#5 Simeon Cottle dribbles the ball up the court against Alabama on Dec. 21 at Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo courtesy of KSU Athletics
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Kennesaw State men’s basketball failed to climb out of a deep first half hole despite a late surge in a 92-81 loss to Alabama at Propst Arena on Sunday.
Like their football playing counterparts, men’s basketball’s game this weekend appeared to be out of reach before the first half buzzer rang.
No. 16 Alabama jumped out to a 27-8 lead, while KSU converted just three field goals in the opening 14 minutes.
Matters only continued to get worse. As the opening half wound to a close, the Crimson Tide built a lead as large as 48-21 with 3:07 before the break, and took a 54-28 lead to the locker room.
It was the second straight game KSU found itself in a halftime hole, having to try and rally from a 40-31 deficit on the road against Middle Tennessee State last Wednesday.
“[We’ve] been turning the ball over too much [in the first half],” Owls coach Antoine Pettway said. “I talked to the guys about not testing the water, jumping right in – two games back-to-back where we struggled in the first half and had to kind of dig our way out of the hole.”
The Alabama lead swelled to as large as 30 points early in the second half when Aden Holloway converted a driving layup to give the Tide a 62-32 advantage.
The Owls battled down the stretch in the second half, outscoring Alabama 49-30 the rest of the way.
Frankquon Sherman had a standout day for KSU, recording a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while also adding two blocks and two steals.
“I really just treated it like any other game because we work hard every day and put in the hard work,” Sherman said. “So it was really just having that grit and being prepared by our coach.”
Braedan Lue also posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds, Simeon Cottle led the team with 20 points and RJ Johnson scored 16 in somewhat of a homecoming game, just a few miles from Grissom High School where he attended.
For the Tide, Aiden Sherrell led the way with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting, adding seven rebounds and two blocks along the way.
Labaron Philon and Holloway each scored 17 points and Jalil Bethea joined them in double-figures with 11 points of his own.
“Great learning experience for my team, my group,” Pettway said. “You play against a team of Alabama’s caliber, you got to be on your game for 40 minutes.”
The game also was a reunion in many ways for Pettway, who played his college basketball at Alabama, and spent 2006-06, and 2008-23 on staff with the Crimson Tide, partially with current head coach Nate Oats.
“It meant so much [to coach against Oats],” Pettway said. “[He was] a mentor of mine, he’s a guy that just does it the right way. He’s a guy that’s easy to root for.”
KSU has now fully completed this season’s non-conference schedule, and will look to get even in Conference USA play on Jan. 2 against Liberty.
