#21 Jaden Harris attempts a jump shot in a game against Jacksonville State on Feb. 7 at Pete Matthews Coliseum. Photo courtesy of Jax State athletics.
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — Injury woes and a Frankquon Sherman ejection proved too much for men’s basketball to overcome in a 77-58 loss to Jacksonville State on Saturday at Pete Matthews Coliseum.
With 4:21 remaining in the first half and Kennesaw State already in a 29-17 hole, Sherman was called for a foul when he made contact with Mostapha El Moutaouakkil’s lower body while the Jax State guard made his way up to the rim.
A trip to the monitor later, the officials upgraded the call from a common foul to a flagrant 2, disqualifying Sherman from the remainder of the contest.
“[The call was] terrible, terrible, I’m still waiting on the explanation,” Owls coach Antoine Pettway said. “They said the guy was in the air, was airborne and [Sherman] went up under him or something like that. But I really thought it should have at least been a flagrant 1. [Sherman] was trying to get a chase-down block, and that kind of swung the game.”
The Owls finished the first half on a dry spell, converting just two of their final 14 field goal attempts in the period, both of which came courtesy of fifth-year guard Jaden Harris.
Opening the second half ahead 37-22, the Gamecocks swelled their advantage to as large as 21 points, taking a 45-24 lead with 15:37 remaining.
Back-to-back three-pointers from Kaden Rickard drew the Owls back within striking distance at 57-46 with 6:35 remaining, but KSU never again found itself any closer to Jax State.
In the closing minutes, Trey Simpson fouled out and the Owls were left with just six active scholarship players, forcing walk-on Eric Holland Jr. into the game.
Holland Jr. logged over three minutes of playing time and scored three points in the most meaningful stretch of playing time in his career to this point.
“He’s going to have to play,” Pettway said. “We’re down eight guys, we get [Sherman] ejected, [Simpson] fouled out. [Holland] works hard every single day. That’s where we are, he has to come in and play.”
The Owls shot 31.7% from the field and 20.6% from three-point range while turning the ball over five times, posting their second-lowest point total of the season.
“We frustrated ourselves,” Pettway said. “We had a bunch of open looks, we just didn’t convert them. I thought they were active in their zone, but we got open looks, some great looks – we didn’t even get enough stops to get out and run in transition.”
RJ Johnson and Perry Smith Jr., who made his return to the rotation after missing several games, led the Owls in scoring with 12 points each.
El Moutaouakkil led all scorers with 26 points, 19 of which came in the first half.
KSU fell to 14-9 overall, 6-6 in Conference USA play this season with a two-game homestand scheduled for next week in which the Owls are set to host Middle Tennessee State and Sam Houston State.
