first-half points and were a combined 8-10 from beyond the arc.
“Well, of course I loved it,” Kennesaw State head coach Nitra Perry said about the Owls’ hot shooting. “I know they won’t hit every time, but I trust them because they are such good shooters and they get it in the gym.”
KSU (7-10, 2-0) also played great team defense holding the Ospreys to 29 percent shooting from the field and forcing five turnovers in the first half on its way to a 70-55 victory.
“I thought that we had extremely good focus,” Perry said. “Defense is something that we have been putting a lot more energy into and it was just very impressive to see our teams effort at the beginning of the game.”
The hot shooting continued in the third quarter, as the Owls outscored North Florida 18-16. It was a big turn around for a team that had been struggling significantly in third quarters this season. KSU had been outscored by 53 points in third quarters going into Saturday’s game.
The Owls failed to shoot a single free throw until the fourth quarter, but it didn’t matter as they made 10 threes in the game and shot 52 percent from the field overall.
The final three quarters were played pretty evenly due to the Owls struggles to take care of the ball. They had 18 turnovers but played scrappy transition defense and limited the Ospreys offensive stars, Claire Loannidis and Sierra Shepherd, to 10-35 shooting from the field combined.
“We knew from film that most teams went under, but we went over the top of screens and switched it up,” Perry said. “We wanted to give them a lot of different looks every time down the court. Clara Young did a excellent job on Sierra Shepherd sticking with the game plan and putting pressure on her.”
Junior forward Aareon Smith finished the game tying her career high with 23 points, which led all players. Senior Jasmine McAllister led all players with a game-high 12 rebounds and redshirt sophomore Clara Young had a game-high six assists to help KSU pick up the big conference victory.
It was the Owls’ first road win of the season and third consecutive win versus North Florida. They now lead the all time series 24-15 versus the Ospreys.
“I just talked to them about enjoying it because I feel like they really earned that win,” Perry said. “They worked extra hard and stuck with the game plan, so we’re going to enjoy it and get back to work tomorrow.”
The win puts the Owls at 7-10 overall on the season and 2-0 in conference play. They’ll remain in Jacksonville for the weekend and take on the Jacksonville Dolphins on Monday night. The game will tip off at 7 p.m.
