The Kennesaw State men’s basketball team defeated the University of North Florida Ospreys, 101-91, in Thursday’s night conference game in the KSU Convocation Center. With the win, the Owls advance to 4-6 in conference play.
The Ospreys, the defending Atlantic Sun Champions, entered the game tied in the standings with Jacksonville University for first place in A-Sun Conference. The Owls were trying to get a win against the Ospreys, who beat them early in January.
Despite the energy of the crowd, the game did not start of to the Owls advantage. In the first period, the Owls found themselves in a 13-point deficit. With the shooting of senior forward, Nigel Pruitt, the Owls were able to create momentum. The Owls were able to go on a 14-2 run, due to the five-minute scoring drought by the Ospreys. Pruitt would finish the game with 15 points.
“We weren’t moving really well to start the game,” said Owl’s head coach Al Skinner, “We were kind of on our heels for a little bit, but then we make a couple substitutions and guys came in with a little more energy. We started pushing the ball a little bit more. Our defense also picked up.”
Although the Ospreys led for the majority of the first period, the Owls captured the lead. With 17 points coming off their bench, the Owls headed into halftime with the lead, 48-43.
Entering the second period, it was the Ospreys who surged ahead to regain the lead. The Osprey went on an 8-0 run in a minute to take a 58-63 lead; however, the Owls had an answer. The Owls began to force turnovers. In a span of five minutes, the Owls were able to force five turnovers and erase the once held lead by the Ospreys.
By the end of the game, the Owls had forced 17 turnovers. “For us to get 17 turnovers is a pretty good effort,” said Coach Skinner, “That’s not something we focus in on, but the one thing we did talk about was getting the deflections because that just shows that you’re engaged. It doesn’t necessarily have to lead to turnovers but it does lead to the fact that guys are active.”
With the ability of the Owls to create turnovers and capitalize, the team was able to maintain a comfortable lead towards the end of the game.
Jr. guard, Kendrick Ray, led the Owls with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists. “We are out there running our offense,” said Ray, “It just happened that I was getting the ball in my hands and I was making shots. Coach just told us if you’re going to go out there to keep hustling, and I did what I had to do for my team, rebounds or assists, and fortunately we got the win today.”
Three other Owls had double digit scoring. Sr. guard, Yonel Brown, scored 22 points. Redshirt-Jr., Aubrey Williams, shot a career high with 20 points and five rebounds. Williams was excellent from the free-throw line going 8-9. Pruitt scored 15 points.
When asked how important is it that four players score double digit Coach Skinner said, “There are two things that are important. Obviously, we handled the ball well. We only had two turnovers the second half. We had good ball movement tonight, and with good ball movement it created some opportunities for a number of different people. This is the way we need to play. When we can get this type of scoring with a little more balance, meaning we have to get more people involved, that makes us a more effective team, and that this is the kind of style of play we need to play.”
With the win the Owls advance to an 8-18 record and 4-6 in A-Sun play. The fourth conference-win matches the season high last season with still four games to play.
The Owl’s next game is a home matchup against Jacksonville on Saturday, Feb. 13 at 4:30 p.m.
